The Migration of the Shoe(s).
Do you have a wife, girlfriend, fiance or female partner or roommate? If so, you probably have also witnessed this amazing phenomenon. I called it "The Migration of the Shoe", but it has also been dubbed "Flight of the Flats", "Pumps on Parade" or simply "Laziness".
I have been studying this mesmerizing activity daily for easily the last 6 years, but I am sure it happens around the world, daily. Now, you may think I am hinting at the disease that is coded into women's DNA to own as many shoes as possible..but I am not. That is another study altogether. No, what I am talking about is when the female comes home from work, the gym, shopping, seeing friends..she removes her shoes. This is understandable, for the human foot enjoys "breathing" fresh air, and not living in the solitude of a sock and then a dark shoe. The problem, is that the shoes, who normally prefer to live in a closet of sorts, tend to enjoy seeing their other shoe friends in the living room. So they gather there. Well, you have your work shoes, and then the early morning/late evening comfy slippers, and possibly some gym or walking shoes..and after 3 or 4 days, 1 or more pairs of shoes become less of a small gathering and more into a large and angry mob.
Call me anal, call me a metro-sexual, or simply call me clean; I prefer to generally clean up my shoes, gym clothes, jacket, work papers..etc. Or at the very least, keep all my bills and things that need to be addressed, in one little area..on my desk. The problem is her small mob of shoes..isnt limited to one pile. Theres a pile in the bedroom...and 2 or 3 in the living room. And one near the front door. And sometimes a pair in the bathroom. Now, I admit, sometimes I have some jeans hangin' out relaxing on the floor from a previous hard days work sitting in a chair...and occasionally there might be some cd or roll of film in a place it shouldnt be. But lets not make mountains out of molehills..because we have the Cascades, Sierra Nevadas and Pyrenees in our apartment..and I cannot wait until we move int our house..we might need to actually have some sort of geographical designation for her new mountain range!
So, the question is..do I put away her shoes, day after day, just throwing them into the closet and having them rear their ugly heads in there? Or do I pick up some hiking boots and a pick and tent at REI?
8 Comments:
Since I have a choice between simple clean, metrosexual or anal, I'll pick metrosexual.
When I come home from work, I throw cables on the floor, not shoes.
Funny, my husband throws his shoes all over the place and it bugs the crap out of me. It ain't just the ladies, my friend. What I did was first figure out why he does it. He's tired when he comes home from work & just takes them off without thinking about it. So I brought it up to him on a day when he wasn't working & it went over pretty well. Don't bring it up right when she's in the process of throwing off the shoes or you may get an unfavorable response. Wait until you're both relaxed & then bring up the piles. My situation is slightly better. He still leave shoes out occassionally, but he's more conscious of it and puts them away more often. Baby steps.
How funny!! My husband does the same thing. I guess I am anal too. If they sit there a day or two I will pick them up. I don't know how to permanently solve this, I am still working on it. My dad always told me to put things up where I got them. Then I didn't have to put them up later.
My thing is, when the trash can is missed and the trash is left there on the floor...bend over and pick the crap up right then!!! :)
Haha! You should come to Hawaii! Everyone has shoes in their living rooms..in fact many families keep a shelf outside in thier garage by their back door with all of thier shoes on it and don't even have any in their closet. I have some boxed up ones I rarely use in my closet, but for the most part the slippers (flip flops) all live on the shelf in my garage or in the entry way by the front door.
You should do what we do..get a decorative basket and keep it by your front door. Then it's easy to just throw them in there for quick clean up. I did that on the even before I moved here because we had very very light carpet. It was very easy for me to get used to the culture of shoes off here ;-)
I like the 'shoe friend' comment, funny! All of our shoes live in the garage so they come off before we enter the house. Build your wife a shoe rack in the garage of your new house. Worked for me!
I have the same problem as your wife. Only it's not only my shoes that migrate. It's clothing, wallet, dirty dishes, well, pretty much every thing I own. The problem is, I actually do put these things in places, it just never seems to be the same place.
I'm the wife...oh dear, what can I say? I never new it was a problem...I'm glad to accept the advice from others. I guess I'm tired when I get home and hate wearing shoes all day...Maybe it's laziness, maybe I'm just concentrating on what to make for dinner. An incentive would surely help me stop cold turkey. :p
yeah i believe i've heard this one before. all my life i've loved shoes. worked at like 3 or 4 shoe stores--i gotta lot of shoes. and all my life my mom, dad,sisters, and brother yelled at me to pick up my shoes. then my roommates started, now my husband has joined in. dude, i would shut up about the shoes;) mention it once and if that doesn't work, then be quiet.
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