To ask visitors to please do this?

[925XX]

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.

You said it!

I can't see myself visiting this person twice

If someone came to your house who had a bad dose of athlete’s foot or verrucas, would you prefer they kept their shoes on or off?

Oh see, now I hate feet, including my own. I can tolerate my children's. Have to psych myself up to cut my toenails.

Hardly, unless they've also been dragging these parts across the ground outside.

Whereas I, and many others, think it is extremely disrespectful to just take your shoes off as you walk through my door.

Why?

I think it’s the opposite of pretentious. I think people must not be able to afford the maintenance of their floor. It’s quite pitiful to be so hot and bothered about a floor over people.

Oh well I'm a dick with clean carpets so I'm fine with that.

Coats are thrown everywhere. Bags end up on floors all the time. Do you also refuse to let them put their bags on your furniture?

I don’t do my own housework (have a cleaner) and I still say shoes off!

Great to see this being debated with the same verve as ever.

The last shoes on/off thread was very tame and I was beginning to wonder if it was a dying issue.

Theres life in the old dog yet 😆

Oh well I'm a dick with clean carpets so I'm fine with that.

Own it sister 😆

Yes, I am currently seething on the train home whilst I think lovingly of my carpets.

Off but preferably socks on. Of course, athlete’s foot is going to be worse for people who spend all their time with shoes on as their feet get sweatier, so that’s never happened in practice.

Oh yeah!

Oh yeah!

I'm loving your work

That is your (subjective) opinion as to what constitutes good manners. I disagree.

because it's good manners to ask first. don't assume every house is like your own. basic stuff really.

I'm happy to take my shoes off in someone's home and happy for someone to take their shoes off in my home. But if they popped their shoes off in the porch without asking and sauntered in I would think 'dick'.

No one is allowed shoes in my house.

No one has ever complained- to my face anyway.

I don't think it's a class thing (as in 'middle class keeps shoes on').

I think it's a question of being willing to adapt to new concepts. Previous generations valued their version of propriety over all other concerns and kept footwear and all other clothing on. I've seen photos of young women from the 1950s and early 60s sitting sipping coffee in a living room all wearing their hats. Ditto women from that era doing housework in heels.

People nowadays have different priorities and are less concerned about others seeing their socks, bra straps, bare hands while out shopping, uncovered hair of women, etc.

I don’t know a single person who wear shoes indoors. Grim as hell.

Yes, it comes under niff naff and trivia, for me.

I live in a shoes off country (so this is never an issue for me, everyone automatically removes their shoes except workers who need their workboots on for safety reasons), visited the UK this summer and visited a shoes on house - my children were very uncomfortable wearing shoes inside, especially my older one. Just so alien to them, they are used to shoes off at home, at school, at nursery, at the doctors (child health clinic has a shoes off rule) so going inside without taking shoes off felt wrong.

Grim 🙄

Definitely shoes off here apart from my music room where I teach. It has an old carpet and is accessible directly from the front of the house. Nearly every child makes to take off their shoes when they first come but I always stress that it is my workroom and the only room that is shoes off (l would also have a backlog of children taking shoes on and off in a very small space so impractical from this point of view). We have been house hunting recently and when we were shown round by agents we were always asked to take shoes off in carpeted areas. In the viewing that was conducted by the owner, we asked if he would prefer us to take our shoes off, which he did. Common courtesy and much more hygienic.

What do people do in the summer when visitors to your house will probably be wearing sandals or even flip-flops without socks? Presumably these filthy, dog-pooh ridden pavements that Mumsnetters all live on, will have transferred onto people's feet so they will be walking around your home with dirty feet if they take their shoes off 🤔