No shoes in house people

[Newstartplease24]

if you are absolutist about this -

do you only entertain in loungewear? Have you nevwr had a dinner or a party at which people dressed up a bit, including shoes?

or do you expect people to wear frock, tights and bare feet?

I’ve always been a shoes off person but never ask anyone to take theirs off. I must admit I do feel uncomfortable especially since having children if people do just walk in with their shoes on though. We have wooden floors but very small children who crawl around playing a lot and the thought of traces of dog poo etc on shoes makes me feel ill. I always have to get the steam mop out as soon as they’ve left.

I probably just need to be more assertive and ask tbh 🤣

But if people just take their shoes off you don’t have to worry about mops and bleach?? I have carpet and don’t want to have to clean the carpets every week.

I always take my own shoes off at home because I prefer to be barefoot and we have underfloor heating so when it’s cooler the floors are nice and warm.
We aren’t a shoes off house though, anyone is welcome to wear shoes here if they want. We have hardwood floors downstairs and tiles in the kitchen, it’s all very easy to keep really clean. Carpets upstairs, again my family tend to take shoes off before going upstairs just because all the shoe racks are downstairs but there’s no rule.
My bugbear about households where you are made to take your shoes off is that they are often (in my experience) the houses with grubby floors. Ground in crisp crumbs on the carpet, hair, pet hair, sticky juice patch, tea stain, general grit on hard floors. Yuck!
If you insist on no shoes at least ensure I’m not stepping in your toast crumbs or your dogs half slobbered on biscuit 🤢

We have many irresponsible dog owners unfortunately and sometimes you don’t know if you’ve stepped in a bit. It’s gross. Also - mud smells, leaves smell, bits from the driveway, general gravel, bird poo, gum, cigarettes. Yes of course we try not to step in these things but the whole point of shoes is to protect your feet and make it safe to walk around. What if you’d stepped in some sticky ice cream, or broken glass…. You may not know. Unless where you live is pristine of course. I live fairly rural but also commute and go into towns shopping. I walk round Tesco and people have spilt wine or a kid has dropped a sweet….i just don’t want this stuff in my carpet!

eta - typo edit

This!

think it’s so rude to ask guests take shoes off..would ever do it

it just feels like a state of undress!!

As I said before, I don’t have carpet downstairs. I wouldn’t choose a floor covering in a high traffic area that I was worried about people actually walking on. Or children playing on.
My house is clean and hygienic but we live in it. So, we walk on all the floors, guests are welcomed in shoes and no one is restricted to any particular areas.

Wooden floor likely due to the damage that heeled shoes, or even things like stones stuck in treads etc can do, rather than dirt I’d imagine.

I have wooden and laminate floors throughout. I still don't want to have to mop them every day, which I'd have to if I let people in with shoes on. Who has time to mop their floors every day???

Really rude in YOUR eyes. Absolutely standard to much of the world who finds shoes on filthy and peasant like that only the very lowest of the low would consider doing.

Not standard in my eyes at all. And I wouldn’t dream of calling anyone “peasant like” on the basis of whether or not they remove their shoes. That is a reflection of you, no one else.

Agreed! Peasant indeed🙄

Shoes off at the door, only exceptions are those physically unable to remove as in v elderly

I also would never enter someone’s house without asking if i should take my shoes off and always assume this - I live in the countryside and there are few pavements here, it would be filthy if we wore our shoe s

I take wellies off if going beyond the kitchen, any other shoes stay on. I dare say there is 'matter' tracked in unnoticed. To counter this I avoid licking the floor and observe a strict three- second rule for dropped food.

I do actually like to be able to eat from my floor .
Not really, but I walk around barefoot and I love clean floors so my feet stay clean.

I definitely eat things off the floor from time to time, hate food waste.

I’m a shoes off person. I do have occasional parties where people might dress up. But they’re friends or family and know it’s shoes off and come appropriately equipped.

very regular visitors I have their own slippers for here anyway…I bought cheap hotel type ones on line and embroidered initial on or some family bought along old slippers they leave here. I have my own slippers in their homes too.

I don’t see this as big thing. People mostly ask anyway nowadays . Even some trades (but I keep disposable overshoes for trades as it quicker than them keep removing boots) .

back in early 1970s I attended a newly built middle school . We had an indoor and outdoor shoe policy. Not difficult. Not sure why more schools didn’t do it or do it now to keep cleaning bills down.

I’ve also travelled for work a lot in Asia, like Japan - shoes off is culturally vital …they’ve managed that for hundreds of years, it is not a practical problem..it is merely a cultural choice. When I travelled to these countries I went equipped with house shoes I could pop into hand bag.

I also worked in manufacturing where we (even office people) were equipped with indoor or outdoor safety shoes. We had to change shoes on arrival at site ..did thst for 40 years, in 2 different companies, at sites all over the world. Agian, it isn’t a practical issue if you’ve made provision.

my preference is that I don’t want dirt from outside walked into my home.

But, I do make exceptions….i can usually tell how relaxed folks are on visiting for first time as they’ll ask “shall I take my shoes off” …if they don’t ask I’ll look at their footwear and judge how outdoorsy it’ll be ….so if it’s a salesperson visiting or office based perosnal I’ll not ask them if they’ve not offered. But if I can see dirty shoes I’ll ask them to take off, or offer overshoes. But if someone is noticeably anxious about exposing feet I’m not going to push to make them uncomfortable- I know some people have phobias or just embarrassment.

I also have close relatives (2 different familes) that bring dogs over. I’m not delighted to see dogs, but they’re part of package of having those family members being able to spend longer with me. So for that they know we will only go into hall and open plan sitting dining room…all doors stay shut elsewhere and dogs are pretty well trained to not try to go up carpetted stairs. I’ll hoover and wash the hard floor in that room immediately after, but given dogs are walking (probably some 🤢 ) dirt in, I’m not going to loose sleep in their owners keeping shoes on if they’re just there for a little while. But the owners usually automatically take shoes off and put their slippers on anyway

so I’m flexible, but I would still prefer no outdoor shoes, and mostly people are easily accommodating to that

@Limehawkmoth my kid's primary school is completely shoes off (shoes off for teachers too), I suspect almost all primary schools in my country are shoes off, and certainly all nurseries are. Keeps things so much cleaner for children that play on the floor. Children's health clinics are shoes off too as babies might be crawling on the waiting room floor. So much more child friendly than shoes on.

😂😂

Shoes-off was never a thing when I was growing up, and still isn’t, in my family and general circle. Though obviously wet/muddy shoes would be taken off.
My (long gone) DM thought shoes-off was a very lower-middle class thing, along with net curtains and general prudery.
Might add that we’ve had both dcs and Gdcs as babies and toddlers crawling all over our shoes-on carpets and they all remained robustly healthy.

(1) Yes. Because I'd never knowingly been to anyone's house where shoes off was a thing. I suspect one of my SILs is a shoes-off house but she's never been so rude as to ask.

(2) No. It's Ugg's fault.

FFS

I live in central London- just two days ago I saw a girl ( probably 14/15) looking at her phone not the pavement who then trod squarely on a fox poo and just walk off. If she’s in a shoes on house that’s definitely grosser than foot infections? Super rare anyway and generally not a problem unless you have wet floors. I’m guessing someone with a veruca would have it covered or have socks on anyway

Oh, that’s intersting…thanks for info.

I’m interested to know…what “ class” did your DM view herself as?
just curious 🤣🤣🤣

I’m Irish and when I visit my partner’s daughters in England I find the whole shoes off inside the house a complete pain in the arse. I wouldn’t dream of expecting anybody to remove their shoes when they visit my home and I still manage to have clean floors.