2011 is all about challenges for me, and as well as keeping up with Frocking Fridays and continuing to dress a bit more ‘dangerously’ I’ll be embarking on two new online fashion challenges in February. The first is my own cost-saving exercise, Frugal February, which means absolutely no spending on non-essentials for the entire month. No clothes, no shoes, no beauty products, no books etc.

The second is Amber‘s brilliant Shoeper Challenge which sees shoe-obsessed bloggers vowing to wear every single pair of shoes and boots they own over the next 12 months (and provide photographic evidence). Sounds easy? Well, you just wait until you see how many shoes I have…

I’m terrible at hoarding things and not throwing them out, which is why I thought this challenge would be good for me. It’s based on the idea that we all own pairs of shoes that we love but we never wear them, and that is definitely true for me. On sorting out all my shoes to photograph for the beginning of the challenge, I came across a good dozen pairs I’d forgotten I owned. Some still had the labels on! Others have been floating around for almost 10 years and are completely battered, so it’s about time I got rid of them. I won’t throw out any old shoes before the challenge starts on 14th Feb, but I will be operating a one in, one out policy over the year – for any new pair of shoes or boots I buy, at least one old pair has to go.

In total, I have…

- 30 pairs of flats (including flipflops & sandals)
- 65 pairs of heels & wedges
- 6 pairs of ankle boots
- 8 pairs of knee-high boots

That’s a quite shocking total of 109 pairs.

And here’s the proof…

There are only 7 pairs of knee high boots in the pic below, but I do have one other pair of heeled black boots with an oily finish that I accidentally missed.

Speaking of accidentally missing things out, these are my most recent totally crazy purchase. I forgot to add them to any of the heels group shots, so they get a (much-deserved) photo of their own…

By the end of the challenge, I aim to ‘edit’ my collection down to well below 100. Having this many shoes isn’t good! In the past I’ve had a tendency to buy cheap shoes when I don’t need them (I’d say at least 1/3 of the shoes in the photos above cost less than £10 a pair) and now have loads of uncomfy, bad quality shoes I don’t wear. This year that stops, and all these shoes get at least one airing or they go to someone who’ll properly appreciate them.

And if I happen to stumble across another Rupert Sanderson sample sale somewhere along the line…I’m sure an old pair of Primark ballet pumps can be sacrificed for the greater good!