To ask all guests to take shoes off in my house?

[chardonm]

Just that really. A few people seem really put off by that.

My dear sil has to be reminded several times before she takes them off.

I hate the thought of trailing the dirt inside the house.

I really am not bothered if people want to have clean floors, but surely it's really not that bad for a baby to crawl on dirty floors? Not one of the illnesses my babies have caught has come from my (often dirty) floors. It's always come from toddler groups and other peoples babies (I know because it's always "oh yeah so and so has just got over blah but don't worry doctor says they're no longer contagious" followed a few days later by my kids coming down with blah.

Do babies and small children still play in sandpits? They must be a million times dirtier than a floor walked over in shoes.

I am reminded of the stepmother in Nigel Slater's book 'Toast'. (Except that she had the slightly redeeming feature of being a brilliant cook.)

I am not knocking the amount of effort that some women had to take in order to keep homes clean in an era of manual work, poor sanitation, overcrowding, outside privies, no appliances, and infectious disease without anti-biotics,

It may be that in that era good hygiene really did save lives.

I am not sure that labouring over cleanliness is necessary to the same degree at a time when there are vaccinations, hoovers, washing machines, showers etc. I generally feel the promotion of the clean home is more about trying to sell us products - furniture, appliances, disinfectants, bleaches, creams and sprays. I'm not sure that the cleaning makes us healthier or happier - though obviously for some people they are extrremely unhappy if things aren't just so.

But I don't see that trying to avoid the very real possibility of dog shit in ny house is over-zealous

I don't think it's over zealous, just unnecessary (in my experience). As I've explained a few times, I've never personally had an issue with dog shit.

Ultimately, what's normal in my social circle and what works for me is different to what's normal in your social circle and what works for you. And that's fine.

If I knew you IRL I'd take off my shoes in your house because it's your house and that's important to you.

anitagreen I remember having small children crawling on the floor & wanting to keep the place clean for them, but we both realised (DP had been a HCP) that most 'germs' are already there and more will be bought in by visitors shoeless or not.

The act of removing shoes is going to transfer microbes from them to the hand - do you also insist on your visitors washing them after removing footwear? What if they accidentality touched something, like their own clothes, between the door and the sink - do you demand they strip down and throw their clothes in the wash?

The biggest source of microbes that your children may pick up is you & they can divide in 20 minutes, in an hour you'll have 8 times more.

We all want the best for our children, and keeping a relatively clean house is good for them, but stressing about all those nasty germs out there in the big bad world is not going to help them.

Of course if people turn up with visibly muddy shoes, then it's reasonable to ask them to remove them (& most people would probably offer), but demanding that all visitors de-shoe, even those that have arrived by car, on the grounds of disease control is just pointless and a little bit daft.

Snow is normal in the winter here. So it’s always shoes off. Otherwise the floors would be soaked

The act of removing shoes is going to transfer microbes from them to the hand - do you also insist on your visitors washing them after removing footwear?

That's a really interesting point. Because of course we use our hands for contact much more than we use our feet. We shake hands, take mouths to our hands when eating, take babies in our arms.

So the shoe-removers should be saying not just, 'Please remove your shoes, but please go and sanitise your hands and/or wash them and place them under an industrial hand dryer to avoid contamination via a towel somebody else has used.

An awful lot of stuff is about propitiating the Gods really.

I do see if you have light-coloured carpets that you will be more vigilant about stains. And it might make rooms look bigger and more light-filled. But it is a lot of hassle...

I think it’s up to individuals whether they wish to maximise microbial exposure by having shoes in the house. Lovely that the shoe wearers are considering other people’s health and immunological develolmeny though!

I hate shoes on in the house. Both my parents and PIL are shoes on and I hate the uncomfortable feeling of dirty floors meaning you can never quite relax. They're also bemoaning that the carpet needs replacing after only a couple of years because it's gotten trodden in dirt

I love a good shoe on/off thread.

Personally, shoes come off indoors (unless I go to someone's house where i go to remove and they say 'don't worry about shoes').

My parents are dreadful for shoes on in houses. And then they spend ages complaining about their carpets and saying next time theyre going to get better carpets. The problem isn't their carpets... It's that they keep their shoes on all the bloody time!

It drives me mad them not taking shoes off when they come round. What part of 'look at the pile of shoes in the hall and the lovely clean pale carpet' means please tread your shit in? Thankfully I have wood floor and tiles throughout our living space now.

The exception to me is if it's a nurse, midwife, health visitor etc. I wouldn't expect them to keep taking shoes on and off all the time.

It's common sense though surely if you'd take of your shoes you've walked outside in you'd wash your hands wouldn't you?

Because a HCP's shoes are sterile! This gets more bonkers all the time.

Would you all lick the soles of your shoes? Well no but I wouldn’t lick the floor either so I’m not really seeing your point.

I also love these threads. People are so hilariously vehement in their opinions.

And the shoes-off zealots so ludicrously obsessed with bacteria on shoes, apparently unaware that there are bacteria (including coliforms) on pretty much everything - money and door handles are two big ones.

My 4 kids appear to have survive crawling/playing on shoe-trodden floors. And they quite possibly did lick them - and no doubt any shoes lying around too....

Would you all lick the soles of your shoes?
I wouldn’t lick the soles of my guests’ feet either, would you?

It's not about being germ free it's simply I don't want outdoor muck all over my clean carpets I grew up in a shit hole house that was filthy the carpets was disgusting you couldn't walk bere foot as you'd have black soles. Maybe that's why I don't want the same thing done in my house and it also cost me a hell of a lot of money to carpet my house and I'm not going to replace them in a few months time when they are all worn out and stained

the uncomfortable feeling of dirty floors meaning you can never quite relax.

How to these floors feel? Are they objectively dirty and sticky so they leave visible stains and on your socks or bare feet? Or is it more a psychological discomfort. (Oh my God, there are microbes crawling around there and they are coming towards me!)

For what it's worth I had a good quality second-hand carpet - passed on to me by my parents - fitted fifteen years ago. It's still in quite decent condition and nobody ever gets asked to take their shoes off.

I'm TeamShoesOff, and a bit perturbed that within the first page people who insist on shoes off were called 'common' and 'Presbyterian' (WTF?).

As long as dog owners do not clear up after their animals, people consider the ground to be one giant ashtray and men (it's usually men) spit wherever they feel like it, I will politely ask guests to remove shoes. My home is my sanctuary, I have a small child, I live in a flat so walk past the front door between bathroom and bed, and I want to be able to walk barefoot without taking that into bed with me.

I always offer to remove shoes when entering someone else's house. Some say yes please, others say there's no need.

I have had the same light beige carpets in part of my house (boards in the rest) for 15 years now. Everyone in the house, family and guests is welcome to walk on them in whatever footwear they choose. The carpet is perfectly clean and not worn out, so I’m not sure what kind of toxic muck you think your guests would walk in.

I tend to have guests who are capable of using common sense and wiping their shoes on the mat if they are muddy.

Yup, we've just recarpeted throughout, the last lot were down for nearly 18 years and we replaced because they were shabby, not stained or dirty. The six month old new cream carpets are still immaculate despite having - shock, horror - shoes on them every single day.

I think the pro shoe crew are missing the point. We are not obsessed with microbes! We also understand that coliforms etc are present everywhere. However, just as you would normally clean plates, wash your hands after using the toilet etc we think unnecessary traipsing of shoes in the house isn’t something we want. This is our choice! It’s not unreasonable and to me completely logical!!
As others have said it’d also the dirt which inevitably marks floors and cost of flooring that’s the issue too. But ultimately I think it’s just an individuals choice how they want their house to be and visitors just need to respect that.

Like I said upthread, my house is beautifullly clean and I like to keep it that way; shoes off is hygienic. End of.

Surely that depends on the state of the feet inside the shoes? Veruccas, ahtlete's foot, toenail rot, a vile infection called erythrysma (?sp) and just generally pongy feet are all pretty vile imo. And a friend of mine had a staph infection caused by an ingrowing toenail - very hygienic!

Shoes off is very hyacinth bucket.

Imagine having people round for dinner and asking adults to remove their shoes

We are not obsessed with microbes!

Well you might not be but even a cursory read through this and the countless other threads on this topic makes it apparent that many are, logic be damned.

All the people who are shocked at shoes off in houses, do you keep your shoes on when you're sat down watching TV? Do you wear them up the stairs, and in the bedrooms? When do you take them off?

Quite often I keep them on, for going out to the bin or bringing in washing. And of course I wear them upstairs - if I'm ready to leave the hosue and decide I want a wee before I go, I certainly don't bother taking them off just to go up to the lav and put them back on again when I come down.

If I change into yoga pants or something when I get home, I'll change my shoes then. But I wear crocs around the house because they don't spoiled if I walk on wet grass when I go up to the compost heap or go out to the garage for something. So even my indoor shoes go outdoors!

Actually, the only time dog shit has been trodden into the house was my own dog's shit, trodden in by me, from my own garden. Luckily, it only got as far as the (washable) mat inside the back door.

Honestly think it's the rudest thing to walk into someones home with shoes on!