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.

Your house your rules. I don't ask for footwear to be removed but wouldn't feel the least bit bother if a friend asked me to in their house. It is called respect.

Ps I never worry about germs and believe that's why I have the constitution of an ox, because I have a strong immunity. I haven't had a cold for about 4 years.

I always take my shoes off when I go to other people's houses. To be fair they are usually covered in mud. Unless they are dressy shoes and it's some kind of party. I do it automatically but think that's because I live and work in the countryside. I think it is much more embarrassing and rude to tread mud and animal mess through someone's house!

I have no floor rules in my house. Most of my friends are intelligent enough to make the decision to whether they need to or not. Apart from one close friend who never takes his shoes off until he notices the mud on my new rug. Then he remembers about his dirty shoes and takes them off. good thing I love him I'll bust out the carpet cleaner then. No harm done.

toomuchtooold
In Austria we would call them Patschen - and were ime the equivalent of slippers in UK, but not fluffy like Pantoffeln.
When we moved from Germany to Austria I had no idea what the teacher was talking about when she said ds would need Patschen for school!

How can people think bare feet are more disgusting than shoes that have been walking round in contact with god knows what for possibly years on end? The mind boggles.

I take my shoes off when I get home and replace them with house shoes - an old comfortable pair of pumps. I hate soft slippers. We have wood block floors downstairs but I don’t ask visitors to take their shoes off. I’ll take my shoes off if asked but don’t really like being asked to.

We never had a shoes off rule in my parents house but in my house we have a “no shoes upstairs” rule because upstairs has carpet and I’m a lazy fecker and don’t want to hoover any more often than absolutely necessary. Downstairs we have hard floors and a robot hoover that doesn’t really do carpets.

To be fair, I’d prefer a besocked foot to a bare one, but I’d still prefer a foot that’s been washed - at least sometimes! - to a shoe that’s potentially been in contact with dog shit, spit, vomit and god knows what else for months/years on end,

Do people not just follow the lead of the homeowner? It's rude not to surely.

All I can see is Hyacinth Bucket telling people to take their shoes off and not lean on her walls.

I just don't understand, surely taking your shoes off is just the polite thing to do? I do automatically, so wouldn't need to be asked

I love shoes and boots and hate being asked to take them off. When I've gone to the trouble of picking out the right footwear to go with my outfit, I don't want to take them off and ruin the look. I also think it's the height of rudeness to ask guests to do something that might make them feel uncomfortable.

If I was wearing muddy boots that I'd just tramped across the fields in, of course I'd take them off, I'm not a complete Philistine, but mostly footwear has just gone from car/taxi to front door, and I'm an adult so can avoid dog shit and wipe my feet.

Anyone who buys carpets that are so precious they prefer to dictate what people wear on their feet needs their bumps read imo, and the people with hardwood or laminate flooring who expectspeople to remove shoes is certifiable imo. Socks on smooth flooring are lethally slippery, which is how my ex managed to spill red wine over a duck egg blue sofa in one shoes-off house!

Follow the house holder's request, odd to me or not!

Seems that cultural, personal and weather related reasons apply, therefore all valid I guess. I'm in the 'don't mind either way' brigade, although unless spectacularly muddy boots apply, I never do at home, as door mats and hoovers and mops are my friends!

I think it's weird if people don't take off their shoes and expect to walk in in their shoes and sit down

I'm an adult so can avoid dog shit

I've seen many adults blithely march through dog shit. Being an adult isn't enough!

I just don't understand, surely taking your shoes off is just the polite thing to do? I do automatically, so wouldn't need to be asked

Now you see, if someone took their shoes off in my house without being asked, I’d think that was weird.

Where I live everyone takes shoes off at the door - you are seen as rude if you don’t

Now so used to it seems weird when I don’t

In the UK I think this is a real class identifyer. To me, making guests take shoes off in the house says ‘don’t have a lot of money to replace things so try to keep everything best’.

< runs >

I hate taking my shoes off at people's houses when part of my job involved going to people's house and when we were buying at house and had to do viewings I stocked my bag with shoe covers.

I must be one of the odd ones out here. All my friends and family have a shoes off policy. Doesnt bother me in the slightest.

It’s an interesting one.

I’m from a country where pretty much everyone born and bred here wears thongs (flip flops). Your feet stay cleanish if you are only wearing them inside shopping centres or walking along really clean paved areas. The second you go ‘cross country’ the dirt and dust kicks up and your feet are dirty. No problem and the only people who have issues with this are blow in’s . It would be rare not to walk on grass or dusty paths during a day so pretty much you end up with dirty feet to varying degrees depending on the geography of your day.

We were out one day, DH’s friend rang and on hearing where we were said drop by on your way back through. He had a new wife he had brought back from overseas, she was from a European country. We rock up, greeted at the door, he says we must take shoes off as new rule from new wife who has installed new carpet. First time we had met new wife. We go sit down on the lounge and her face becomes a mask of horror on noticing our dirty feet on her new snow white carpet. She then offers me slippers which I refuse as they are her slippers, how bizarre. She asks her DH to offer my DH some socks (which would be his socks - how bizarre). He laughs like it’s the funniest joke he has ever heard . She then points out our feet are dirty and it will get her carpet and lounge (which was also new and white) dirty. I said, yes I can’t understand why we needed to take the things off as at least you can probably wipe most dirt off the bottom on the mat when entering as opposed to feet you would need to wash in a shower . My DH said who the he’ll gets white carpet . Needless to say the visit was shit. She was odd. We didn’t go back. He would come over and visit us without her.

I am very torn on the whole shoes off when visiting deal. We don’t wear shoes in our house, just our dirty feet , but we would never dream of asking guests to remove theirs. The other thing is people who do request this are entirely unreasonable if they don’t provide a place to sit and remove them. Not everyone wears slip off style and having guests hop around trying to hang on to people to balance or have to sit on the floor, maybe in a dress, and ask to be helped up (which is what I do if not wearing thongs as I can’t balance to hop around) is selfishness at its height.

Here we go again. It's only about a week since the last one.

The streets outside are absolutely filthy. I don’t understand why you want to bring that all into your home when it can so easily be avoided.
@imamouseduh - it’s not about money. I have a cleaner so I don’t even have to worry about cleaning it. But I like to walk around barefoot and it’s nice to know there isn’t particles of dog shit all over the floor when I do so.

One of the first threads I ever read on MN covered this very issue... it was hilarious. I sat back and just thought “oh, how the other half live...”

I let people keep shoes on but that’s purely because aside from the stairs, my house has wood floors throughout. I hate carpets, they’re vairy unhygienic whether people wear shoes on them or not.

I wouldn't want to wear guest slippers or socks. Ew. I'd rather go barefooted. And disposable slippers are awful for the environment. I love my Moshulu slippers and take off my shoes as soon as I get home, I also bring them most places I travel, but I wouldn't ask guests to remove their shoes and especially not order them to wear used slippers or socks.