Day 1- "Red High Heels"

It was around 2010 when these crossed my computer screen and I "HAD TO HAVE THEM" all of the creative justification I could conjure was not going to make it logical for me to have more shoes. With no events coming up and realistically I could not even tell myself I was going to wear them to work because...well "who am I kidding?" I really needed to forget and them move on THEN I remembered this bit of gospel "every girl needs a pair of red high heels".  There it is, my justification, that combined with an exceptionally reasonable price along with the fact that they are animal friendly and I had more than enough justification to buy. It was time for me to have red high heels but of course no half sizes so ALL I could possibly do is buy half a size bigger and hope. They came in the mail, I tried them on and go figure, they are flop off the heel (like walk out of the shoe kind of too big). There are several problems with new flopping shoes, (that were ordered on line). First I hate to return things AND I don't like to go to the post office AND in this case if I return them I can't have another pair that does fit (because no half sizes) thereby the decision was made. Of course I can make them work.! I bought inserts and sticky things to put in the heal, not a great solution but currently I don't have a better one.  Still I ask what girl is not willing to suffer a little for a pretty pair of shoes, right?

Here we are one wear and three or four years later... they have become the day one subject of a "shoe experiment" because I am pretty sure that brilliant lady that said "every girl needs a pair of red high heels" did not mean for use as paperweights, attic filler or dust collectors. When I walked down from the attic wearing these for the second time (likely the husband had never seen them before) Mr. Husband looked at them and then me a bit funny. I explained that I was going to wear all of the shoes in the attic. He seemed mildly amused and that was the end of that, I was off to work. At the end of the day not only did I have all kinds of Dr. Scholl's products stuffed in them but paper towels too. They only get a comfort rating of 4 but some of that may be directly attributed to the fact that they don't fit, never the less they are lovely and despite the fact that I have a friend (they fit perfectly) who will happily take them off of my hands  I will be wearing them again.

Wear  1 (June 2013)

Circa 2010

Cost Approx 22

Comfort 4

Pair 1

Death by Dry Rot 6/19/18

The Rules

1.   I have to wear all of the shoes.

2.   This does not mean sit in the Attic and Play “Dress Up”.

3.   The game is always active on work days and I can not repeat shoes to work until I have worn them all at least once.

4.   I am not obligated to play on days off from work but can should a need arise.

5.   Re-homing the shoes instead of wearing them is an acceptable way to beat the system.

6.   Re-purposing is also acceptable.

7.   Shoes can be given a comfort rating. On a scale of 1-10 10 being the most comfortable 0 being bought another pair of shoes because the blisters were starting to outnumber healthy skin by the square inch.

8.   I can not buy another pair until all of the shoes have been worn, except in the event of an actual shoe emergency.

The History of A Shoe Hoarder

Somehow I had evolved from wearing beautiful shoes at all times and to all places, to wearing the same handful of shoes over and over and over again. There is one style of “summer, match everything, kind of flat, I can walk in shoes” I bought basically in bulk (which in the long run contributed to the fact that I ended up on vacation with 2 left shoes TWICE). I have four pairs of boots so similar I have almost walked out of the house in an unmatched pair on more than one occasion. Back in the day when I got a new pair of shoes I also got the perfect outfit to compliment them and picked the day for their public debut and not very far out on the calendar because I could not wait!

Somewhere along the line I lost my desire to wear them. I started to think they were uncomfortable, I gained weight, I had to many things to do that day to run around in heals or let’s face it foot encasing sculptures BUT I NEVER lost my need to acquire them.

Soooo here we are…. the shoe experiment…

How A Shoe Experiment Starts…

For the ONE BIZILLIONTH time I was on the internet fighting myself not to hit some kind of a “buy it” button that sat just to the left of some fabulous shoe…or not so fabulous…or even flat out ugly when it finally dawned on me that I don’t need to spend anymore money. I actually need to go into the Attic and wear all of the shoes that are stored there, you know the ones that I have purchased over the years because I “HAD TO HAVE THEM”. Some of them are unopened, unworn, still in the boxes and even worse LIKE worn once and starting to dry rot from the desert like temperatures in their 3^rd floor crypt.

With a bit of a sense of dread and worry I ventured up to the attic where in one corner at a glance I saw five pairs of dusty shoes that had never been worn. It was official I was grounded! This meant no more new shoes until I had worn, re-homed and/or re-purposed every boot, sandal, flip flop, pump, high heel, platform shoe and/or any combination thereof in the attic.

The Great Shoe Experiment

Yes I am totally aware that I am not a Kardashian, or a Kennedy or any other would be American Royalty and therefore no one on the planet could care about my shoes or my inability to stop purchasing them but I figure there must be someone out there who can relate. After a dozen people told me I should make a blog about my “Shoe Experiment” I figured why not after all it will likely be more entertaining for me than the time sucking games I normally play at night.