Do you ask people to take off their shoes in your house?

[avocadoincident]

I almost always take my shoes off in other people's houses.

I'd like people to take their shoes off in my house but I don't want to sound like a precious knobhead.

How ( if you do) do you ask people nicely to take their shoes off?

Or should I just not be a precious knobhead?

"My home has been specifically designed to provide a seamless transition between outdoors and indoors" Sorry laughing out loud at that one.

"For those complaining about 'tramping dirt through the house', perhaps you need to clean floors carpets, rugs etc more frequently so this isn't a concern?"

My husband is Asian, cleaning the floor is basically a religion for him. But who the hell wants to be wiping mud and shit off the carpet, it's just fucking nasty. It's an unthinkable to me to wear shoes in the house as it is to take a dump on the kitchen table during dinner.

Don't like it, don't come in. I don't have a seamless transition between indoors and outdoors, I just have a door, so you probably wouldn't enjoy it much anyway.

So does the cat wear indoor slippers too? This is an amazing image :D :D :D But no, the cat washes his feet a lot more often than I do! That said, I could do without him melting his belly fur snow on my legs of a winter..

Thankfully I’ve not had to take shoes off for a party, that is odd. In a dress, tights and no shoes For interested parties; in countries where it is normal to take off shoes in the house (like Norway hurray!) it's also normal to bring your party shoes in a bag (having cleaned them first) and change into them when you get to the host's house. Thus you are in your complete outfit and your shoes are clean in the house hurray! That said, some hosts get very funny about high heels on wood flooring and provide these weird sticky IKEA thing to stick under the heels like tiny circles of carpeting. I don't go THAT far.

We are a 'do whatever makes you feel comfortable' house. Kids take their shoes off, i do sometimes. No rules. But i can assure you i am not cleaning mud and shit off our floors primarily because i dont live on a farm and i really coudnt give a fig about germs i can't see. And oh yes, we all have great immune systems.

"My home has been specifically designed to provide a seamless transition between outdoors and indoors

hahaha This is comedy gold! I dont need to provide a "seamless transition from outdoors to indoors". The people I know and invite to my house are fully capable of walking through a front door and coping with the stress and trauma of the transition from outside to inside.

As @disinterestedparty says, we clean our floors regularly but why on earth would that make it ok for people to tramp mud and dog crap throughout the house? If you wish to spend your time scrubbing dog shit out of your carpet then crack on but dont assume the rest of us enjoy doing that.

Does the cat wear indoor shoes? No, both cats are strictly indoor - furthermore - they're strictly 'carpeted part of the house indoor'. Dogs, however, get their feet washed before entering carpeted area. I don't really care about the class thing - I care about my baby's health.

How many new pairs or washed pairs do people have?
I'm not putting my feet in someone else's slippers

Just get a bunch of soft warm socks with bobbles on the feet. Just chuck in the washing machine after use. They are just socks so it's very easy.
This kind of thing. I think they are marketed as yoga socks.

Having read many, many of these threads on MN, shoes off seems to be mostly a lower middle class thing.

😂 Germany and others are such lower middle class😂
Where I grew up in EU we had slippers at school. You came in and changed to slippers then continued to the rest of the buildings. No matter what class, you took shoes off in someone's house. Then again though we are not obsessed with classes as people in UK. I find it quite fascinating actually

We don’t wear shoes in the house. DH is North African and so it’s a cultural thing for him and a dislike of wearing shoes for me.

However, we don’t ask guests to remove shoes. Most do when the see the shoe rack but I understand some people don’t like taking theirs off.

However, in some cultures, like Japan, shoes off is obligatory.

Not wearing outdoor shoes indoors is a cultural norm in a lot of places.

I don't mind when going to other peoples' houses - but if I was going round for lunch/dinner, say, I'd prefer to know in advance that that was a requirement. Sometimes I wear tights with holes in the toes if I'm wearing knee length boots for example. I bathe or shower twice a day but if I didn't and knew I'd have to take shoes off then I'd be sure to make sure I didn't have smelly feet when arriving at your home!

I’m laughing at sticking the dots on heels although I have heard of wrecked floors.

I find those little things round the house as it is. (Dd toddler has a penchant for the chair ones)

My bil and his wife don't let you wear shoes in doors, I literally can't walk anywhere with shoes on other than the little mat that is next to the front door, it's a balancing act trying to get my shoes off and trying not to step on their precious carpet while bil beady eyes are on me. I feel so uncomfortable and told my husband that I would never make someone feel like that in our house.

My DC know to remove their shoes as soon as they get in and I do too but I don’t ask guests to if they don’t want. We have hard flooring throughout the house so it doesn’t really matter, I mop every day.

I'm in the who wouldn't take their shoes off camp.

@AllergicToAMop My kids have school slippers too! In Norway. My 6 year old can NEVER find his, they're usually scattered somewhere inside a classroom that he never goes in somehow..

I suppose I take mine off automatically if I see shoes by the door, or see my host not wearing shoes. So maybe leave a pair out as a hint?

Aneley, children brought up with dogs have stronger immune systems. Your baby will be fine without washing the dogs feet!

@Damntheman we used to have our own little cage thing for jacket and shoes. That's where they always were. I would think someone is wearing his. Big name tag should help maybe

My home has been specifically designed to provide a seamless transition between outdoors and indoors

For those of you who seem to think this is amusing, perhaps a little more context would be valuable. We have separate summer and winter outdoor entertaining areas and our home has been designed specifically to ensure a smooth transition from the house to whichever of those we are using so that guests, caterers etc can move freely between the two. Much of our entertaining over Christmas was in a separate log cabin style building; hence, asking guests others to remove shoes would be laughable.

For anyone looking for washable slippers to provide for guests what about these

www.amazon.co.uk/Dream-Bridge-Womens-Non-Slip-Slipper/dp/B07KWVPG6R/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=dream+bridge+slipper+socks&sprefix=dream+bridg&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1578566305&sr=8-2

😂 seamless transition. I adore mumsnet. It is often like another dimension on here.

Tombliwho

For me it was more "So that guests, caterers etc can move freely between the two". Along with the reference to "entertaining". Alright alright you're loaded, move on.

I just say ‘We’ve just had the carpets cleaned, do you mind taking your shoes off?’

Always and if they don’t they aren’t coming in

Had a midwife totally refuse once she laid out newspaper for her and told her to only walk on that she was extremely annoyed

Dh not she

I’m not having E. coli and whatever else from the bottom of shoes on the carpet where my kids play

Nah, we have wooden and flag stone floors, dogs and cats with sharp claws, so its safer to keep them on.
Sometimes I get asked to take my shoes off in patients houses but our work wear policy states that we are not to do so, something to do with insurance. They are part of our PPE. I guess if we stood on something hazardous or a toe got run over with a hoist we wouldnt have a leg to stand on (so to speak).