Dr Martin James

I love my shoe room, although it’s been in a fairly dysfunctional state for a while. Some shoes are on display, some boxes have pictures, but around 80 pairs are boxed without any indication of what’s inside.

Many of the shoes aren’t in their original boxes, which makes it practically impossible to find a large portion of my collection. Knowing that, I don’t even bother looking for the ones that aren’t visible or clearly labelled. And of course—Sod’s law—the pair you want is always out of sight and potentially anywhere.

Another Sod’s law situation? Even if you can see the pair you want, they’re usually buried beneath 15 mismatched boxes at the bottom of a pile. And in a rush—as I always am—I rarely have the time or patience to dig through the chaos.

But finally, two key steps forward have been taken:

1. I’ve photographed all the boxed pairs, and prints are on their way. The missing-footwear mystery will soon be solved.
2. I’ve added shelves to break up the stacks. So instead of digging through 15+ pairs to reach one at the bottom, I now only have to move about five. That’s much more manageable—especially if I start preparing outfits the night before (a long-term goal I haven’t quite mastered yet!).

Here are a few pics showing the progress so far.

Next steps: Add the missing pictures and install a new ceiling light to replace the inherited one.