To think there's never an excuse for not offering to take your shoes off in someone's home?

[CheerUpFFS]

If you're a guest ( not working, I.e in a profession where you go into someone's house ) aibu to think there is never, ever an excuse to not at least offer to take your shoes off in someone's home? My mind is always blown when someone comes to mine and leaves them on,

Yabu - I keep my shoes on
Yanbu - I take them off

I have friends who take their shoes off and some who don’t. Those that don’t remove are typically those that wear shoes in their own houses, I imagine if you don’t take your shoes off in your own home it doesn’t occur to you to take them off in someone else’s. Personally I do always take my shoes off and usually bring slippers when I’m visiting a friends house, but that’s because it’s what I do in my own house. I don’t find it rude if people don’t remove their shoes when at mine though and have hard floors so don’t worry about dirt.

I always ask, but that's because some of my kids live in rented accommodation and have 'shoes off' households to preserve the carpet from as much wear as possible.

But I would love to see comparitive studies of dirt/illness/wear on similar houses with and without carpets and with and without shoes off policies. I have never known anyone able to put an illness down to wearing shoes in the house and I wonder if some people get a little bit 'germphobic' in general, so it becomes one of those things that they can't bear the thought of, rather than an actual threat?

We only have carpet in our home because it was too expensive for us to do the whole house in wood or luxury vinyl but we are planning to get rid room by room. I rather have a few places rugs here and there instead of wall to wall carpeting.

My own parents bought our childhood home where the halls, family room, and dining room were carpeted (bedrooms, bathrooms were not) but got rid of it when they became carers for my grandparents due to my grandmother struggling with her walker on it. They were pleasantly surprised when the carpet was pulled up and it was hardwood floors and annoyed that they hadn’t been told that was underneath when they bought the house or they would have pulled it up years ago instead of thinking that they would have to have someone pull up the carpet, buy new flooring, and have someone install it.

But I would love to see comparitive studies of dirt/illness/wear on similar houses with and without carpets and with and without shoes off policies.

There is no indication anywhere I've ever seen that it makes a blind bit of difference when it comes to illness (to tackle one of your points).

They were pleasantly surprised when the carpet was pulled up and it was hardwood floors and annoyed that they hadn’t been told that was underneath when they bought the house

This happened to me! We bought our house from a lovely older couple 25 years ago. They were so proud of their cream colored wall-to-wall carpet😬And to be fair, it was pristine but I couldn't wait to rip it up. Unbelievably, that carpet was covering gorgeous Charleston pine flooring. I felt like I had won the lottery, lol.

Imagine covering Charleston pine with carpet?!

I'm really house proud I politely ask ppl to take there shoes off

That’s what I thought when my parents’ sitting room carpet was lifted to reveal parquet. Then the far corner went and it was concrete!

We have carpet because it’s a very old, draughty house and it needs the insulation. The floorboards underneath are 400 years old.

I have always considered 'shoes off' (if not a cultural thing) a bit strange. It wouldn't occur to me to take shoes off. But we have hard floors so we don't have to stress over mud on shoes or paws. I guess I might feel differently if I had carpets. But that is never going to happen as I find them a bit grim.

Exactly. What kind of illnesses are people expecting to get from wearing shoes in a house? Do they really think that shoes-on people get sick more often than shoes-off people? I wouldn't be surprised if the opposite were true tbh. All those germ-phobic anti-bac fans with sterile homes probably have rubbish immune systems! I haven't had d&v since my late teen dc were tiny.

Exactly. What kind of illnesses are people expecting to get from wearing shoes in a house?

I genuinely don't think I'm going to get an illness, I just prefer not to have outdoor shoes on my cream woollen carpet, it's nicer knowing its clean.

💯

Exactly. What kind of illnesses are people expecting to get from wearing shoes in a house?

I'm not worried about illnesses. I just don't like cleaning all the time, it's easier just not to track dirt in in the first place. The cats don't bring in dirt like people wearing shoes with a tread, only wet feet, and occasional weed seeds.

How many guests are you having round?
Everyone has said that they would take of muddy shoes going into someone's house . Then there's a door mat.

I can see why you and your family might take shoes off if makes you feel better. But guests won't be in and out like you living there.

Hotels manage to keep their carpets clean and people are Treking in and out all day everyday.

People don't realise there is dirt in the tread. They don't look muddy but it dries then falls out in bits everywhere.

Hotels have tiles mostly and if they have carpet it’s the patterned hard wearing stuff …I always tell ppl to takes shoes off as I have expensive light carpet and it’s my home nobody has every had a problem with it …I never wear shoes in the house only slippers

Don't you have a hoover?

Bit of a silly question. I don't want to create work when we could just remove shoes instead.

But why? Why not just prevent it happening in the first place.

And most hotels I've been have carpets I really wouldn't want to sit on, lay on or generally relax on! I wouldn't even want to go bare foot on. But I do like to do that in my house. Hence why I don't wear shoes indoors.

The chances of your crawling baby catching something of the floor are pretty high though.

Wouldn't you be vacuuming sooner or later anyway? Would you do it more when someone's visited?

We lived on a smallholding, daresay lots of stuff found it's way in. My children survived.

Farmers children thrive my health visitor said, so I stopped worrying.

If I'd just vacuumed it would be annoying to have to do it again. I vacuum once a week usually as we don't track dirt in.

But yes, if someone visited and didn't take off their outdoor shoes with a tread that collects mud that then dries and falls out, then I would be vacuuming more as there would be pieces of mud everywhere.

Interesting. I've never tracked, or had anyone else track mud into my house, even the one time I lived in the country where it was a possibility in the wet season. These days anyone coming in would just have been walking on concrete, or possibly a lawn.