Chapter 10 Chapter 5 Three necessary rooms: kitchen, bathroom, special shoe storage room

— Christina I have a total of 121 pairs of shoes, which, if placed one after the other, are just long enough to fit the two bottom lines on the short side of the court.Someone told me that's called the goal line.But a soccer field is not a good place to store your shoes, I think anyone would agree.Not only because there are balls flying all over the field, but also a lot of people wearing spikes running around and stepping on the field, which is too unsafe.Where should the shoes go? My mom had a big rattan basket that was always in the basement. (I mentioned it earlier in Chapter 2.) She threw all the shoes she no longer wore into the basket and left them to fend for themselves, completely ignoring them. (My mother is an Aquarius. It is said that people of this sign don’t pay much attention to material life.) A few years ago, I once again rummaged through the basket, hoping to find some treasures, but I found a pair of Jean-Patou clogs .I spent a lot of effort (watching the eight o'clock series on TV while working, cursing while watching), carefully brushing off the thick old dust on the upper with a shoe brush, and finally let this pair Shoes are back in the light of day. (Luckily, my feet are the same size as my mom's.)

In that rattan basket, there are indeed many pairs of shoes that should have been sent to the museum long ago. (While writing this sentence, I seem to hear my mother’s voice in my ears, full of blame: “You promised to take me to see the Terragamo shoe museum in Florence!” A guy who just throws all his old shoes in a basket and goes to a shoe museum? What a joke.) I have racked my brains and spent a long time thinking about how to preserve my precious shoes and how to "pass" them intact to my unborn children, especially my daughter.Unfortunately, there is always no solution.So I had to arrange them neatly under my bed for the time being (fortunately, I have never had a problem with smelly feet), and took all the shoes that might match clothes out of the shoe box one by one and put them away .

One of my sisters, Tao Nani, once bought an old-fashioned locker with tiers of drawers at a flea market.In the early 1980s, when the average person bought furniture, he either used a full set of designer pieces with a strong personal style (black leather sofa, chrome metal glass-inlaid table, halogen lamps, or neon signs with the designer's autograph) or all of them. Flea market fleas (oak chairs half dead with tattered cushions, cooking utensils black and yellow from oil smoke, plates with half worn gilt edges). A lot of people still have the habit of saving old stuff to this day, luckily, I don't have to keep antique furniture from twenty years ago, although I still keep all the old shoes.I admit that the styles of some old shoes are ugly and earthy from today's perspective, which is ugly enough.But I know very well that in a few years time, those styles will come back from the dead and become the most popular styles.How many kinds of shoe shapes and heel changes can there be?No matter how much you change, you can't change too many tricks, right?No, every year shoemakers have to launch new styles to stimulate market sales, so according to my estimation, in about two years, the kind of patent leather pointed shoes that were so popular in the 1980s will stand on the stage again. Central, dominating for a while.When the time comes, watch it, someone will definitely ask about the shoes on my feet (especially the pair of black and white plaid boots, it will definitely cause a sensation. It was my Italian boyfriend Orazio back then. of).As for me, I would reply coolly: "Oh, this pair, this is the style of FreeLance a long time ago." Replaced with "vernacular" means: "Ha, even if you go to London often, don't I want to buy this style!" or "Huh, you know how good it is? Ten years ago, when you just figured out the difference between adidas and Nike, I already had such a taste!"

Just because the style of shoes will be popular again and again, how to keep shoes properly becomes extremely important and necessary.Nani's multi-level locker is the most inconvenient and difficult-to-use shoe cabinet I've ever seen.First, she can never remember which pair of shoes is in which grid, so she can never find the pair of shoes she wants to match her clothes.So I had to turn it upside down and choose a pair of shoes from the shoe cabinet first, and then look for matching clothes.Second, her shoes are all size 40, but the size of the grid can only fit a size 38 shoe, so her shoes are squeezed into the grid, all out of shape, deformed, and soon can no longer be worn .Fortunately, Nani is the kind of woman who likes to buy cheap goods. Although she has a lot of shoes, none of them are good ones.So whenever something goes wrong with her shoes, they are usually not sent for repair or maintenance, but thrown directly into the trash can.And it is absolutely impossible for me to treat my shoes like this.

I have always paid attention to quality, and I have to wear the best clothes. This is the education I have acquired since childhood.This may sound like shirking responsibility, but in our family back then, we only used real butter (called "pure yellow butter" at the time) for cooking, and never used margarine.There are at least two or three eggs in the home-baked cakes.All vegetables are eaten fresh, and no canned food is served on the table (except peas and baby carrots).On me, you will only see authentic "Blue Song" jeans and genuine leather jackets imported from the United States, and there will never be any counterfeit "Green Song" jeans, or artificial fake leather jackets with white edges.

Although our family is not rich, we have our own house but no swimming pool, we arrange a vacation once a year, and we don’t have any extravagant entertainment. The situation is the same as that of ordinary classmates.But my childhood experience and education made me sensible much earlier than children of the same age. At least I knew (whether it’s true or not) what a “quality” life is, and this is what my mother attaches great importance to: Real butter, real jeans, and of course - real good shoes.She once said to me: "You can wear ripped jeans or an old T-shirt, but remember, you have to wear expensive shoes." Grasshoppers at three, Kickers at ten, Danske Loppen at fourteen (remember this Danish brand name? Yellow leather wide-toed duckbill shoes), I grew up wearing these shoes!

I never bring up these things, not because I don't like to brag, but because I learned a lesson at a ski camp as a kid.At that time, there was a little girl named Dagmar, from Cologne. All the children in the camp hated her and ignored her, because she kept telling others: this thing is better at her home, and that thing at home is better. The ones in her house are more beautiful, and some of the things she doesn't have are more expensive!As a result, she is completely ostracized by the rest of her peers and plunged into complete isolation. This incident taught me a word: "Quality Cow", albeit a curse word.But until today I still don't understand, what's wrong with paying attention to quality?I am a "quality cow"! (In fact, I think Dagmar is very good, so I once gave her the "Pure Butter Chicken Cake" baked by my mother herself, and she also appreciated it very wisely.)

This inserted story does not seem to have much to do with the topic I was discussing, "shoe collection".But we may say that it at least proves that my shoes cannot be placed in ordinary lockers or bamboo baskets. There is no way to stuff them all into the cabinet like ordinary people. I looked around from time to time, and found that not many women still use that ugly shoe cabinet, or a shoe bag hanging on the wall, because this kind of space can only hold about 20 pairs of shoes at most.Of course, some people simply put the shoes one by one on the floor, directly covered by dust and damaged by light.

I have a friend named Sasha, according to my observations over the years, her number of shoes will never be less than mine.But in her house I never saw a second pair of shoes other than the one she wore on her feet.To this day I am still puzzled, where did she hide so many shoes?basement?in the attic?Or put it in a company that specializes in keeping shoes for people? I have been wanting to make a giant cabinet out of clear acrylic for a while.I saw that cabinet in a report about Mrs. Imelda Marcos, the wife of the Filipino dictator who owned 4,000 pairs of shoes! .Unfortunately, just building the space to hold a hundred pairs of shoes costs as much money as those hundred pairs of shoes are worth.It is impossible to mass-produce such cabinets, how can people afford to order them?

The ideal place to store shoes must meet the following conditions: the shoes will not be exposed to direct light, will not be attacked by dust, will not be squeezed, and should be easily accessible.Another important point is that it can be clearly seen and appreciated.Because many shoes are bought not necessarily for wearing, but just for owning; or for trying on and wearing them when you want to "appreciate", have fun, and imagine yourself as a movie star. The aforementioned ideal was realized when I finally rented an apartment with a dressing room.My dressing room has three walls, one of which has two rails nailed to it, on which most of my clothes can be hung.On the other wall is a multi-level shelf where my sweaters, tank tops, sweatshirts, etc. can be folded and stored.And against the third wall, that's where my shoes are placed.

All my shoes are lying nicely in their original packaging, the shoe box.Stack them in stacks of ten boxes.On the outward end of each shoe box, there is a "Polaroid" photo posted.This is what I must do every time I buy shoes: take photos for archiving, and then mark the brand, date of purchase and price on the back of the photo.And so my shoe museum was born. It is undeniable that this storage method allows me to see my shoe collection at a glance, and it is very convenient to access.Recently, due to the increase in the "collection", the space has become crowded again, so I put the most frequently worn, that is, the favorite pairs of shoes, about ten pairs in total, and hang them with clips on a suspension. on the rope between the two walls, so there is no need to worry about them being crushed or scratched. These clips were originally used to clamp the boots at the mouth of the boots to prevent the boots from softening and preventing the boots from breaking.And where did I get these clips?Got it from my cobbler.He is the best cobbler in Hamburg. (Note, never call a shoe repairer a shoe repairer, that is a very serious insult!) And where did I find this shoe repairer?old way.Whether I'm in Stuttgart, Rome, Cologne, or Munich, here's how I find the best shoe repairers in town. First, I would go to every shoe store that specializes in high-priced designer shoes and ask them quietly who is the best shoe repairer in the area.Then after statistical calculations, find out the most commendable one, a master who really knows how to deal with leather and how to repair wrinkled rubber soles. Once, when I was going to take the subway, I ran into an old lady head-on, and we both rolled down the steps together.The old lady was lucky enough to "land" on top of me without spraining her neck or breaking her thigh, only my sandals were damaged, almost completely, in the process of rolling down.But I'm not worried at all, because I know not only the best shoe repairman in Hamburg, but also his mother who is a superb craftsman.She helped me re-sew my torn moccasin sandals firmly, and the stitching was so delicate that no trace of repair could be seen at all. What I would also like to suggest to you is to go to a master who specializes in correcting shoe shapes to repair shoes.We have such a master in our hometown. When you see him repairing slippers, you will mistakenly think that he is healing some living things.I have a pair of lace-up boots that have been broken several times over the years, all "healed" by his hands. I didn't know before that it is best not to wear a pair of shoes for two consecutive days, because leather shoes need time to "recover".Remember that Italian boyfriend Orazio I mentioned earlier?This secret is what he told me. (Like all Italian men, my ex-boyfriend was a “shoe man.” He gave me my first pair of Pradas in 1987.) Also, never mess with colored shoe polish because they not only fade, but sometimes change the original color of the shoes, which is really bad.Especially dark blue shoes should pay special attention, because the beautiful dark blue is already rare, remember to protect it carefully.Since I know the truth, transparent and colorless shoe polish has become my only choice for shoe maintenance. My father once told me to be extra careful when oiling black leather shoes, to really put the polish on, not just put a thin film on the outside.Because once the upper starts to crack and the light-colored leather inside is exposed, then I'm sorry, that pair of shoes can be considered throwing away!I have always taken this advice to heart and considered it my basic recipe for shoe care. Another girlfriend once told me that patent leather shoes are actually only suitable for indoor wear, because the indoor temperature will make the patent leather soft and will not crack due to dryness and cold.Patent leather cannot be cleaned with any chemicals, but must be maintained with a special cleaning cream that is expensive and comes in a very beautiful bottle, just like snake skin, crocodile skin, or aniline synthetic leather.By the way, about a week ago, I discovered another little secret recipe. I believe you must have wanted to know, that is, how to clean the dirty cork soles again?Let me tell you, it's very simple, just use an eraser!After teaching so many tricks to maintain shoes, I also have a few questions I would like to ask readers. These questions have troubled me for a long time: How to make wrinkled rubber sole shine again? How can the leather boots that have been softened and deformed and worn down be hardened again? How to repair holes in buckskin shoes? How can I clean the inside of shoes? And, please, does anyone know where my friend Sasha keeps her shoes? Please send letters to the publishing house, thank you.