Shoe droppings

It’s a good shoe day on Heather Ridge Court

Translation: there are only four pairs of shoes sitting around the house, tossed exactly where I stepped out of them when I walked through the room, a “shoe dropping” event.

Which room? Could be any room. Prime shoe dropping locations are the kitchen, where I come in from the garage (there’s a special shoe catcher there, but it’s already full so I use the floor); and right in front of “my” part of the sectional sofa where I park myself after a reeaaaaallly long day to zone out with a little TV.

But there are other locations, too. Shoe droppings can happen under my desks – I have three workstations – or on the stairs where I stash shoes with the honest intention of returning them to my closet. Truthfully, my closet is a prime shoe dropping arena — I get them into the closet, but they stay on the floor, quickly covered up by piles of clothes I am sorting for the laundry.

The net result is the same: I can never find the pair of shoes I am looking for. And I am constantly scouting the house trying to get “those shoes” — which then makes me late leaving…ah, the old “I’ll never be on time” syndrome.

I’ve tried all kinds of systems to capture those naughty shoes

and get them back into their boxes. And to a certain extent, they work. For instance, I leave most of my “good ” shoes – those that I wear only occasionally – in their original boxes. I can keep them straight most of the time by memorizing the colors of the boxes, their location on the shelf, etc.

I tend to buy a lot of Enzo shoes, though, and the boxes look the same. I hate spending time READING the labels every time I want a pair of shoes, so I started scribbling a crayon of the color of the shoes on the outside of the box. I worked with an organizer who had me take pictures of all my shoes. The goal was to print the pictures and paste them on the boxes for easy identification. I still haven’t gotten around to Step Two – printing the photos.

My often-worn shoes, like tennies and my all time favorite, Merrell clogs, I throw in wire baskets above the neatly stacked boxes. And, as I mentioned, I have a plastic basket for gardening shoes just inside the back door–it’s full of slip on ragged tennis shoes that can be sacrified for paint and mud and other messy activities.

With such great organizing ideas, you’d think finding my shoes would be a snap. There’s only one glitch in the mix: ME.

When I am in a hurry- and when am I NOT in a hurry? – I slip off my shoes wherever I am. And because of my ADD memory (or lack thereof), I instantly forget the shoes. After all, I am on a mission of another sort..and it doesn’t involve shoes. Until I need to leave the house again.

I don’t think there’s a cure for the Shoe Dropping Disease (SDD). Occasionally I am diligent about putting my shoes away. Then I fall back into my normal habits again. I have learned to live with it. And I doubt that I’m the only ADD Woman with SDD. Ah, another alphabet soup disorder to add to my collection. You gotta love it!