A friend who recently moved from one condo to another was telling me about the special shoe racks that he had made to hold his wife's many shoes, and I was pretty surprised to hear about how many shoes she actually has! In response to my rather obvious shock, he said something about how it isn't all that unusual to have a lot of shoes, because after your feet stop growing, it's not like you throw a lot of your shoes away, since they still fit.
Having just bought two pairs of "work" shoes, I can see his point. I didn't totally before, though, since I've had the same pair of heels since grade eight or nine, and I assumed that I would wear them into the ground and then toss them for a new pair. That was not the case, however. Even though the linings in my old heels are pretty much dead, I'm repairing them instead of throwing them out; the shoes I bought today are just so that I'll have shoes to wear to work while they're being fixed! So I've added two pairs to my collection of shoes, and haven't subtracted any! If I'm not careful, by the time I reach their age, I'll also have 20+ pairs of shoes!
Come to think of it, I'm already more than halfway there! I have three pairs of black "work" heels, black dress sandals (which I've had since grade eight), silver dress-casual sandals, black slip-on sandals, those typical velcro strapped sandals, one old pair of ankle winter boots, my new winter boots, my old pair of running shoes, and my new ones--that's eleven! Wow, I really don't throw out my old shoes; I keep them around as grungy, mucking around shoes. That's actually kind of funny considering that I try to avoid getting mucky anyway, so it's not like I have lots of opportunities to wear them (my old shoes).
Ah well, the hardest thing to learn to do is to learn how to throw things out!! I shouldn't be surprised that I hang onto old shoes when I think I still have some grade four French notes!
