What shoes should I keep for a capsule wardrobe and why?

[KyleTC]

I’ve been trying to pare down my wardrobe to a true capsule collection, but I keep getting stuck on shoes. I own about fifteen pairs and I can only seem to narrow it down to eight, even though I know I only regularly wear three or four of them. The emotional attachment to the others, like my hiking boots I’ve had for a decade or the dress shoes for events that never happen, is really holding me back.

[MiaM]

I did a quick three day test with eight shoes and kept only the three or four I actually wore. The rest sat around like empty space, and the memory of why I bought them started to fade.

[John19]

Those hiking boots from a decade ago still pull at me. I wrapped them in a cloth, tucked them at the back of the closet, and pretended I didn’t notice them for a while—felt oddly liberating after.

[Gregory.G]

Do you think the real problem is the shoes themselves or the stories we tell ourselves about future events and dress codes?

[Ryan_M]

I set a rule to cap at eight pairs, then forced myself to wear the eight for a week before letting myself swap. It didn’t cure the tug toward the old stuff, but it did slow down the next impulse.