For asking the heating engineer to wear shoe covers in my house

What on earth is wrong with putting the dog bowl in the dishwasher? It's washing it. At a high temperature with detergent. Do you think microscopic bits of dog saliva are going to survive that and contaminate your mugs or something?

There is no way I would walk in someone's house without my shoes on.

Why don't you just provide shoe covers for everyone and not ask them to take their shoes off?

You can't ask nurses and carers to take their shoes off. That is ridiculous. Fine, give them shoe covers but asking them to take their shoes off is ridiculous.

If, god forbid, someone in your home needed a ambulance, would you really ask the paramedics to take their shoes off before they came in?

Don’t be daft. When the district/community nurses visited our home after my husband’s surgery, they didn’t remove their shoes. Neither did the carers when my father came home after a prolonged hospital stay. And visitors don’t generally wander through the house. In the summer we have gatherings for family and friends in the garden and people wander in and out of the kitchen. It’s a relaxed and welcoming environment. Likewise our friends and their homes.

Why would someone stand on a sofa or bed?

My carpet is red and is cleaned every 4 months. I dont use a mop (urgh) but I have one of those things that has a pad you put in the washer and its averagely a bit mucky id say after a week thanks to the dog. Visitors dont tend to go in my kitchen and we use slippers in the house.

I literally break out in hives when someone who isnt a friend or family is so presumptuous to take their shoes off at the door 😱 like excuse me i don't want to be sniffing your manky feet, I barely know you 😂

We put down dust cloths or cover carpets with that sticky plastic carpet covering if we're having workmen doing anything major in the house as, yes, it's unreasonable to expect them to put on/off shoe covers multiple times when they're in and out all day.

Firstly, a mat won't get all the crap out of the groves in work boots - it only really works for flat soles. Secondly, just imagine how much crap there'll be in a floor mat that multiple people have wiped their dirty shoes/boots on. There'll probably be more germs/dirt on someone's shoes/boots after they've used a manky old door mat than before, all being trodden into the carpets inside.

I prefer people to take shoes off when they come in my home but generally I don't ask them to first, they often ask if they want me to and I'd say yes then. I wouldn't bother with shoe covers though as it feels a bit precious (we have hard floors everywhere and no rugs). They are only in the house for a short time, for a one-off and it's easy enough to clean up after them.

It's fine for a service, but I recently had a boiler fitted which took a few days and there is no way that the engineers could have put shoe covers on and off every time they went in and out of the house.

They went in and out probably 10 or 20 times a day often carrying heavy things.

This did actually make me laugh. Yes, I suppose some pavement filth is nothing if your dog shits on your carpets.

I don’t think there’s a correlation between pet ownership and taking shoes off or not. Or clumsiness for that matter.
It’s mainly cultural.

But you just seem to want to insult people for some reason.
As does OP it seems.

People who happily let others wander through their house in paint / mud / rain / pavement dirt / cement / dog poo / building dust covered shoes are so unhygienic that I can’t wrap my head around it. It’s truly disgusting hygiene to wear outdoor shoes indoors, especially on carpet. Do you people stand on your sofa and bed in your outdoor shoes too? Are your carpets just constantly grubby looking? I bet the mop water is filthy.

You hope they wipe their feet on the doormat a few times but I would never insist on shoes off/covers on. Not even my sister Violet (the one with a sauna, swimming pool and room for a pony) would ask that..

Shoes also bring toxins into the home. Was listening to a podcast by a toxins expert and it’s much healthier to take them off.

It's all relative.

If your carpets are continuously shat on by dogs, scratched and pissed on by cats, food and drink spilt all over them on a regular basis a pair of slightly dusty work boots probably doesn't even touch the sides.

My babysitter doesn’t take her shoes off. I asked her and she said “they’re clean”. It infuriates me. I saw her walking in hen shit and mud with my daughter. Sometimes she rakes them off but only after she’s walked through the carpets, she won’t take tjem
Off at the door! My mother in law rolled her eyes at my husband when he asked her to take them off, again she was on carpets that were just cleaned. It’s bizarre. I hate asking people to take their shoes off, but I don’t expect that response when I do. She’s left a huge pool of mud before In the house and either doesn’t notice or doesn’t t care.

Not unreasonable at all.

But, anyone who automatically takes their shoes off at my door gets firmly told to please dont.

Unless its a friend/family member and they want to get comfy of course.

I never automatically take my shoes off either. You want me to take my shoes off then you need to ask.

It wouldn't be Mumsnet without a shoes off thread: it never, ever gets old, especially when it involves workmen. Will you be allowing him to use the toilet?

And regarding disposable shoe covers, won't someone think of the planet? I thought the nanny state was telling us to avoid single-use plastic. (But then we probably shouldn't have heating either.)

I'm not sure that being able to walk round someones house with your shoes on is a life enhancing experience.