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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Girls and Their Shoes!

F LOVES shoes and constantly walks around with them, causing me to run all over the house looking for them when we are trying to leave at the last minute. She loves to bring me my shoes and waits there until I put them on. She loves to try to walk in her sisters' shoes. She carries her shoes all around the house (and hers are the smallest and most easily lost).

If I want to avoid this, I should make sure all shoes are put away in the closet several times a day, but that usually doesn't happen. We have a milk crate in the closet where their shoes get dumped, but it is overflowing. So today we pulled out their shoes to see what we had.

As you know, we have four girls. Girls lead to shoes (maybe boys do, too, but I wouldn't know). You need sandals and tennis shoes, light church shoes and dark church shoes, boots, water shoes, etc. Now multiply that times 4 girls and also the in between sizes, and you'll start to get a picture. It doesn't help when you have have to save EVERYTHING for the next girl down.

Seriously, it's like they are multiplying in there! I started to try to organize them, have girls try them on to see what fits or doesn't, etc, but it was getting out of hand! Plus, F insisted on being in the middle of the shoe-fest. How could I expect her to resist? And M was very concerned about her shoes, lining them up and not wanting me to put any of them away.

So H and I did a shoe project. We made a chart with types of shoes and sizes, then she checked the boxes when I called out a shoe and size. I was thankful for the chart so I could see where we have gaps to fill in and places to pare down.

What's in YOUR closet? :-) If you have several children (especially multiple girls), I'd love to hear how you keep the shoes under control!

6 comments:

Andy and Katie said...

THE SHOES. UGH. We have a small, I mean LARGE shoe problem in our home. It is at the forefront of my brain these days, trying to figure out what we can do to combat it. We have the same issues as you, Jessica...here is how we currently handle it:

We walk in from the garage to a little landing before you can step up into the kitchen or down to the basement. I have the girls take off their shoes and put them in a little basket made to sit on a stairway. When the basket is full, it is one of the girls' jobs to put the shoes away downstairs at the bottom of the steps where their jackets hang. I have 2 of the 'long shelves' made for shoes and then on top of those, I have 2 of the cube-like shoe holders. We put flip flops and crocs on the bottom 'open' long shelves and then all other shoes get put into the little cubbies...and we still don't have enough space, it seems. Andy and I keep our shoes in a hanging shoe rack in our closet.

A friend of mine got an over the door shoe rack and bolted it to the garage wall right outside her door and gave each member of her family a row to hang shoes. I'm thinking of doing that at some point.

I'm curious to see how others keep the shoes controlled. And then there are the mountains of tights....but that's another day of organizing right?!

Ted said...

This was a very cute post and picture! Thanks for brightening my day!

Angela said...

Wow, that's a lot of shoes. I think boys are way different because we only have one pair of sneakers and one pair of sandals for him. The sandals are put away, so just one pair! Wahoo!

For her we have 2 or 3 pairs (one sandals), but that's only because my sister gives me all her clothes/shoes and her daughter must love shoes too.

Happy organizing!!

cookiesandmilk said...

We have shoe shelves stacked in the bottom of our foyer closet. We put all of our shoes in it as we come and go. With the soccer cleats and ballet slippers or other “special foot wear” we have special bags that they keep the shoes in. These bags also keep the other stuff that goes with the sport footwear. We hang these bags on hangers in the foyer closet. I try not to have more than 2 pairs of shoes per kid at any given time, although right now I think my daughter might have 5 pairs that fit her and my son probably has three. I, of course, break this rule for myself and keep the shoes that aren’t in my circulation in a rubber tote in my bedroom closet.

Unknown said...

My sister and I always had a drawer in our rooms dedicated to shoes, and I still have one now. You might keep all the shoe sets that fit each girl in their drawer (dark/light dress shoe, sandal, tennis), with perhaps a separate drawer in the mud room or garage for the outdoor shoes (winter/rain boots, pool shoes, beach shoes, flippers, etc). Then, any shoes that don't fit any girl currently could go into another box or drawer to wait for them.

Kerri

Kristi S, said...

I also have 4 girls ages 14,10,8,4 Since the 10 & 8 yr olds are less than 17 months apart and almost the same size they can easily share things but don't care to, I do not save shoes from the other 2. We have a lot of shoes! I try and tell them 2 pairs on the porch the rest in your closet but it never fails, this winter I took a book shelf that was just a junk collector and turned it into a shoe shelf by the front door, I placed a shoe mat on each shelf so the wood isn't getting wet. I also have a dresser for mittens, hats, & scarves. I am eager for the older girls to do spring cleaning and eliminate their old things!

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