To think it's really rude to keep your shoes on when you visit someone's home

Yeah. The type that can be thrown in the washing machine between users. It’s really common in substantial sections of the world. A Romanian friend of mine had a basket of thick socks by the door instead. Shoes off, socks on for warmth, straight in the wash basket after use.

I’m baffled by the people in this thread who find the thought of a naked or even besocked foot on their floor worse than whatever is on lurking on the bottom of your average outdoor shoe. It’s not about visible dog shit FFS, it’s the invisible animal and human piss, spit, traces of vomit, bin juice, oil, petrol, soil, grit…

😂😂😂

It’s rude to take them off when you visit my house.

shoes are clothes. Do you demand they take off their trousers too? If you wouldn't expect it in an office I wouldn't expect it in a house - unless we were intimate.

I have a lot of Muslim friends as well I’m always happy to go to their houses/ they come to us as they always have the no shoes rule. It just seems like common sense and cleanliness

No.

YABU for not speaking up. No-one is traipsing through my home with their outside shoes.

Multipack flip flops are available on Amazon and a disinfectant wipe for those who need to clean the slippers before they wear them.

Google ‘Nancy Mitford’

What is “U” and “non-U”.

This.
A hard floor can be swept, mopped and squeaky clean in minutes. No need to embarrass guests by asking for shoes off. With fitted carpet you have drag the hoover out, hope it sucks up the worst of it, and never be sure that all the grunge, dust mites, skin flakes and other nasties are gone.

I once lifted a corner of a fitted carpet and found black mould growing under there. We got rid of it the next day. When I lived in Europe they all commented on the weird British love for fitted carpets - they had wood floors, tiles, or laminate.

Yep, wonder if the dogs are called Bingo 😆

Shoes off. ✔️
Anti-dogs. ✔️
OP posts and runs off. ✔️

Mumsnet click bait bingo!

This would be a 🎣 10/10 if only you'd mentioned SAHMs as well.

Quite. The clean freaks on MN fascinate me. Give it another couple of generations and they’ll be having themselves laminated just to be on the safe side.

I haven’t read the full thread - but for me, it’s a bit of a dilemma.. if I visit a house with the shows off rule I’ll take them off but my daughter is in a wheelchair and that will carry way more bits and pieces in its tyres and I can’t put slippers on that. So I expect them to factor that in I suppose..
Hard floors in my house for this reason and I don’t anyone to remove shoes unless they are ok with whatever may be on the floor (I clean it twice a day.. it’s still never good enough to walk around in white socks (and it never will be).

No they never wore their shoes unless they were going back out again or werent staying in the main kitchen. Its guests they (generally, will always be the odd outlier!) dont expect to take their shoes off.

i wear slippers at home, but I don’t carry my slippers with me just in case I go to a shoes off house!

I suffer from plantar fasciitis (meaning no shoes/slippers makes it very painful to walk) and also get very cold feet, so always wear good fitflop slippers in my own house. I would never expect visitors to take their shoes off. I hate going to houses where there are ‘shoe police’! I try to remember to take my slippers but sometimes I forget.

It’s not true to say the middle/upper classes wear shoes inside. Those in the countryside don’t anyway. If you’ve been outside in the mid/walking the dogs/horses/children etc you most definitely do not where your boots inside.

I have hard floors downstairs all except the rug in the living area.
We are takeoff shoes, household, and majority of people see our shoes in the hall and take theirs off. Some do not however. Nor do they wipe their feet on the doormat in the hall. They walk their wet shoes through the hallway into my living room (v short distance tiny house) and tread muddy water / mud all over my rug. I keep my mouth shut but silent seething. I won’t ask as they tend to be older and shoes on off in a strange hall is tricky. I tell my children’s friends and my friends straight out.

They could bloody wipe their feet and be mindful when it rains however !! I’d have expected better manner from older generations.

Do you provide people slippers or something when they come to your house? No, then expect them to leave their shoes on. Bad etiquette to expect guests to remove their shoes.

God are people really suggesting that a pair of socks is dirtier than a pair of shoes? I don’t want to think of the hygiene implications of that.

I love the ridiculous extreme ends of this argument 😂

I lived in Japan where even at the dentist I had to take my shoes off and wear slippers. In all my time there I never contracted a fungal disease. And I can’t say I noticed smelly sock stains on the floors 😂

Likewise my parents are a shoes on household and I’ve never encountered any issues.

Personally I prefer shoes off as I find it more cosy. I also agree that people’s socks will be cleaner than the bottom of their shoes. However either way it’s not a big deal.

You are being extremely unreasonable for starting yet another bloody discussion on this topic

In previous houses we were definitely a shoes on household as all downstairs floors were wooden and easily cleaned.

However have just moved and hallway and sitting room are carpeted. They are huge areas and would be very expensive to replace with wood, so shoes are most definitely now off! Can’t bear the thought of outdoor shoes being on the carpets.

Why do all the shoes-on people seem to have never heard of socks?!