The dreaded shoe closet

No, my name isn´t Imelda. But shoes are the one thing that you can  buy as a fat person which comes in exactly the same sizes a slim person wears. So, shopping for shoes was for a long time the one kind of clothes shopping that didn´t confront me with what my body had become.
Or so I thought.
Only now that I am shrinking back into my former sizes again I realize that shrinking back also applies to shoe sizes.
I put on shoes that have been favourites for many fat years, and I find my feet sliding around in way too much shoe for way too little foot to fill it. As most of my shoes can´t be laced any tighter, that means I need smaller shoes. Putting extra insoles in there only takes you so far.
That is good and bad news.
Good news because I got to buy myself new shoes. I am, by now, able again to wear a little heel and not have my feet hurt like whatnot halfway through the day. So, I have been splurging  (taking advantage of end-of-season sales) on three pairs of ankle boots, with a moderate heel. I couldn´t wear these for years unless I wanted to be limping badly by noon. And I want to be able to change between pairs, to allow the shoes to breathe.
The bad news is that there were still several favourite pairs of flats in my shoe closet that are comfy and, unfortunately, well-worn.
So, I have been digging into that closet after work yesterday, pulling out everything that was inside including a bunch of freewheeling shoe trees (I´m notoriously bad about putting those back in, mostly just taking them out and dumping them  into the closet).
The result? I discovered I had another four pairs of boots that fit me again, which I had stashed in the back of the closet because wearing them hurt at  my top weight, and plain forgotten about.
I also had two pairs of flats I hadn´t worn any more because they had become too tight.  Now they fit again.
I put the shoe trees back inside the shoes I kept, ending up with two right side ones left over. I haven´t been able to locate the two missing left ones yet....
And there are four pairs of well-worn shoes sitting besides the exit door, waiting for my decision whether to toss or keep them. The athletic shoe part of the closet is what I´ll do tonight.There ought to be several candidates for eviction there, too.
There are also several pairs of shoes that did turn out to be not so comfortable even when weighing less.
Now, I have more than one real dilemma.
Shall I have the heels on my preferred wine red flats redone or shall I tell them goodbye? They have latex soles, which makes them great to walk in but a b***h to have heeled.
And shall I toss these other  four pairs of uncomfortable flats that are almost brand-new because I have rarely worn them?
Perhaps I should try to wear them for a day and then decide who goes and who stays.
Decisions, decisions.
I must remind myself that any shoe I do not wear any more is clutter. Even if the shoe closet were big enough to hold that shoe, too.

And that it is better to have only as many shoes as I can put in the front part of the closet, lined up so they´re visible. That way, I won´t forget about any of them again, and  every one of them gets a fair chance at being worn, too.


Julia