Shoes and bags from outside coming in, am I weird?

[HelloDenise]

I don't allow people to walk around my house wearing shoes. When I get home I wipe the soles and edges of shoes clean before they get put away. I'd never go outside in slippers.

People spit, puke, wee and do God knows what else on the pavement not to mention what animals do and flick their leftover smoking paraphernalia on the floor.(Not animals for the last one)

I won't put bags on the ground at bus stops or train stations because of this either. I balance them on my knee and just hang on to them if waiting for public transport.

I'm told I'm odd, does anyone else do this? I don't want remnants of piss and puke, old pizzas and other stuff brought into the house.

I definitely couldn't be arsed with the wiping of all the shoes OP, I think you're unusual there but we are a definitely a shoes off household. That's how both me and DH were brought up.

I always, always ask if someone wants me to remove my shoes in their house. I ask rather than assume as I've discovered that people can be offended if you automatically remove them!

I really couldn't give a crap if someone didn't want to come again simply because they were asked to take their shoes off, clearly the friendship didn't mean much if they got a hump about that 😅

Surely it's 'your house your rules' and bugger off if you can't respect that?

I am assuming OP is not in the Middle East, although sorry if I'm wrong about that.

'Your house your rules' doesn't trump 'my body my rules'. If I don't want to expose my feet, you don't get to tell me to do so. If it's that important to you, then tell me in advance that you're a shoes off household (so I can choose not to come to the house) If you just assume that I'll be ok with it, that's on you.

Near me is an Indian, Chinese, Pizza and Kebab place all close to each other.
I wonder if the 75% of non-pizza somehow cancels out the 25% pizza and therefore = spotlessly clean?

Although I am also in one of those really weird places where people eat the food and don't go round chucking it on the ground, so who knows.

Definitely no shoes in the house here.
Although I also only have solid floors so would get over it if someone did wear their outside shoes indoors

@ Unewhatever. It's hardly asking you to strip off, dramatic much 😅 I've never had to worry about that scenario in 50 odd years so I won't start now 😅

Good point! Given the state of our paths at the moment (there are some major construction projects nearby and they've tracked so much mud onto the pavements) my floors would be absolutely filthy if we wore shoes inside. DC tell their friends to take their shoes off if they don't immediately do so when they arrive.

TBH most of the people around here seem to take shoes off automatically. Having grown up in a heavy snow area, taking boots off the second you arrive anywhere is the norm.

I long for the day when MN works out a way to stop the same thread being started every 3 days or so.

Some sort of warning flashing up, pointing the OP to the other 42 million other threads asking the same question.

How do germaphobes cope with dogs n cats?

Pavements are known to be covered in bacteria. Also the pigeons seem to love pooping on the drive, shoes aren't allowed in my house. I remove any stuck-on leaves but shoes go straight on the rack in the porch. I don't blame you for wiping them if they're going into the wardrobe. I do provide clean slippers but I've only ever had one person use them - most people wear socks or bring slippers.

There have been loads of shoes on/off threads over the years. I estimate it to be about 50/50. So just do what you're comfortable with and don't let anyone else tell you you're wrong.

Personally I consider it really bad manners to keep outdoor shoes on in someone's house. I know there are people who consider it bad form to ask people to remove their shoes. So, pick a side!

I saw an interesting post on YouTube about Japan. It showed a heap of shoes by a front door and said you'll have a calmer mind if you put them neatly. So NB there was no discussion about shoes on or off - it was just a given. So there you go - it's cultural as well as a preference.

Only four days into 2026, and a "shoes off" thread already. Mumsnet has been mentioned on the website TV Tropes, for repeatedly discussing this topic.
Militant "Shoes Off" Rule - TV Tropes

I simply cannot imagine being in the slightest bit bothered about what the bottom of my shoes are coming into contact with. Especially if I had animals in the house.

I recognise it's disgusting but who cares?

tbh if you've got bare sweaty feet inside your shoes then it's just as bad as shoes on!! do you not own socks?

Ignore. Misquote.

Oh come on, pavements aren’t clean are they.

We don’t wear shoes in the house either, the dog gets her paws and nethers washed. Guests still come 😂… sadly lol

I don’t do this, wouldn’t ever cross my mind. I am rarely sick and my children have about 1 day a year off school. I’m really not too fussed about germs or dirt, my ancestors survived truly filthy conditions so modern life in comparison is nothing.

What puzzles me about shoes off inside is what do you do each time you go outside to the garden ? On a summer day our kitchen doors are wide open and we are in and out constantly, can’t imagine the faff of having to constantly take shoes on / off.

Don’t mean to single your post out but just wanted to respond to what you said.

I always hated growing up in a shoes on house because our carpets always inevitably got ruined. We had a lot of people in and out and even as a child I hated it.

When I got my own house I would have had babies crawling around on the floors so I definitely cared about what was potentially being traipsed in.

Some people just feel a certain way about things, I live in the city and everyday on the school run there is dog poo, I see people spitting, there can be litter, I’ve even seen vomit 🤢

Some people just don’t want the thought of what might be being walked in. A quick google will tell you and the advice is to remove shoes.

Obviously if people don’t care then that’s absolutely fine but it’s not really unusual to care.

I have flip flops which I’d slip on and off to go in and out of the garden.

But also, my garden isn’t really comparable to the city pavements.

It isn’t a fear of the outdoors in general it’s the disgusting pavements.

We live in the countryside so we all take our shoes of or they’d be mud everywhere!

I don't want remnants of the street in my wardrobe.

We are a shoes off house, but if we have guests, I let them ask, if they don’t take shoes off, that’s fine, as long as they are downstairs. Positively no outdoor shoes, or unwired paws, upstairs.

As to bags, I don’t think too much about it, other than to thoroughly clean worktops after I have dumped my ‘bag for life’ on it after shopping.

I know it's purely a matter of personal preference and all that, but do people who wash everything and have shoes off indoors and won't put their bags down and wipe the dog's paws all the time ever look at people who don't and wonder how they are still alive? Because while it's perfectly okay tolike to keep your house pristine, the human race has survived some truly horrific conditions for millennia and you putting your bag on a bed is NOTHING compared to some of what went on in the past. Yet humans have endured.

I just wonder if there's a touch of dissonance at work somewhere.

What remnants??

Of course they're covered in bacteria, just like every surface in a home, but they're not harmful bacteria