For asking the heating engineer to wear shoe covers in my house

[purplehearts21]

Guy came round this morning to the service the boiler, I greeted him in and asked if he’d wear the shoe covers as I’ve just had new floor fitted and new rugs. You have to walk through my whole house to get to the boiler and I get they they can’t take their shoes off for health and safety so I’ve came up with a solution. The guy looked at me like I’m a bit mad but I wouldn’t dream of walking through someone’s house with my shoes on. We’re a shoes off at the door family and you won’t believe the amount of people that will just walk on through unless you say something. ( including dh father and stepmother who are exactly the same and will stand and wait til you take them off in their home but will walk through ours with shoes on no bother) I find it so rude and would never do it unless I was asked to keep them on. This man looked at me like I was an alien though but at least he agreed.

was I being unreasonable to ask?

🤮 I don’t care what it does. It’s a dog bowl which is just scummy behaviour

Wow. How ridiculous. I think you have a problem.

I've never asked anyone to remove their shoes in my home and can't imagine I ever will. I've had tradespeople say they will remove their boots and I tell them it's not necessary. In fact I don't recall ever being asked to remove my shoes in any of my friend's houses, it doesn't seem to be that common were I live. Personally I think it's rude and weird to expect people to do so.

Even if they’re muddy or stink of poo?

So you are ill. I don’t vomit all over threads. Very unhygienic.

Anyone who comes to my house to work has offered to remove or cover shoes without being asked!

You are friends with people who stink of poo? That so much more strange than keeping shoes on.

All these years on MN I’ve laughed at people for thinking I have low standards cos I wear shoes indoors. Turns out I actually have high standards cos I’m not friends with anyone who wanders around with shoes stinking of poo!

These threads always end up with shoes-off people saying “you’re completely disgusting, have dirty houses and are so unhygienic you make people sick”. The shoes-on people tend to be “meh, I’m fine with dirty floors and have no intention of licking the floor so I’m not going to get sick, but you are antisocial and everyone secretly hates being told to take their shoes off in your house”. Both extremes are clearly ridiculous. Shoes off or shoes on is cultural and trying to justify it with logic will always make you sound a bit silly.

Yes, I am friends with people who have accidentally stepped into dog or fox poo near our house.

It’s not that the flooring can’t take shoes. It’s that shoes are unclean.

have you never travelled? Because more of the world are shoes off indoors than shoes on. Particularly places thought of as clean, highly educated, very polite and well mannered. like Korea, Japan and Scandinavia

If one of my friends had accidentally stepped in shit, my first thought would be to offer them a dish of hot soapy water, some rubber gloves, and a scrubbing brush, not to refuse them entry unless they agreed to be barefoot.

If they did unintentionally get some on the floor, I would fetch the mop and disinfectant while they were cleaning their shoes.

I sort of understand if you have carpet, but otoh, I find carpet to be far dirtier than shoes. How do you clean it? I get people own hoovers, steam vacs, etc, but I'm allergic to house dust, and no matter how clean someone's carpet appears, I always end up having a reaction in a carpeted house. Carpets are never truly clean, and it's not shoes that is the issue with them, it is a buildup of dead skin cells.

So why make them even dirtier with outside shoes that bring in more dust, grit and potentially tiny bits of animal poo or wee?