How do you decide when your shoes need to go?

[TableNiner]

I’ve got too many shoes for the space I have and am not even a massive shoe person. Many of them are variations of the same thing, so five pairs of brown boots and lots of gold sandals. I tend to buy a pair of shoes/boots and wear them incessantly that season so they can end up a bit beaten up/worn.

I am normally good with getting rid of things but find it hard when shoes fit and I’ve had a lot of good wear and enjoyed wearing them. I tend to buy something new/smarter but then don’t get rid of the previous pair even though the chances of regularly wearing them again are slim. On the flip side, I also have shoes I’ve not really worn much and they sit there taking up space too.

How do you manage your shoe collection?

I tend to wear my favourites until I start getting wet feet! Hate parting with them until they are literally worn out. It's easier with trainers, as they go on gardening leave until the next pair is ready to be relegated. Then the eldest pair goes in the bin.

The thing with shoes is that unless you lose or gain an absolute tonne of weight they'll always fit you and if you find the right ones will always look good on you, unlike clothes.

I'm always reluctant to throw shoes away as they can really lift or transform an outfit and unless you buy a really on trend pair chances are you'll be able to dig them out for years to come. I've got a pair of nude heels I bought from Oasis circa 20 years ago and they're my go to occasion wear shoe. Obviously I'm not going to any occasions at the mo but when I do it's good to know I won't have to think about buying a full new outfit (just a new dress to accommodate the covid pounds ).

If your brown boots are all similar - similar shade, heel, style etc I would probably whittle them down and just keep the best pair. But if they look different and serve different purposes eg pair for wearing to the park with DC, pair for wearing out to lunch with friends etc I'd keep them!

• Unless they're really tatty and scruffy and no amount of polish or re-heeling can save them, in which they definitely need to go.

I've never put any thought into this, but thus seems right to me, "The thing with shoes is that unless you lose or gain an absolute tonne of weight they'll always fit you and if you find the right ones will always look good on you, unlike clothes."

So they need to be worn out. I've got rid of things that I no longer liked only to discover 10 years later I was wishing I had that pair again.

If your brown boots are all similar - similar shade, heel, style etc I would probably whittle them down and just keep the best pair. But if they look different and serve different purposes eg pair for wearing to the park with DC, pair for wearing out to lunch with friends etc I'd keep them

This is the way I do it. I have a waterproof pair for dog walking, once they are no longer waterproof they are cleaned up and given away. I have a really lovely pair of grenson for those occasions that demand it. Not even worn this year. A pair to walk to work in. They can be any colour (my current dog walking pair are purple timberlands) but I do my best sometimes successfully to only have 5 or 6 pairs of boots at any time.

I'm really hard on shoes. So they go when they've fallen apart. I walked through the sole of a cheap pair in one day.

I have very few pairs of shoes so don't have this problem myself, but what about putting something in one of each pair (marble or lego piece or bit of gravel).
Any that still have the thing on after a year get the chop?

I wait until I can see the path through the soles.
I would honestly get rid of a lot of other stuff before boots or shoes. Or consider building extra storage. Every pair of footwear is right for certain specific occasions.