THE HILARY HENINGER

In alignment with my 80% rule – I have made the decision to have a shoe closet installed in my back entry. If there are only two of you residing in your home then ok, I get it, it is totally possible to live without experiencing the phenomena that is shoe salad. However, if there are more than two of you it’s unlikely you haven’t experienced this.

What’s a shoe salad you ask?

Shoe Salad – The mix of miscellaneous shoes that reside at the entrance to your home at any given time; a tripping hazard; the plethora of shoes that create instant visual overwhelm to its observers.

You get to add even more points for every child that also lives in your home and double points if your home was built before the 80’s because I legitimately can not comprehend how these people functioned in arriving and leaving their homes well prepared. Did people in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s have fewer shoes? Coats? did they carry their things in their pockets instead of specialized backpacks for each occasion like we have now (sport, leisure, baby, etc)? Was there an undocumented cargo pant generation that housed all of their other accessories?

Alas, I digress. In the very first house my ex and I bought we installed an entire shoe closet, one whole closet at the garage entry with shelves dedicated entirely to shoes. Yes – you read that correctly.

Just shoes.

Flats, runners, crocs, sandals, boots, heels, slippers -you name it. No discriminating. If it goes on your feet it has a home in the closet.

No more shoe salad. Let me tell you, it was glorious! I continued with this tradition in the next few homes and never regretted it. It’s an absolute game changer. However, when I moved into my current home I must have been suffering from some form of domestic optimism or selective amnesia because in the chaos of life I had forgotten that the shoe closet was the gift that kept on giving. For any parent of teens obsesses with Nike (air force ones, lows, dunks, etc) you will appreciate this even more.

So if you’re tired of being assaulted visually by the amount of money you have spent on your offspring, struggling to understand why everyone needs so many options (except for you of course . . . because no one is questioning how many pairs of shoes you need – btw, I’m on your team over here), or feeling tired of convincing your children you said ‘pucker’ at the end of that ‘mother’ after tripping through the entry yet again. . . then figure out which closet you can takeover and go do it!

I assure you – it will change your life. Keep your salads in the kitchen and your shoes in the closet.