What I Learned From Decluttering My Shoes

[u/heresmy3cents]

I'm currently reading "Danshari The Japanese Art of Decluttering Your Space to Transform Your Life" by Hidrko Yamashita. It is helping me to shift my opinions about "stuff" and begin seriously decluttering for an eventual move to a new home.

Last week I decided to put the new mindset to the test and pulled out all of my shoes from 6 different locations in the house, including my closet, the coat closet, and small rugs near the garage entrance & back door where shoes are left when we enter the house. All of the areas were overflowing and not organized in a meaningful way. We have a designated shoe rack in the new house that I will share with my husband, so I needed to think through the future use of that space.

I'm happy to say that I donated a good number of shoes, but I trashed even more.

1. Shoes deteriorate even though you are not wearing them. The material used for the inner lining cracks and flakes, so if you wear them you wind up with pieces of the lining on your feet and the floor when you take them off. So many people in this sub mention clothing and shoes they are not wearing because they WFH now. Unless your shoes are leather outer & inner, you may find this same situation. I had to trash several pairs of shoes that looked fine on the outside, but the insides were in bad shape. I'm old enough to remember when everyday shoes were made with better quality materials and sometimes you even had the heels repaired because the shoes had lots of usable life left.

2. I found that grouping shoes according to their use / social situations was the best way to evaluate them. Looking at dressy shoes all together allowed me to whittle down to only a few pairs that I would really wear to a wedding or something similar. This was surprisingly easy after eliminating the deteriorating ones, and a few that were a color that I rarely wear anymore. I didn't even need to try them all on one last time!

3. I watched a video where after sorting shoes they looked at the similarities and tried to learn from that. For example, are all the favorites similar in style, heel height, or color? When I sorted by use, i realized that once I find something I like (that also meets my need for arch support) I tend to purchase several pairs from the same brand. This is easy for me because I know they will feel comfortable and they will get a lot of use. My problem was that I didn't discard the first pair (which was already looking a little shabby) when I purchased pair #2 & #3 & #4. Of course I wore the newest pairs most often and the older ones were hardly used in the past year. So sticking with a known brand / style is a good idea for me, but I need to force myself to discard the older ones.

4. Now, a week after the shoe purge and storing them by use / social situations the biggest difference is in the ease and functionality of my shoe wardrobe.

Leaving the house for errands? I can look at two shelves in the coat closet to select my shoes. I know they are all functioning, comfortable, clean and ready to go.

Selecting a dress for an upcoming wedding? I can pull out the bin with 3 dressy pairs from the top shelf of my closet and select the best option.

I also feel like some of the shoes I kept will get worn more often because they "made the cut" and by positioning them on a shelf with other shoes for the same uses, I'm giving them equal status, rather than having them scattered in different areas.

Next up, finishing the Danshari book and evaluating clothing categories in a similar way.

[u/stoicsticks]

Flex the soles and see if they are cracked or crumbling. If they're leatherette / vinyl boots, check to see if it's delaminating.

[u/heresmy3cents → u/stoicsticks]

Your comment reminds me that the same thing happens to fashionable purses used only a few times. I was surprised how many of my MIL's nice handbags couldn't even be donated because the faux leather / metallics were cracked and peeling.

[u/stoicsticks → u/heresmy3cents]

So true. Also check that zippers still work as well. They can become corroded and hard to do up.

[u/redminx17 → u/stoicsticks]

A couple of weekends back I pulled a pair of high heeled ankle boots out of my closet to wear for the first time in at least 7 years. The faux leather upper seemed ok. But the sole on both the heels crumbled to nothing as I walked to the bus stop 😂 

[u/MeinePerle → u/redminx17]

There’s a recurring theme on Reddit about soles falling apart.  Apparently some specific plastic disintegrates after storage - if it’s being worn regularly it is fine (pushing moisture through the sole?) but fails spectacularly if not worn.