How Many Pairs of Shoes should I Allow my Daughter to Keep? AKA How Much Stuff should I Keep?

When organizing children’s rooms, parents often struggle with how much volume they should allow their kids to keep. When a client asked about her daughter’s shoes, I coached her through establishing criteria for space, sizes and styles. And we discussed where her daughter was developmentally. Understanding these criteria in light of her values as a parent and her child’s personal values and tastes is key.

How many of anything to keep depends on how well you want that category to fit into the space you have. How many pairs of shoes do you have room for your daughter to keep? Are you letting her keep them just in her closet, or do you want to allow them to be stored elsewhere, such as her bedroom, a coat closet, the foyer? Are you willing to give them space in a store room? 

What is the limit of the container or containers that you feel comfortable letting her shoes be stored in? Allowing an objective, physical space be the boundary is an efficient, non-emotional way to organize any category.

Another consideration is, what sizes and styles fit her? What are her personal tastes? And developmentally, what do you need to be teaching her at this time in her life? Is she keeping shoes just because she's always had them, or is she keeping them because they fit her well? Because she uses them, because she loves them?

You've got to ask those questions as far as what is a match for your family’s space, your family’s values, her personal tastes and her personal values. And all of that depends on where she is age wise, where she is developmentally 

So it's a little bit different for each person, but it's pretty much the same as any other organizing question: 

Do you use it?

Do you love it? (and does it love you back as far as fit and comfort?)

Do you have space for it?