To ask visitors to please do this?

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Remove their shoes. I have very pale cream carpets and no one in the household wears shoes in the house. My niece recently called and it was heavily raining, she had cork sole shoes on which sucked up lots of water which she tramped over my carpets. I asked her to take them off as wet soggy prints were being left behind. I do not have to ask some people but feel awkward when I do ask.

Have you never of cleaning? It's very effective.

I'm also a bit confused as to how you think shoes are going to impact on skirting boards.

I think its the height of bad manners to expect everyone to remove their shoes when they walk into your house. I understand it if they are covered in dirt but there's nothing worse than having to muddle around undoing and doing up shoes constantly if you do a job that requires you to be in peoples homes. To be fair though the vast majority of homes i go into don't expect you to remove them.

Thinking back to my house party last month where everyone got quite dressed up and we were both in the garden and inside. Imagine the shoes on/shoes off debacle every time
you went outside then in again. That wouldn’t make for a good party. Plus it would have ruined all the lovely outfits to have everyone walk around with no shoes on.

I wear shoes at home, slippers in the winter, and I don't mind what my guests do as long as their shoes aren't muddy. Life's too short and I'd rather my guests be comfortable, whatever their preference.

Part of the reason I usually wear shoes inside is so I can swiftly deal with any large spiders that appear. I do NOT want to be walking round barefoot if they are!

On another note to people who are saying that they ask people to take their shoes off when they have guests over for dinner etc. A friend of mine was asked to take her shoes off a new years party one time. She was wearing tights, she was not drinking but consequently slipped on the polished wooden floor( something that probably would not have happened if she was wearing shoes) and broke her jaw. Her jaw was wired shut for 6 weeks. Lucky enough the host paid all medical cost or she could have been sued. Needless to say she no longer a shoe off house now

Very good point about parties and slippy floors.
At my recent party quite a few glasses were
smashed too (it was a great party too many margaritas). Imagine bare feet and glass!

Sweeping generalisation there!
We're not a shoes off house. We've got a dog and hard floors. We vacuum and steam. What terrible manners we have.

YANBU but you can't expect people to be mindreaders. Either ask them or silently fume.

I used to have extremely smelly feet as a teen and would just never visit those friends that asked this. I would have rather died. It's not so much a problem now but my FIL has honking hoofs so I don't encourage it!

It is dangerous to walk on polished wooden floors with socks or tights. So sorry to hear about your friend, that sounds very painful.

And all the people saying it’s a class thing are incredibly insulting to the many cultures around this world who consider it very rude to wear shoes inside someone’s home

Its a class thing in the U.K.

Im not sure why that's so difficult to get one's head around. Cultural practices in different countries vary hugely.

Bloody love a shoes on/off thread. The first one I read years ago genuinely surprised me as for about the first 35yrs of my life I didn't know there were SHOES OFF people, just hadn't been a thing for my or any people I visited!

I apologise profusely if I have to take my shoes off at someones house.

Wearing socks or slippers at someone else's house just feels weird for me, like wearing pyjamas to the supermarket.

Bloody love a shoes on/off thread.

MN at its very best 😆

What's all the tosh about 'class'? It's practicality and sense.
Grew up with linoleum on the floor and before fitted carpets were popular). There was nothing to protect from muck - linoleum was usually dark and patterned, and without central heating it would have been Baltic, and you probably had two pairs of socks on!
Now my floors are white and bright and carpets are pale. My choice - but I don't want street dirt, and worse, adding a pattern I didn't intend to have.

Well yes I’m sure there are lots of rules and etiquette around class that many of us know nothing about. This is one of them.

I think its the height of bad manners to expect everyone to remove their shoes when they walk into your house.

We've been over this nearly 1000 times. It's not rude to not want shoes in your own house. It is rude to ignore your host's wishes and make them uncomfortable in their own home, for asking a perfectly normal thing

We've been over this nearly 1000 times. It's not rude to not want shoes in your own house. It is rude to ignore your host's wishes and make them uncomfortable in their own home, for asking a perfectly normal thing

And you're right because you say so 😂

Views differ as these threads demonstrate clearly

It is rude to ask people to take off their shoes. We can go round in circles for hours as these threads always go.

The basic argument is: Do the host’s wishes trump the comfort of the guest.

No they do not. The guest needs to feel welcomed and comfortable not to be shouted at and not to be confronted by a basket of slippers which other people have been wearing. Honestly I have never in my life been presented with slippers at a friends house.

Those of you being rude and insisting on shoes off do realise that s

No, your right. I'm wrong to not do what you want. I'm wrong to not want to vacuum and mop after rude guests who can't set aside their personal preferences for a few hours.

Seriously, no master what you feel, how can it be rude to politely ask shoes are left at the door but NOT rude to ignore the hosts wishes? Howwwwww?

Those of you being rude and insisting on shoes off do realise that many people have hidden mobility problems or issues with their feet?

Anyone who feels so put out by taking their shoes off is weird, sorry. Unless you have a foot issue. And the thing is, most people wouldn't mind making an exception for old or disabled people, but it's soooo rude to just decide that you're wearing shoes, like it or not. Thankfully I don't know anyone this precious in real life

Exactly. And this is why it’s impolite to ask.

Many people will offer when they see cream carpets so you’re all good without needing to be rude. But if they don’t offer you’ll have to suck it up and get your vacuum out after if needs be.

This is why I have wooden floors downstairs.

People never did for my father who struggled getting shoes on and off.
By being disabled they usually mean very obvious disabilities like not being able to take your shoes off without someone else helping you.

You obviously don't know my sister then. She had a serious accident in her 20s and has to wear shoes as a result. Noy many people know as she is really self conscious about it.

A disabled person politely asking to leave shoes on is not the same as belligerent people who just don't fancy it and can't accept others live differently to them