OK...do not let any DH's see the number of shoes most of us are hoarding!!

I would have to say @ 80 pairs of shoes, sandals, boots etc. Just crazy and I really should get rid of those that are not worn as they do just take up space.
I store the better ones in their own boxes. Some sandals are dumped in storage boxes-they don't get worn that often as they're not visible.

My dream...a shoe closet! Our master BDRM suite is on the 3rd floor (all that is up there) and would love to have a built-niche just outside of the bedroom. (build shoe storage into the wall with a 'push-spring' door' to cover the niche. mmm...wonder how much that would be??) I have a decent size walk-in, but sadly, still not enough room for the shoes.

Dh could care less how many shoes I have as long as I stay on my side of the closet- which is bigger than his share!

When we first moved into our home, dh gave a tour to one of his co workers who couldn't believe how many shoes I had- which I found quite surprising given that his wife was very pretty and quite fashionable.

Oooh - Just had an idea.
You know those rolling file storage racks they have in medical offices? What about something like that for shoes?! (Hubby can build it...)

I probably have about 50. My friend and I were talking about this the other day and she mentioned she has 80. My husband probably has about 15 or so.

I would bet that the average falls somewhere in between 50 & 100. And, as I like to say, we usually expand to fill the available space so if I had room for more (I'm actually overflowing my real shoe space) I'd probably own more so I don't think there's really such a thing as too much shoe space.

Before I answer, last year I have committed to purging. Perhaps it goes back to childhood and having to put newspaper in my only pair of shoes because of the hole in the toe. One of the problems that I am encountering with the purge is that a lot of the shoes were relatively expensive. Most were to wear with business suits and I could go weeks without wearing the same pair to work. I didn't know that my colleagues were keeping track!

Anyway, currently I am down to 110, and no, I'm not bragging, more a call for help!

I keep the good shoes in shoe boxes and everyday on open shelves. This shelf runs the length of my closet, this is half way.

To your question, as long as the space is flexible, I don't think you can have to much space allotted to shoes.

Check out mine!! (just kidding this shoe closet belongs to Mariah Carey)

{{gwi:1612081}}

Currently I own 47 pairs of shoes, which does not include the 4 pairs of "evening" shoes, 11 pairs of boots and 5 pairs of sneakers/walking shoes or my flip flops and garden clogs. The total for all combined is 75+. Our house is small by current standards.

I can't count them all, as my Spring & Summer shoes and sandals are packed away in our cedar closet for now. A conservative estimate would be 80+. I love shoes . . . and don't even ask me how many purses I own!
At the moment, I'm in the planning stages of a reno on our MBR closet and am having a bear of a time figuring out the best way to store everything more efficiently. I'll be reading everyone's posts here looking for ideas.
Lynn

LOL --- I must admit that I was wayyyy off in my estimate. I'm more like those organization forum ladies. May be that those women are super-organized - that's why they like to keep their shoes to a minimum; and I am not :-) -- but I generally notice that I end up wearing one pair of shoes everywhere in general, so I realized long back that even having 10 pairs is like an overkill for me!

But having read all these numbers here, I'm wondering, how come all these shoes companies went out of business?? (LOL!)

I really purged my shoe collection when I realized that some of them hurt after a while. And I usually end up wearing the same few pairs! I don't need to really dress up for work, so that limits my buying habits.

On organization, anything you can do to create a versatile, changeable system is best. Like a back wall of shelves, one set in front of the other that slides via top and bottom tracks, like what you showed in the photo you posted. But I would not make cubbyholes, just adjustable shelves. You might just end up with a potential buyer who has tons of purses or sweaters and not shoes!

"I'm wondering, how come all these shoes companies went out of business?? "

Well, I may have accumulated a lot of shoes and boots over the years, but I also know that I'll go entire years without buying any if the heels and toes aren't to my liking. In other words, a bad shoe year means none of them will get a cent from me...

I agree with avoiding cubbies. It's not the best use of space. I have cubbies now, and inevitably, some shoes don't fit, and some take up so little space the rest of that cubby is wasted. I have some shoes where I have to use up two cubbies, one for each shoe.

I like flat open shelves instead, where each pair takes up its own necessary space.

"I'll go entire years without buying any if the heels and toes aren't to my liking."

I completely understand. There are fugly heels and toes and then there are the heels that just don't go with the style of a particular shoe or boot. One that comes to mind is a casual boot with a chunky heel, that heel being too narrow in comparison to the height, making the boot look like it's out of proportion.

I think potential buyers would be thrilled to find a closet with more shoe cubbies than they had shoes. What other motivation does a lady need to go shoe shopping!

Slightly OT, but I'm having visions of the first scene of Overboard when the Goldie Hawn character hires the yummy Kirt Russell carpenter to build a shoe closet for her yacht. Not that any of us are like the Goldie Hawn character, but I can dream about having a yunk like that build out my closet, LOL.

Well, I certainly do feel out of place. I have eight pairs of shoes (dress and casual including my two pairs of sneakers), five pairs of boots, and three pairs of sandals for summer. My favorite shoes were a pair of hot pink pumps with three inch heels-fabulous. Donated them when I realized that high heels just are not practical for me any more! Now, it is almost always flats.

Yeah, artlover, that was a cool shoe closet. It was electric and moved around to expose different shoes. Then she wouldn't pay him because it wasn't cedar! LOL That was a cute movie.

I hate shoe cubbies as I like to keep the original box for the shoes and the cubbies don't fit all shoes very well, as pointed out.

About 70 pairs of shoes plus 8 pairs of boots. When we purchased this house, the front hall closet off the foyer impressed me before I even stepped into the rest of the house. It's an 8'deep walk-in closet. I remember our real estate agent giving my DH a look when I exclaimed, "Look, honey, my shoes will fit in here."

This thread is certainly an interesting glimpse into consumerism. I wonder how many pairs of shoes y'all buy every year or if many of those dozens of shoes are really old and out of style.

I edit my shoes every year, keeping only those I cannot part with, and buy probably 8 new pair every year (not counting flip-flops which I don't consider real shoes). In my world shoe styles change fairly often and I don't wear shoes that are out of style or wait for them to come back in style as they never really do. I have "difficult" feet so shop for shoes continuously, never pass by a nice shoe store, and will buy as many as I can find when I find them. I think the most I've bot is 6 pair in one day which was a very happy day for me. I buy good quality, but not always overly expensive shoes and try to find them on sale if possible but if I like them and they fit, they are mine regardless of cost. Almost all of my shoes are leather, I don't like synthetic.

I keep out of season shoes in boxes at the top of my closet (maybe 6 pair altho haven't counted), use the cubbies in our closet system which could be used for shoes for other things, and have shelves in the main coat closet off the foyer for in-season shoes and boots. Probably have 12 pair there. We don't wear shoes in our home so that works best for me. I really don't know what I'd do with 100, or even 50, cubbies for shoes but I sure hope they'd be large enough for other things or I'd have to have the entire closet reconfigured.

I think shoes are the same as any other item of clothing and if I haven't worn them in the past year they are gone. Except for that lovely pair of silver open toes I bot 2 years ago and love but they hurt! ;-) They can be buried with me.

"This thread is certainly an interesting glimpse into consumerism. I wonder how many pairs of shoes y'all buy every year or if many of those dozens of shoes are really old and out of style. "

Well, my oldest pair of shoes is a pair of alligator pumps from the 1960's. But I don't really count those (even though I do wear them occasionally) because they were Mom's. Next oldest are 25-30 years old, and there are probably several of those, with many in the 20-year range...

Out of style? By and large, they're pumps. So maybe it's not this year's heel (but then again, maybe I hate this year's heel) or this year's toe (which I may also hate). But I've never been so extreme in styling that my shoes are easily dated. Super-chunky? Yuck. Spikey heels? Just not comfortable enough. Crazy colors? Sure - if they're my colors -- turquoise, green, pink, coral, red.

I'll post a photo of some of my 20-year old shoes and you'all tell me if they're horribly out of fashion.

Sweeby, let's see mom's alligator pumps, they sound gorgeous.

....Jane

Here are some of my 'old girls'... Of all the shoes/boots in these photos, only one pair is less than 2 years old. One pair is in the 2-5 year range, 3 pairs are 5-10 years old, and the rest are more than 10 years old. Any guesses as to which are the oldies? Out of fashion? Happily so ;-)

I've been avoiding this thread since I used to be a shoe junkie. I gave that title over to our 25 year old daughter years ago when I decided to be practical about what I wore on my feet. Oh I still have a few pair of "fun" shoes, but nothing like I used to have in my hay-day.

Thirty years and one day ago, my now hubby of thirty years, and his brother were helping me move to our first place. After hauling our a number of boxes labeled "shoes" to the truck, my future bil asked what was in all these boxes. I asked what was written on them, I'm obsessive still about labeling things, he replied "well they all say "shoes". I explained that they were all shoes then. He and my now hubby gave each other one of those guy looks, shrugged their shoulders and carried out more boxes with "shoes" written on them.
One month, one week and one day short of four years ago today our daughter and I started our journey from eastern Nebraska to Northern California so she'd have some help driving her car to her new station. She's active Air Force. She knew I was going to help her find an apartment and that all the items we left behind wouldn't arrive for two to three weeks. I should have helped her pack. When we found a nice apartment and when I helped her unload her car I found she'd packed her new lamp, not it's shade, some clothes and.....you got it, her shoes.

No 'consumerism' here. I haven't bought a pair of shoes/boots for over a year, unless you count the boots I bought DD for Christmas. I buy simple classic styles w/little or no ornamentation. Not much of a clothes horse much these days either, just sweatsuits and pj's, my favorites!

Most of my 'extra' money I seem to spend on things for my home, although I don't need anything for *it*, either. My space at the antique gets the most $$$. ;o)

I have 13, but some are going to have to go to Shoe Heaven soon so I think I'll probably be down to 8 or 9 pair. I hate shoe shopping and I am not into fashion and so could give a rat's rump about what's in or out of style if I really worked at it. My mantra in decorating goes for clothes as well - if you're never IN style, you're never OUT of style! I have one of those hanging canvas cubby thingies in my closet for everything but boots.

Four pairs of boots - one pair all-purpose black leather winter boots I paid a mint for last winter after the ones I'd had since college bit the dust, one pair funky little flat scrunchy suede boots ($6 on clearance at Payless this past summer so it doesn't matter too much if they go to Goodwill in a year or so), one pair gorgeous cowboy boots I should probably just give to a friend who covets them because I can't keep my balance in that undercut heel anymore, and one beloved pair of brown button-up ankle boots that are worn so far past shoe polish it's hopeless. I just have to get up the nerve to chuck 'em in the Goodwill bin. *sigh*

One pair chunky 2" heel kinda-sorta-pumps with lycra uppers that might see the light of day once a year, so they look brand new after about 10 years. Heels kill my entire lower body and my feet swell drastically in revolt (thus the lycra). People may sneer at blocky heels but I need the stability of the wide heel if I'm going to be forced to wear the damned things, which is pretty much only with my "funeral suit".

2 pair Naot clogs, one black and one brown, that I need to take to the cobbler to see if he can rejuvenate them any more (past what I can do with plain shoe polish at home). Even though they're about 6 years old they're completely intact, stitching all fine, soles good, they're just looking rather shabby on the surface. They're my everyday shoes whenever there isn't snow.

2 pairs "cute little flats", both black and variations on Mary Janes. I have wide feet so regular Mary Janes make them look even wider, but these have diagonal straps (one pair's straps make an X, the other a Z). The X ones are about 8 years old, the Z ones I bought last summer.

2 pairs fisherman-style sandals, one brown, one black. Brown ones are close to 10 years old and could really use replacing, but I have yet to find anything as comfortable. Bought the black ones last summer and they're not great.

1 pair water shoes which I need to replace ASAP

1 pair crappy old sneakers for working on sloppy stuff around the house

I only have one purse, too. Black, small, long strap - guess they call it a "cross-body" style? I really need to replace it because it's beat to death and the cobbler says it's not salvageable, but I've never seen anything I liked as much for what I would consider a reasonable price. I have always absolutely hated the hassle of shuffling all my stuff back and forth from one purse to another to another, so even when I attempted to be a girly-girl I eventually always ended up just toting the same purse around. I might have one of those crocheted "casual dressy" mini-purses somewhere, but I might have gotten rid of it too.

My husband, however, would strongly disagree with the notion that I am not a real woman because I don't have a bazillion shoes - he says with a twinkle that I am ALL woman! ;-) DH has almost as many shoes as I do: three pairs of sneakers - two for working out and one for yucky household stuff - one pair dressy low boots (almost like Beatle boots but not so pointy-toed) for work in winter, one pair plain black oxfords for work in summer, snow boots, comfy suede slip-ons, Birkenstock sandals, buckled "monk shoes" to go with his kilt, and a pair of Doc Marten mid-calf boots. Oh, and three or four specialized athletic shoes, accumulating dust in the back of the closet, from when he went to the fancy gym his former employer paid for instead of the cheap gym we pay for now. LOL

sweeby, i wouldn't get rid of the brown and white clogs you have ever...love em!

I added 2 pairs yesterday ; one of them is a bootie/sandal in purple leather,
the other is a puma light sneaker . So it was a good day for me.

The gladiator look and the extremely high heels seem to be very much in style this summer , as well as very high wedges, none of which I can wear.

I could have written Justgotabme's thread including the DH moving shoes and DD's shoes.

I should have added to my confession above that I now only buy shoes out of need.

Perhaps if I took a picture like Sweeby did, I would see them differently i.e. for what they are not for what they were, then I could cut my losses. It's not like I could ever recover the $$ spent.

Thanks Sweeby, your styling that's for sure!

I am not worthy of posting on this thread. I dislike everything about shoe shopping, and would love to go barefoot 24/7/365!

allison, you must have another shopping obsession, tell us about it !!

LOL I am afraid I am a bit like Allison. Really, I like clothes and shoes and dress up-to-date although fairly casual. I'm not much into dressing up. I must not be worthy either as I have plenty of shoes for my wants and needs but not nearly as many as some of you! LOL I too am barefoot as much as I can be, and have many pairs of flip-flops (I don't count those as shoes). I hate shoe shopping. My weakness is *treasure hunting* LOL.

Truly, the older I get, I find my wants for tons of shoes, purses, even clothes is less.

tina

Oh, you know me, Mitchdesj - it's shopping for my home! I love to find unusual objects at local antique stores. Unique items found in obscure shops when traveling. Looks like Tina and I are meeting up later. I only hope I spot the prize before she does! ;)

I have 11 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of boots. I have a very small closet. Maybe if I had a bigger closet I'd have more shoes!

There's no correlation between our house size (>8K SF above grade), large master closets, and # of shoes that dh & I own. I've never owned more than a dozen pairs of shoes at a time, and currently have nine plus some Crocs for working in the yard. Orthopedic shoes just don't inspire shoe lust. Dh removed one of the shoe storage units in his closet to make room for more shirt hanging space. The rest of the shoe storage in both closets is just shelves, not cubbies. My guess is that using boxes one could fit maybe four dozen pairs. However, there is some open space where a future owner could have more specialized storage units installed. I never wondered if our closets might not appeal to buyers, but it may be something to consider since this won't be our "forever" home.

We'd make a good shopping team Allison!

tina

Lovely to see your 'old girls' Sweeby! I can totally understand a 'collection' and if shoes were one of mine I think I'd use a glass front display case to show them off! Had never thot about keeping my old shoes as a 'collection' tho as I have never liked shoes that show wear but they are as much a valid collection as anything else.

I've just never understood why anyone would have multiple pairs of, for example, black pumps. Which I've seen on similar threads. Seems pointless to me. Of course others may think the same about some of my collections. Glad to hear from others in recent posts here who also have fewer shoes.

Back to how you might plan your large closet - I think if the cubbies are large enough so they can be used for other things you could easily have 100 cubbies. You might plan the size of these cubbies depending on the size of shoe, boot, as well as sweater boxes.

Here is a link that might be useful: storage boxes

I coulda been a shoe girl. When I could wear any shoe I wanted- I was budget conscious and limited my shoes. Now I have a metal plate and a bunch of screws in my foot so I have trouble finding shoes.
That said- I am in the Allison and Tina camp- treasure hunting ( aka good will hunting) wins out every time over shoes!
After my Mom died, my Dad and I discovered that she had shoes in every closet in the house- not just the gorgeous walk in closet they had made. He was just incredulous and had no idea that she had so many shoes. I knew she loved shoes, and couldn't pass by a shoe store, but wow she had shoes, many with the tags still on. Unfortunately they were too small for me.
Oh I do have 4 pair of hiking boots. is that too many??

Here is my reasoning for multiple pairs of similar shoes: first, they are not all exactly the same. Each black pump is different: the heel, they way they feel, the lining. the leather. Next, once a pair of shoes gets a little worn (NOT worn out or even disfigured in anyway) they are fine for events that don't require perfection. The day you have a meeting but have to go shopping immediately after and don't want to wear the best shoes or the shoes that hurt when walking a lot.
The best black pumps are saved for when you want to look perfect- they are usually new, stylish and you don't want to wear them out by walking on gravel.
Eventually the best black pumps become the second best. The original second best still have lots of wear in them so you save them for a day when it's pouring down rain because that will ruin them even further.
Over time you acquire a dozen or more pumps like this - all similar but not really.
Then apply this to ALL the different categories of shoes:
sandals (open, closed, flat, mules, heels, gladiator, t- strap, wedge, pointy, rounded), tennis shoes ( stylish walking -pumas-, heavy walking, walking in mud, running, hiking), dress shoes, comfort, ballerina, etc. THEN add different colors and finishes: patent, leather, nubuck, suede, metallic and it's EASY to see why a hundred different pairs of shoes is conservative and another pair is bought.

Then there are the special occasion shoes... What else can you wear with a deep green velvet cocktail dress but deep green velvet pumps? (and for only $5 on eBay?...)

And those brown and white clogs? LOVE those! Probably wear those more than any other pair of shoes... Though by now I've worn the hair clean off in spots. (I just *knew* I should have bought the matching zebra and leopard clogs at the same time, even though none of them were on sale.) And my sky blue snakeskin clogs? Hubby likes them so much he said I should have bought two pairs! (He was serious.) Another pair you can wear surprisingly often.

Shoes that match? How boring! Go for something fun. Really, all it takes is attitude ;-)

Sweeby,
I love this subject. Shoes, Shoes and more shoes...
I won't say how many but lets just say waaaaaayyyyyyy tooooo mannnnnny. : )
DH teases me that I only have two feet why do I need so
many.

For shoe addicts buy this
{{gwi:1612085}}

It is so much fun to look over day to day.

But you wanted ideas for the closet

Here are a few pics sweeby. I am sure you have seen
them already.

Chateau

FlickR

Purse Blog

ShoeaholicsAnona

Have fun designing the closet.

~boxer

bumblebeez, such pearls of wisdom, you are soooooo right.

I use the same reasoning when I buy yet another pair of black pants, to put alongside the dozen other black pants I own ( I eventually wear them all ).
Black pants, jeans and shoes.

I tend to not collect handbags the same way as shoes, they don't wear out so much except for the everyday ones.

Haha, mitch, I don't do black pants but handbags and jewelry are as important as shoes. Dh uses the same wisdom: he has about 40 pair of khaki pants (and 10 pair of shoes!) I have dozens of jeans.

What fabulous pictures Boxerpups!
And no, I'd never seen those --
You know I've saved 'em now!

I'm with you on the black pants Mitch!

Sweeby! If I could, I'd steal those shorty cowboy boots from you in half a second! If they go missing, you better start tracking me down because I will be guilty!

What is the brand?

I keep forgetting that we're discussing closets; I have a shallow shelf ,
double- door closet that we dedicated to shoes and purses, I'll post a picture once I'm back home.

We need more show and tell on the shoes and handbags, I might start a thread later on the conversations side. Something like, post a picture of 3 favorite pairs of shoes, sweeby, I liked your shoe eye candy, all très cute...........

I have about 75 pairs (plus 8 boots and 25 purses). DH has about 6 pairs.

We have a relatively small closet (approx. 10'x6' for both of us) and I am happy I got almost all the shoes into a 2'x2' floor space (boots, purses, and a few of DH's shoes that are kept in a different part of the closet). The bottom has slide-out racks that fit 9 pairs of shoes on each rack. Plus I have slippers under the bottom rack.

I had to do this in two pictures (top and bottom) because the closet's not big enough to get that far back! This was also before we put the nice lighting in.

In answer to the question, I think I would plan for 100 pairs of (women's) shoes in a nice house with a large-ish closet. Certainly if I can fit 75+ pairs in my dinky closet, 100 is do-able in your house. :)

i can't believe it took me this long to find this thread! how "affluent" are we talking? we do "well" but i know others who are on the forbes list. my bff has a single closet that's about 20' x 20' but she shares it with her dh. i am vehemently against this ...especially in a house that spans over 22,000 sq ft. if you're occupying a palace i believe the king and queen each deserve a space to call their own. anyway, shoes get tossed or donated and there's always turnover but i'm going to say roughly 120 pairs. i had cubbies in the last house and h-a-t-e-d them. horrible. long open shelves are best; this way you can always use unoccupied real estate for other purposes. for my new closet i'm allowing a 5' wall (9' high) for shoe shelves with another 4' of wall space in another corner. i'm hoping the 5' wall will be enough since my intentions are to use the other open wall of shelving for jeans and "stuff". good luck. i'm finding closets to be especially challenging!

Maybe if I had a bigger closet I'd have more shoes!

Nah, doesn't necessarily work that way. Two houses ago we had two huge (to us anyway, one 8x10ish and one 6x12)walk-in closets and it didn't affect our purchasing habits at all. I think it's simply just in how naturally acquisitive you are. If you're oriented toward accumulation of "stuff", it doesn't matter whether you live in a 20,000sf mansion or a 200sf studio, you're going to find a way to have your stuff, and it doesn't really matter what your "stuff" is either. When I lived in a 200sf studio, one of my immediate neighbors (same size apartment) lined one of her walls (12 foot ceilings, note) with shoe boxes and had a stepladder to get to the way-up ones. She was practically a Carrie Bradshaw - she chose to live in this teensy apartment so she could have hundreds of pairs of $300-500 shoes.

20x20 is almost half the size of the second floor of my 1 1/2 story house. The notion of a closet that size boggles me. Clearly I'm in the wrong place - is there a forum for "po'-ass trash"?