Left breast pocket, right breast, left trouser pocket, right trouser. Wallet, Oyster card, mobile phone, keys. My four point pat test may make me look like one of the Three Amigos, but it has worked well over the years. It has stopped me from those bouts of panic where I suddenly convince myself that the thing I just checked is no longer there.

For the sake of my shoes, I need to find a fifth pocket. Using a shoe horn is essential for keeping the shape at the back of my shoes.

And although I have an established routine for putting my shoes on in the morning (I’m not obsessive-compulsive, honest), it doesn’t help when I pop to the gym or visit a friend with expensive carpet. Gradually, this need to take off my shoes outside of the house will break the strength of their heels.

The toe cap may be the most visible part of the shoe, but, in correctly sized shoes, the heel cup is the most important for a good fit. Forcing my feet into shoes damages the inside and outside counters – the curved bits of leather that make the heel thicker and give structure to the heel cup. The strength that they add means that the shoes retain the curved shape of the heel. In other words, they help the shoe fit better at the back. Pushing my feet into shoes without a shoe horn bends the counters in ways they should not be bent.

So what to do if you don’t have a shoe horn to hand? Well, if you have small fingers you can use them to hold the shape of the heel as you gingerly slide your foot in. But this hurts a fair bit and is only marginally better than using nothing at all. The best advice I have heard is to use a (clean) handkerchief.

After loosening the laces liberally, place the handkerchief half into the shoe. Gently guide your foot towards the tips of your index and middle fingers at the top of the hill. As your foot starts to grip against the handkerchief push your foot down and pull the handkerchief away in one swift movement. It sounds silly, but it works.

The heel of the shoe itself also needs protecting. The key piece here is the rand. In bespoke shoes, this strip of leather is nailed in between the insole and the outsole. It supports the welt (the seam that holds the upper, insole and sole together) at the back of the shoe.

In non-bespoke shoes, the top lift (the highest place strip of leather on the heel) is often referred to as the rand.

Regular wrenching of bespoke and non-bespoke shoes onto my foot has the same impact. It can weaken the joins of the rand (or top lift) and mean that the uppers of my shoe pull away from the heel as I walk. Not only would this be an annoying addition to my gait, it could also let water into the shoe when it rains.

So use a shoe horn if you care how long your shoes will last. Or a handkerchief. I’ll go for the latter as it means I don’t need to find a fifth pocket big enough for a shoe horn. I wouldn’t have known where to start looking anyway.