Just call me Imelda

I have an admission to make. My shoe habit is out of control.

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For quite some time now I have minimized the issue by pointing fingers at those who have far more shoes than I.

For example, Imelda Romuáldez Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines, had a shoe collection that is world-renowned. After the Marcos family fled the Philippines in 1986, it was discovered that Imelda had left behind 15 mink coats, 508 gowns, 888 handbags and over a thousand pairs of shoes.

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I am not even in the same league. But I must admit, I own way more shoes than any one person needs. For crying out loud, I only have two feet!

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There was a time, many years ago, when I owned ONE pair of boots that I wore all the time. A lot has changed since then. I now have about five different pair of tennis shoes, two pair of hiking boots, at least six different kinds of sandals, snow boots, two or three pair of fancy boots and heaven only knows how many pair of stupid girl shoes in every imaginable color. What was I thinking? HOW did I ever acquire this many shoes???

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I've got shoes I hardly ever wear. I think I own a pair or two that may not even fit right. What are they doing in my closet??This has gotten beyond absurd.

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I am sorting through the pile, getting ready to give away / throw away at least half of what's in there. It's time for the grand purge. It's either that or enter some sort of 12 step program for shoe addicts.

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I blame it on my closets. I have been blessed with not one, not two, but THREE different huge walk in closets in this house. Somehow, over the five years we have lived here, all three closets seem to have gathered lots of STUFF. The one in our bedroom is all clothes and shoes. The one in the guest room has scuba gear, books, luggage, and assorted I'm not even sure what. The one in my office has .... well, I really can't even begin to figure out.

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My inner clutter Nazi has had enough. I'm doing some serious spring cleaning and am in the mood to simplify. So all sorts of things are going to be given away to people I know or donated to a good cause.

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The shoes, however, are a bit of a problem because I have big feet. Not many people I know can wear a size 10 or 11. Everyone in my family has huge hoofers. The one nice thing about big feet is that you can store A LOT of stuff in our family's shoe boxes. (My younger son wears size 15!)

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When I was a young girl I used to get teased about the size of my gun boat shoes. I came home crying and upset one day over some mean spirited ridicule about my feet. My grandmother who was staying with us at the time gave me some great advice about how to handle those sort of rude comments. She said: "If anybody ever says anything about your feet, you look them straight in the eye and tell them - it take s a big strong foundation for a tall beautiful building but an outhouse can stand on anything!" You rock Grandma!

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I'm headed to New Mexico this weekend for a family gathering. I'm taking a couple pair of the fancy girly shoes for my sister. The rest? I'm not sure. Any thoughts?