Daily Challenge Day 3… The hardest challenge that ever was! The sun is disappearing as the sky has gone black. The Apocalypse has arrived and it’s in the form of a daily challenge. *SHRIEKS* “The end of the world is coming, the end of the world is comingggg.”
Today’s Daily Challenge Saturday Sep. 03, 2011
Emotional Health
EVERYDAY WELL-BEING
Donate or throw away 1 pair of old shoes or boots that you no longer wear.
How to do it
Find the oldest, most outdated, clunkiest pair of shoes in your closet. You know, the ones with an inch of dust on them. Put them on. Walk around the house in them. If you’re still unsure whether you should get rid of them, snap a photo of your feet and send it to a friend. Have her give you three reasons to get rid of them. Then put them in your donation bag (or toss if damaged).
Why it matters
Closet real estate is king, and way too valuable to have it taken up by shoes that we no longer wear. By ridding your closet of old, unused shoes, you will have the room to be better organized. This will facilitate wearing what you have, taking better care of it and getting dressed faster, thus eliminating the mad dash for the door every morning. And you will never again be frustrated by not being able to find a pair of shoes that you just KNOW are in there.
Fun Fact
A shoe by any other name… Zapata (Spanish), Chaussure (French), Schuhe (German), Pantofi (Romanian), Schoen (Dutch), Scarpa (Italian)
When I read this challenge I began to panic and scream… “NOOOOOOO, not my shoes!!!” Vomiting soon ensued as I sat holding my stomach. I was ill! OMG, the horror, the utter nerve… This challenge should be deemed illegal. Call 911, call the CIA, someone get GOD on the phone right NOW…I want to add a commandment; Thou shall not EVER make a woman get rid of her shoes!!! This is unjust, this is unfair, this is highway robbery and I will NOT stand for it…
Everyone knows women love their shoes. There is a void deep inside the center of our very soul that can only be filled with shoes. I have accumulated too many shoes to count let alone to wear but, it is my God given right as an American citizen to have them, dammit… Do you hear me? MY RIGHT to have a cluttered chaos of chic shoes! I am no Carrie Bradshaw but, this is just not right.
As a child I had 3 pair of shoes. Not because we were poor but, because I grew up in a 3rd world trailer under the tyranny of dictators. I had a dress pair of shoes for those times I was forced to go to church with my grandparents. Or for when I had to dress up for Choir. Or whatever other thing I had to do that required me looking like a girl. Phooey!!! Most of the time those dress shoes were penny loafers. I was an 80’s kid stuck in the goodwill shopping lane.
My second pair of shoes… sneakers, usually Converse or Chuck Taylors. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s they were the only shoe made in America. Dad was strict about his buy only American-made products policy. There was no name-brand designer anything in our home or on our bodies. And God forbid we bought something with our own hard earned money because to the trash it would go. Damn, tyrants!!
Then along came NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) and last I saw his household wore Reebok. Guess our years of sticking it to the man and only buying what was made in our country wasn’t enough to stop NAFTA from happening. Good luck finding anything made in the USA now. Hypocrites!!
My third pair of shoes were Converse as well. They were gym shoes for school and when summer came they would become my new everyday pair. I spent most of my childhood barefoot though until I was older and started working and practicing softball and basketball all the time. Oh and lest I forget the dreaded huge moon boots I was forced to wear during the winter because we lived up in NeverStopsSnowingVille!!! It was called Fairview or UpNorth to the city-slicker Michaganders, because it was the northern part of the Lower Peninsula. Yeeehawwww I tell you. YEEEEFRICKINHAW!!! Anyway, back to my shoe challenge.
So as soon as I escaped “Little Germany” and got married, I began my shoe collecting. Awww, shoes. So calming, so refreshing, so soothing to my inner demon that just happens to have 6 feet…which is why I need more shoes than I can possibly wear. LOL
I began with my slippers basket. This way I could work my way up to shoes and if all else fails I can “fib” and say I did it because slippers are kind of like shoes, right? I dumped my basket on the floor and stared. A single tear dropped my eye as I picked up slipper after slipper and made that life changing decision to toss or keep. Out of 10 pairs, I kept 2. The rest I tossed, they were old, tattered and torn, a few broken… just like my heart. I cannot do this… Lord give me strength!
35 pairs of flip-flops, 20 tossed… HELP ME!! Next, 60 pairs of high heels, sneakers and boots, 1 pair tossed. Sorry but, I cannot throw away those. I did throw away a pair of Skechers that I bought when I lived in Chicago right before I moved out here. That was approximately 8 years ago so I can let those ones go.
Phew… I am not as stressed now, could be because I didn’t get rid of anything still in top condition. I can tell you this though, my shoes are now back to organized status. My closet on the other hand is still in need of a makeover but, two baskets of shoes are no longer in there, so it’s a start. So what are YOU waiting for??
It’s your turn. Join in on the Daily Challenge; Facebook it, Blog it, Live it, Love it!!!
❤For Jen's Sake❤ 