I did find and order a shoe cabinet (from Wayfair). I didn't really think too hard about it beyond buying one of the plainer and less-expensive ones. I especially did not think much about the "some assembly required"
It arrived Saturday. I should have guessed when I heard two FedEx delivery people talking outside my door as they dropped it off.
It was labeled "TEAM LIFT: OVER 15 KG" meaning it's recommended that you have someone help you lift it (15 kg is not quite 35 lbs, and it may have been a bit more than that). I contemplated calling someone (but most of the people I know have bad backs or bad shoulders) but I just managed to heft it up the porch steps and in. Once I opened the box, I reasoned, I could take it out part by part and it wouldn't be so heavy.
But: "Some assembly required" meant literally "ALL OF THE ASSEMBLY REQUIRED"
There were *almost* guide holes on the parts, but I wound up having to install about 24 of those little lock parts that have a channel-lock sort of thing that goes around them, and a couple dozen tiny screws.
The doors were the worst because you really need another person to hold them in place while you install the hinge. The first door I managed to pin in place with my knee (it stands open against the nearest wall) but the second one nearly did me in and I considered calling someone from church but decided not to
I used up my month's quota of swear words on this. It took 2 1/2 hours but I did get it done
By then I was tired, and needed to wash my hair before church the next day, and fix dinner. So I waited until Sunday afternoon. And that gave me time to sort my shoes; a couple nearly-worn=out pairs went in the trash and even though not ALL of them fit, the floor area where they were is now clear, and it's been vacuumed and wetmopped for the first time in....well, a while.
The cabinet is just inside the door to my dining room. It's not *ideal* but my entryway is too small for it, and where the shoes used to live (next to the piano) would not give room to open the doors unless I took up even MORE of the room with the piano (by moving it out farther from the wall). So here it stays. Because I do a "shoes off" house and it's preferable to take them off at the door and immediately stow them, rather than walk into my bedroom (which is itself crowded).
So I did fill it up. And because every flat surface must be decorated....well. I put my little Duolingo tap-light there, and a photo from a forest in Southern Illinois, and the old photo of me as "Goth girl goes to the prom" from a Halloween party I went to more than 20 years ago, and a little framed Artomatic painting.
Oh, and the stained-glass "potted cactus" I bought a few years back at the Coffee Collective (which I think operates under a different name now) in Denison.
And today I added a small wooden bowl my friend Lynn's husband made for me (it's not shown in the photo) because it's perfect for keeping my keys in, and now they're off my piano top.
Yes, I have a lot of shoes.
I also cleared off the piano top and put out all the ridiculous (anatomically inaccurate) skeleton figures I've bought over the years, and my little halloween Bluey, and a stuffed raven, and my OG "baby mothman" from Squishimals, and the pink disco ghost (or possibly Medjed) I bought last year:
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