One Hundred And Counting

So the task of counting how many pairs of shoes I own proved more difficult than expected. In fact I can't give you a precise number but I can tell you that there are between 96 and 135 depending on how we define "shoes".
Shocked? Well, me too! I would have said 65 to 70, I had no idea, really. Before you start to think that I am a shoe-aholic let me tell you a couple of things:
1) I have a tendency to be a hoarder. It runs in the family, my mom could easily appear in an episode of "Hoarders" and I think she transmetted the gene to me. So it isn't that I buy THAT many pairs of shoes, it is that I don't throw them away. Never. Until now.
2) I think that women in general have a tendency to underestimate the number of shoes that they own and have way more than they think or want to admit. What I am saying is that I don't think I am an exception. Who really counts their shoes? Have you ever tried? It sums up very quickly, you would be surprised.
This was an ideal situation to count them because we emptied our walk-in closet (where all our shoes are stored, except for the few ones that get everyday use and need to be in the entrance closet) to put the new rods and shelves in, so all the shoes that we have got temporarely moved on the floor of our bedroom. Still, I couldn't come up with a definitive number. Why, you ask? It seems easy, like counting to 100.
Well, while I was trying to tackle the task I came across some metaphysical questions like: should I take flip-flops, like Havaianas, into account? I have easily more than ten pairs of Havaianas and similar rubber-sole sandals so those alone would increase my number. In the end I didn't consider them as shoes, technically, for the simple reason that the fact that I have a pair of, say, pink Havaianas doesn't count when I am considering buying pink shoes. They don't compete.
Or similarly: should I count sneakers and fitness shoes? I am in no mean a sneakers person but I have a few pairs (OK, four, two for casual/park wear and two for the gym or other physical activity) that I happen to wear very rarely but I keep because in life you need to have at least a pair of sneakers and/or "active" shoes.
Then I have the shoes that could be described as "shoes that should be thrown away but I can't get rid of": for example, I have a pair of suede sandals with buckles and a heavy-duty sole that are so worn-in that the buckles are actually rusted, that mercury-green rust that comes from exposure to sea water (it looks like I found them in the deep of the ocean, really) but I had them for at least 20 years and they have been a staple of my "adventurous travelling days" following me everywhere, from Morocco to Portugal to Grand Canyon and have affective value, not to mention that they can still be useful if one day we start to travel again to such places. When I asked my husband he said that I should keep them. See? We are a family of hoarders. Another (different) example is a pair of Gucci that I know hurt my feet (they are half a size too small) but I keep just because they are Gucci. Again, my husband was like "You are not going to give your Guccis away", even if I told him that I couldn't wear them without having my feet bleeding (I tried).
The last methaphysical question was: should I include shoes that I have (finally) decided to get rid of (through the JCA Weekly Exchange or by donating them to my daughter's school used clothes sale that is coming up soon) but I still own, technically. I solved this by putting quickly the ones that I want to sell up for grabs on the JCA and donating the other ones before I changed my mind, even if in the end I counted the ones that haven't been sold yet.

This leaves me with approximately 100 pairs of shoes. I had a Carrie Bradshaw moment when I realized that I had so many, you know the episode, when she is evicted from her apartment and has to find money for the down payment to buy it back and she calculates the amount that she could have in savings hadn't she splurged on all those Manolos at $400 a pair. The difference is that I don't have so many expensive shoes, I don't have a single pair of Manolos or Laboutins or Jimmy Choos. I have a few Pradas but they were all bought during sales years ago. And I probably have less than Carrie Bradshaw anyway.

Now there are pairs that I wear more than other pairs, typically flats get worn much more than heels and I tend to destroy and then replace them on a regular basis, like my black Revas. However, I have almost the same number of heels and flats. Why? Here we enter the domain of fantasy shopping: trying on heels and in particular stilettos or other sky-high heels is not the same thing as trying flats. When I buy a pair of flats I look for wereability and comfort, I rarely bought a pair of flats that wasn't comfortable (in general I can tell when I try on and I stay away if they hurt), while when I try heels I project myself in situations that are not likely to happen and I tend to close an eye on the fact that if I can't walk in them, in the end I won't wear them.
I have a few of these fantasy heels and the worst thing is that I keep buying them (in fact I just bought a pair of slingback platforms that make my legs look sooo long but I don't know if I will ever wear. It's bad, I know. At least they weren't expensive, they are the third ones from the left):

Fantasy shopping shoes

In fact now I realize what my shoe problem is. I do buy too many, but I don't feel like it because I only wear half of them. The other half I can't walk in or used to disappear in the mess formerly known as the walk-in closet. I decided that this is going to change now that we have more storage space (I should say, an improved storage space). I finally decluttered and got rid of what I thought was useless to keep at this point of my life and now I have these 90 something pairs to put back in the closet. This is the occasion to do it properly and in a manner that will hopefully result in me getting some more wear out of shoes that I had even forgot I had because they were buried under other shoes.
I would say that 80% of my shoes are in the original boxes: now, not only boxes of various dimensions take up a lot of space but also they make the shoes themselves hard to reach, thus diminish their weareability. For the time being I put them back in their boxes but I have become aware of one important concept that a lady from California Closet who came for a quote told me: boxes are for storage, you can't keep the shoes that you wear on a regular basis in boxes. I had never thought about that but it is so true. In fact she said that I should keep the shoes that I wear in the same closet where I usually get dressed (my bedroom closet) and keep only the "special pairs" and the storage boxes in the walk-in closet (which is more of a storage closet for me as I don't keep my everyday clothes there, while it is the dressing closet for my husband). An interesting concept to maybe think about in the future but that I cannot implement right now, since I don't have any room for shoes in my bedroom closet.

In the new closet I have the space to display neatly and at easy-to-reach level around 40 pairs, while the other ones (hors season) can be stored on the upper, difficult to reach, shelves like you see in the pic below:

The plan is to buy 40 of these Container Store shoe drawers to protect the shoes that are in constant rotation, while having them easily accessible thanks to the drawer system. I have a few of them that you can see in the lower shelf:

I could buy these shoe racks instead (since we used the Elfa system to redesign the closet) but they don't work for flats and I don't want to have two systems in place. Plus the open racks don't protect them from dust, which I think is a necessity.
Now, I don't know what to do with the boxes, it seems silly to keep empty boxes while the shoes are on rotation. On the other side if I throw them away I don't know where to put the shoes once they need to be stored away in the upper shelves. Any thoughts? I am afraid to throw them away and then regret and be forced to buy plastic boxes. I can easily recognize what's in each box so I don't feel that I need clear storage boxes (but I need a few for the boots/booties that don't have an original box anymore).
The other thing is that I own a fair number of leather thongs (like the JCrew leather capris, a step up from Havaianas) and it seems that for those the shoe drawers are a waste of space. I would like to find another way to keep them neatly accessible but I am at a loss. So I ask you, dear readers, what do you do with your thongs? I remember that the Container store used to sell a "flip-flops" organizer, that I think should work for regular leather shoes too but I can't find it anymore.
My husband (who de-mounted the old system and mounted the whole thing in just two days) has been very sweet and gave me the a big part of the closet as you can see (he is keeping for himself the wall on the back that you cannot see) and his only condition is that he wants to keep it clean and pretty (so no shoes hanging in those canvas hangers with shoe pockets).
If you are an expert of closet organization or simply have a few tips that worked for you, please share.

Have you ever counted your shoes?