Last night I woke up from a loud crash. Convinced it’s one of my kitties making mischief, I ran upstairs to investigate.

That’s right. My shoe shelf had finally collapsed under the weight of my own shoes!

As I wearily drifted back to sleep, my mind kept wandering. How many pairs of shoes do I have? And how many do I actually need?

What’s scary is that my shoe collection is actually pretty modest for a fashionista. I have a little over 30 pairs of shoes (counting the boots, which I keep separately). My mother owns upwards of 60, for comparison. Needless to say, most of this beauty sits in boxes year-round, exciting no one. Moment of truth: most of my ‘pretty’ shoes were worn once or twice. Take these futuristic silver flats for instance: worn one time, to IKEA. Yellow canvas booties? Twice, to Coney Island (got nearly ruined by tar from bumper cars) and Japan C Exhibition. My lavender kitten heels should be awarded the title of Veterans of Footwear – 5 uses last summer! Although, admittedly, attending a picnic in those was a bad idea; the heels kept digging into the dirt as I was trying to walk.

This was never the plan, you see. With every purchase, I was convinced I’d be wearing my new babies all the time – how can you not with a shoe so pretty!? It’s not my fault that the heel on the Charles David boots turned out to be too tall, Irregular Choice were only available in size 6.5 (to my 7.5 foot), and that I got tired of stuffing cotton balls down the silver flats to keep them from pinching my toes. I could never get  rid of them! Shoes are like jewelry for your feet – and sometimes cost as much. Most women experience major collector’s pride when showing off their impressive collections. How could we be expected to let go so easily, like it’s a pile of useless junk?

If it weren’t for places like Buffalo Exchange – or its NYC equivalent Beacon’s Closet – I’d be living in a shoe-hoarding hell. These consignment stores will buy fashionable footwear & clothing off your hands with the purpose of reselling itright there in the store. You get instant cash (30% of retail value) or store credit (55%). All my formerly-treasured-but-not-so-much-any-more stuff goes there – and plenty new stuff comes back home. Buffalo Exchange currently has 30+ locations throughout the US – see if there’s one near you!

I did end up fixing my shoe shelf. To avoid overwhelming it, I decided to sell off & donate some pairs that I definitely wasn’t going to wear, and distribute the weight wisely of what’s left. You know, heavy stuff on the bottom, light on the top.

My shoe collection holds...

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For the curious: this is how Nicole of Making It Lovely organizes her closet. Nubby explains the art of closet organization.