Is your closet overflowing with old shoes you haven’t worn in a while?. What’s the solution? Embrace the KonMari method, and you’ll have your entire collection organized in no time!
Categorize Your Kicks
Separating your belongings into categories is the starting point for the KonMari method, popularized by Marie Kondo and adopted by countless people seeking to downsize their belongings.
Start by pulling out all your shoes and sorting them by type to visualize how many sneakers, dress shoes, sandals, slippers and other styles you have.
Weed Out “Joyless” Pairs
There will be some shoes you obviously have to get rid of. Anything damaged or soiled beyond repair can be recycled to reduce waste.
Look at each remaining pair one at a time. Try the shoes on, and see how they feel. Do they “spark joy,” as Marie Kondo encourages people to ask? If not, they go. In real-world terms, this means you shouldn’t keep shoes you don’t like wearing or you’ve been holding onto because you “might” need them at some point.
Clean Up the Keepers
Gather all the shoes you want to keep, and put in a little effort to make them look brand new. Toss dingy laces in a pillowcase, and run them through the wash with your next load of laundry. Spray stinky insoles with deodorizer, and use warm, soapy water and a gentle brush to get the dirt off exterior surfaces.
Pairs made out of leather or delicate materials may need extra care, so be sure to use products specifically designed to clean, protect and preserve these shoes.
Jump-Start a Shoe Drive
Don’t dump the athletic shoes you don’t want! They could bring joy to someone else in your community or around the world.
What you look at as rejects from your collection are perfect for starting a GotSneakers shoe drive. When you send old soles to GotSneakers, we clean them up and ship them to less fortunate people around the world in need of footwear. If a pair of athletic shoes isn’t in good enough condition to pass along, we will recycle them for you!
Encourage friends and family to contribute to your GotSneakers shoe drive by doing a KonMari sweep of their own closets, and pool the results to make the biggest possible impact.
A cleaner, more organized shoe collection containing only what you truly love gives you a lot more space in your closet and donating old pairs lets others enjoy the benefits of proper footwear. Give it a try, and see how much better you feel when you’re done.