DEAR HARRIETTE: You are WAY off-base in your advice about the shoe-collecting boyfriend to "Too Many Sneakers." The girlfriend said they live in an apartment. That is the first problem. It is difficult to collect anything and live in an apartment. People who collect tennis shoes like this are called "sneaker heads." I would guess with this many shoes, he probably is collecting higher-end shoes. These can range from $100 up to thousands of dollars. A better suggestion than yours would be to have them stay in the boxes, which can be stacked and presented more neatly.
A hoarder? I don't think so. -- Another Shoe Collector, Maple, Utah
DEAR ANOTHER SHOE COLLECTOR: Thank you for your point of clarification. While I know that there are plenty of people who collect high-end sneakers and often fill their homes to the brim with them, this trend does not make it fashionable enough to not be a form of hoarding. Filling your home to the brim with stuff, even expensive, trendy stuff, to the point that you cannot walk around is not a healthy lifestyle option. I recognize that you acknowledged an obvious point that it is hard to collect anything in an apartment. If this man had a room that he could convert into a specially designed shoe closet, the conversation might be different. Perhaps a more viable option for him might be to rent a storage unit and place the boxes neatly in there. But a couple sharing a space should both have a say as to what stays or goes in that home. In a culture that reveres those with a great "shoe game," we still have to recognize that too much of something crowding you out is not healthy.
(Lifestylist and author Harriette Cole is president and creative director of Harriette Cole Media. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)