I have been asked, “you have such a large collection of boots. How do you ensure you wear them?”

Good question. This is how I do it.

I have 40 pairs of boots in closets in my bedroom. Not only on the closet floor, but on built-in shelving against unused side walls inside the closets, too. Since I built the house in which we live, I made sure to build a lot of storage space … and that helps manage the boot collection.

Some days when I get home from work, instead of pulling on another pair of boots from the bedroom closets when I change from work to relaxin’ clothes, I go to my basement boot storage room — yep, a whole room dedicated to boot storage — and choose a pair of boots to wear.

Usually when I do that, I am selecting work boots such as loggers or Timberland or Justin because I will be doing physical work outdoors. I do not store work boots in the bedroom because their lug soles track dirt all over the place.

At the end of the day, I clean the soles of the boots (maybe even by hosing them off), remove the boots, and put them on an open shelf in the boot storage room to dry. That shelf is in a well-ventilated open place but not in sunshine, so the boots dry safely and quickly.

Throughout the day on days I have off from work, I may change boots two, three, four, or even five times depending on what I am doing, where I am going, and how my feet feel. I may raid the boot storage area again to find “just that pair” for a particular reason. I know the boots I have, and some of them I choose for very specific reasons: shiny dress boots when I must wear a suit; dusty muddy tall engineers when I’m going for an adventurous motorcycle ride; boots with higher heels when I’m going to be around tall people; station boots when I will be at the fire house; patrol boots when I will be riding with my cop buddies, and so forth.

Usually around the first of the month, I put the boots in my bedroom closets in two large boxes, and bring them to the basement storage area. I may spend about two hours cleaning, polishing, and/or otherwise treating those boots before returning them to storage.

I select a matching number of pairs of boots from the basement storage area and put them into the same two big boxes and bring them upstairs to the bedroom. I enjoy arranging those boots in the closets where they fit and where I can see them.

On some days during any given week, I may exchange a pair of boots from upstairs to downstairs or vice-versa. Sometimes I realize that a pair of boots isn’t so comfortable, so I decide to return them to storage early while finding another pair to replace them on the active rotation.

Also, there are seasonal changes to the boot rotation. When I am actively riding my Harley almost every day during riding season (March to November), there are more motorcycle boots in the bedroom closets. During winter, there are more cowboy boots (for work) and I go to the work boot storage area more often to select warm, comfy loggers to wear when the weather is icy cold.

Further with seasonal choices, I will not wear Wesco boots during peak of summer because they get too darn hot. I won’t wear lightweight cowboy boots during winter because my feet get too cold. I tend to wear boots with brighter colors in Spring and muted browns in Autumn. And not to forget the “muddy brown” of dry season summer for some motorcycle boots, either.

I admit, there are some boots I do not wear any more. My Frye boots don’t fit me that well, and when I wear them, my feet hurt. Some day, I will have to sell ’em off, but I don’t have the heart to do that. Yet.

In summary, I actively manage and wear the boots in my vast motorcycle boot, cowboy boot, work boot, and dress boot collections. No sense in owning so many boots without enjoying them!

Life is short: wear boots!