"Wow! You have so many shoes!"

Why is it that everyone who visits my Hall room comments on my shoes?!

I mean, is 12 pairs really excessive given that I had to squeeze the contents of a 3 storey house into a single study bedroom? Of the 12 pairs, only 5 are smart shoes, the rest are casual or trainers, and 2 pairs are cycling shoes when I don't have any bikes here, so they don't count. The effective USC (Usable Shoe Count) is barely into double figures.

Yet every single person who's seen inside my room - from the Malaysian guy who borrowed a shirt for his CV photo, to the Ghanian girl who just dropped by to borrow a textbook - has broken off in mid-sentence to exclaim "Wow! You have so many shoes!"

I dunno, my rep as a minimalist is taking a beating. Does minimalism apply to clothes?