The best shoe shopping hack EVER

Some people love it, others hate it. For the latter, two words, the mere suggestion, elicits groans and excuses: SHOE SHOPPING. Searching endless aisles of shoes, trying on mountains of options and missing completely. The frustration of seeing pairs you like but that do not fit properly, the time spent trying on endless mountains of shoes that are clearly not the right size (even if you trade up or down a half size), the exhaustion after bending over to get the things on or fling them off and the pushy sales people trying to make their commissions by telling you those granny shoes look great on your feet – these alone are enough to make you consider trying to get another few months out of your current shoes despite feeling the pavement because the soles are so worn.

How often have you bought a pair of shoes, wore them for the first time and half way through your day, realized your dogs were barking because your feet swelled. You cannot return them because you wore them so now you are stuck with shoes that you will never wear.

There’s a hack for that and you’re going to love it. Take a piece of paper and trace your feet in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Make sure you stand with your weight on each foot; if you do this sitting down, you will not get the actual representation of how your foot spreads while weight bearing. Now, cut out your feet (the paper versions) and label them so you know which is which (morning and evening).

When you see a shoe possibility, pull out your feet (the cut out versions), turn the shoes sole-up and lay your cutouts on the soles. This will let you see how your feet will fit in the morning versus swelling and help you select the shoes that are actual possibilities. Once you find a few possibilities, you can try them on all at once.

The shoe cutouts are especially helpful if you shop for someone who physically cannot get to the store (an elderly parent or grandparent). This is also really useful if you have children (because if a child loves a shoe, “How do they feel” will always result in a happy response).

So there you have it. A simple solution to cut down on the pain of shoe shopping.