My entire life I have always wanted to have a Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw-esque closet. I never thought that I would actually get to this point, but somehow I think I might have surpassed her closet. She may have had more higher end brand names on those stunning shoe racks of hers, but my husband and I took footwear to a whole new level!
Let me give you a bit more background to understand how our shoe collections have gotten to where they are now.
In December 2014 – just before we moved to New York City — my mom made me go through all of my shoes in her house. This seemed like an amazing opportunity to go through and see all of my shoe styles, to figure out which shoes no longer fit, to see which needed to be trashed and which could be donated. After taking all of them out and lining them up, we counted a total of 108 pairs of shoes! I am not sure what 22-year-old has that many shoes, but hey, I clearly learned quickly how much of a shoeaholic I am. I donated over 20 pairs because let’s be honest, my first apartment in Manhattan was not going to fit all of these shoes plus my husbands (at the time boyfriend).
Fast forward to February 2015: my husband started working for Nike. He was extremely into sportswear and loved the brand; however, that meant the Nike footwear collection would quickly begin to grow for us. I have always been a huge fan of the Steve Madden brand because their footwear is trendy, yet very comfortable! Then in February 2018, my husband started working at Steve Madden’s corporate office. He coincidentally is Steve Madden’s sample size for the men’s lines, so that being said he receives a lot of shoes after they finish with them at market.
Now that we are all caught up on the footwear background that brings us to November 4, 2018. For those of you who followed my insta story, (it is under shoeaholics on my saved stories) you watched our “cleaning out the shoes” process. The only thing I can say is that I love shoes. I love the way a single pair of heels can transform you into feeling a movie star, or how a pair lifts you off the ground and makes you stand with your head held high and I love having multiple colors of styles that are comfy.
I can honestly say that Carrie Bradshaw would be so impressed with my shoe collection! To be honest I was a bit blown away when I finally took them all out and lined them up in my living room. I decided to organize them by style first then color. It took a few hours to figure out the exact organization, but in the end, I was extremely happy with the set up.
My husband, Lee and I decided to make a game out of it and started making bets. I guessed that he would have 80-100 pairs and that I would have 125-150 pairs. He guessed that he would have 70-80 pairs and that I would have 120-140. Well are you finally ready to hear how many we had?!?
Drum roll please……….and NO JUDGEMENTS LADIES!
This Trendy Ambitious Blonde ended up having a total of 148 pairs of shoes with 68 different designers/brand names! My darling husband had a total of 101 pairs of shoes with 29 different brand names! Well it is safe to say I won the bet, but in the end, we had to go through all of them and make some decision. Between the two of us we decided that it was time to donate some of our pairs. Together we donated about 20 pairs of shoes.
A few weeks ago, I was at an event at Saks Fifth Avenue. I met Leandra Cohen of Manreppeller and she told me that for every pair of shoes she buys she sells a pair at home and for every pair she is gifted she donates a pair of shoes. I thought this was such an inspiring idea, so from now on we will be following the “Leandra rule” in our household!
Organization:
I had a few people reach out on Instagram asking us how we decided to organize the shoes, so I want to share a few of our organizational tactics. We purchased one rack on Wayfair that is perfect for heels only. I lined up all of my heels by style then color on this rack. They held anywhere from four to five pairs across.
After that we purchased four total shelving systems from Bed Bath Beyond. We each used two of these and stacked them on top of each other to create one large footwear rack. I put my flatforms, boots and nice sneakers on the shelves.
We had already owned three mirror cabinets, which are in our living room because they look really nice and no one would even know it’s shoes! This is where I put my older sneakers and Lee put some of his older ones as well. We also have an old-fashioned, hanging-over-the-door fabric shoe rack where we put all of his everyday sneakers. He put all of his boots, oxfords, loafers and newer sneakers on his Bed Bath Beyond shelves.
All of our nicer shoes from our wedding and other special events are in boxes nicely at the bottom of our closet so that they stay in perfect condition!
Bed Bath Beyond Stacked Shelving Racks
Taking the time to go through our shoes was a lot of work; however, it was very rewarding to be able to style our shelves and racks the way I have always dreamed: the Carrie Bradshaw way! Besides who doesn’t love playing dress up in their shoes while color coordinating them and putting them on rack?!
Now I have to start saving up for my Manolo’s, but sorry Carrie Bradshaw I love your royal blue pair; however, this girl is going for the pink pair! #shoeaholic
“The fact is, sometimes it’s hard to walk in a single woman’s shoes. That’s why we need really special ones now and then—to make the walk a little more fun.” –Carrie BradshawSex & The City Actress Sarah Jessica Parker
List Of Designers + Brands On Our Shelves: