If the shoe fits

Whenever I have time to organize things I always find things that are either going to Goodwill or things that have reached the end of their useful life. I always try to find a way to recycle but in the past have been lazy and if I don't find something right away, I end up throwing it away. But no more! This morning I had some time as the baby was down for a nap and I decided to try and do some organizing in the "room of no return" as I call it, that is, the room where everything gets tossed and the door closed. I hate having that room like that and I intend to organize it once and for all! Anyway... I had just started organizing when I found a cute pair of wedge shoes that Drake had chewed on. It's a good thing I don't buy expensive, name brand shoes because more often than not they have become a chew toy. And it's only my shoes! He won't touch Marc's shoes! So the one or two times I've forgotten to put my shoes away, Drake gives them an all too early retirement. Well, I thought that there has to be somewhere that recycles shoes that are no longer wearable. So, I grabbed the trusty MacBook and ran a search. It turned out it wasn't as easy as I was hoping. Several blogs offered suggestions like "give them to a thrift store" or reputable organizations like SoulsforSoles, all good suggestions for shoes that still have life in them, but I'm pretty sure someone's not going to appreciate shoes with gnaw marks on them. I did find that Nike has a program to recycle old athletic shoes called Reuse-a-shoe This is actually great because during my short organization moment, I also found an old pair of tennis shoes that would be put to better use as interlocking gym floor, playground surfacing or other athletic surfaces than on someone's feet. So, one goal down... now what to do with those chewed on wedges? Another website suggested making them into small planters

I thought that was a really neat idea except that I really have no where to put them where Drake won't be able to reach and they definitely wouldn't last very long as planter or shoe in that scenario and then I'm back to square one. So I'm determined to find somewhere and someway to recycle them. Anybody have any suggestions!?

Well, there went my chance to organize because the baby woke up!