Shoe Whore

I love shoes. Flat shoes, high-heeled shoes, boots, slippers, flip-flops. I like them shiny (I adore my silver ballet slippers) and I like them funky. So needless to say, I have a lot of shoes. A. Lot. I have so many that they’re taking over.

Bill and I share a not-so-big closet so there isn’t a ton of space anyway, but no matter how much I try to keep it organized I can’t find anything. I’ve held onto a lot of them because I suspect some of them will come back into style one of these days, but that assumes that they were ever in style to begin with. So today I decided to clean out a few pairs that I’ve had a hard time parting with. Here’s most of what I decided to donate to Goodwill.

Nordstrom’s Blass Plum department used to carry The. Best. Boots. Every summer when they have their Twice Yearly Sale I’d stock up on a couple of pairs for the fall. I wear a size 5, which isn’t easy to come by so more often than not, if I found a pair I liked, I buy them in multiple colors. That explains the first two pairs.

About 8 or 9 years ago I bought these boots in black and found them so comfortable that I went back to buy them in another color. Unfortunately, the putrid Pepto-Bismol pink was the only color they still had. I should have saved the $80. I think I wore them about 5 times—and that’s about 5 more times than maybe I should have worn them.

Pink boots from Nordstrom's Brass Plum department

Same with these blue boots. I bought these in black and tan, and for some reason I felt I couldn’t live without them in blue. I think I wore them twice—the second time was to a costume party.

These denim blue boots were also from Nordstrom's Brass Plum department

These green shoes would fit into The Real Housewives of Orange County Shoe Collection. I went through a phase about 6 years ago where everything I bought was bejeweled or had to be blinged out. The gold butterflies on the front are gaudy enough (channeling Maria Carey perhaps?), but the green color? I never did find anything to match them. Yet, you can see, I did wear them. Oddly, I think I wore them with jeans.

Green heels with golden butterflies

These black satin Nine West shoes are actually kind of cute, but when I walk, the rhinestone flower cuts into the top of my foot. Plus, I feel like I’m channeling Blanche Devereaux when I clack around in my slip-ons.

Nine West Slides with rhinestones

These are Guess flip-flops. They have the same kind of jeweled design thing going on and I have the same problem with them cutting into my foot when I walk. And they’re heavy.

Guess flip-flops

Also from The Real Housewives Collection, these Nine West shoes never quite fit right. My feet slip too far forward and my toes hang over when I walk. There’s not a lot of support and my feet also shift sideways—not a good trait in a high heel. I think I bought them because—Look! Shiny Things!

Nine West slides with pewter squares

I have no idea why I bought these. These are too disco for daytime even for me. Plus, they hurt my feet.

Rhinestone Flip-flops

I love DSW Shoe Stores. If you aren’t familiar, it’s sort of like Costco for name-brand shoes. They carry a lot of high-end shoes at pretty discounted prices. Unfortunately, that leads to a lot of bad decisions on my part. I was lured into these Michael Kors off-white patent leather with blue stripe disasters because, well, they were Michael Kors. But they’re kind of fugly, and they make my feet sweat.

Michael Kors patent leather shoes

These Guess cork-heeled wedges are cute, and I wanted them so much that I bought them a half size too big. Of course, they rub my feet raw and give me blisters.

Guess cork wedges

I bought these Nine West slip-ons a few years ago and only wore them a couple of times. When I bought them I didn’t consider that I couldn’t really wear them with socks and I’m totally not a wearing tennis shoes with bare feet girl. Plus, wearing them without socks totally screws up my pedicure.

Nine West Slip-On tennis shoes

I found these Stuart Weitzman driving moccasins at DSW too. I loved the IDEA of them, but they aren’t really me. I’m not the preppy chick with the Izod shirts, madras shorts and driving shoes. They’re pretty comfortable and, well, they’re gold, but I don’t feel like me when I wear them.

gold driving moccasins

I bought these at Victoria’s Secret, and they looked adorable in the catalog, but they are the most uncomfortable pair of tennis shoes I’ve ever owned.

silver slip-on shoes

Some time in the next month I’m going to tackle the rest of the closets in the house. We can barely close our coat closet by the front door…