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.

Seriously ?

I mean, when you join a forum as a newcomer, I'd have thought it would be an idea to watch it for a while before starting a thread.
You don't have to be on here much to trip over a shoes on / off thread as there are a couple each week.

No, it’s not normal.
How do you reconcile your cats walking outside?

Ours is disgusting. Poo (human and dog) vomit, spitting, rubbish, fly tipping. Piss. Takeaways strewn across the pavement. The occasional used needle. Drug dealers. Robberies, stabbings, the occasional murder. Definitely look where you walk and pay attention to your surroundings.

Yes, weird. Very weird.

I never give germs a seconds thought. Hasn't done me any harm, very very rarely if ever ill. Might take a sick day ever 2 or 3 years. Don't take my shoes off, wash my hands after being out, worry about where my bag was, nothing like that. Has had zero impact on my life in over 60 years.

YANBU to not wear outside shoes at home or be mindful about not putting the shopping bags on the ground.

Cleaning your shoes is unusual in my book. Do you have separate shoe racks, or one wardrobe for all? We have relatively separate shoes and clothes areas, so I don't feel a need, but I might think differently if it was the same space.

I wonder if the rapid increase in 'shoes off' houses is more to do with the vastly increased number of people renting who don't want to have to struggle to keep the place respectable for the house inspections by agents than anything else? Also if you rent, you can't just decide what kind of flooring to have down or change it if it doesn't work, which might also encourage 'shoes off'.

No I don't have shoe racks anywhere only in the wardrobe. When I get in I clean my shoes and when I next go upstairs I put them away. Visitors take their shoes off and leave them at the door.

Taking your shoes upstairs and putting them in the wardrobe is far more unusual than being a generally shoes off house.

I can add 20 years to that! And I honestly don’t think anyone - including crawling babies - has ever become ill from contact with our floors or other surfaces. And for a long time we had a dog who didn’t wipe her paws either - though of course I’d give them a wipe if they were actually muddy.

I really do think there’s an epidemic of unhealthy germ-phobia, especially on MN.

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

So you sit on seats/benches on public transport or in public places? You know these are equally mucky? Do you take your trousers off when you get home?

Ok, that is unusual. I can't imagine bringing outside shoes upstairs all the time, it sounds inconvenient to me and not very hygienic.

If I had to, cleaning the soils would partially help with the hygienic aspect, but not with the inconvenience.

Do you clean the soils even when you know you'll be going out in them again later in the day?

By definition, it is out of the ordinary, and you know this (you know it is not what other people do).
'Weird' is an extra value judgement, and I personally think it is a weird extension of a practical concern with hygiene.

It came to that with me once, sadly. I came home to find DH cleaning dog poo off my bedroom carpet! He was working outside and "popped in" to get something, without removing his shoes. We're in a bungalow and the bedroom is next to the front door.

But what made me realise about pavements is when someone posted a link to a study about bacteria on them. They are disgusting. But I don't wipe the dog's paws unless they're muddy so I suppose it's all about perception, and where you draw the line.

Also how you were brought up. It was always slippers in the house when I was small.

No I do not know anyone who does this, and I don’t do it myself. We tend to take our shoes off and leave them in a big basket in the hall.

I don’t get all this talk of “muck”. Do you mean mud? We live rurally and unless we’ve been on a walk no mud gets trodden in because we wear wellies and leave them outside/ clean them.

For day to day stuff our shoes don’t get mucky or muddy. And even if they did, it’s fine to have a floor which is not absolutely pristine because you’re not eating dinner off the floor or performing a surgical procedure. My floors are hoovered and mopped regularly and we are a very healthy family in general.

I don’t get what you’re worried about TBH and this all seems like a massive faff and waste of time.

It's not about germs phobia as I've said several times. I don't want muck off the street in my house. No I don't mean mud necessarily. I mean having walked on the street where people and animals have puked, weed, thrown up etc. Or worse.

Also my house is small and there's no room for shoes and shoe racks at the door and there's no hallway. I won't always wear the same shoes either. Having them in the wardrobe works.

We have a no shoes in the house policy - including guests. I dont put bags on the floor either.

However I dont clean shoes (unless very obviously need it). They dont come any further than the porch so no need to.

I take shoes off at the door, it’s cultural and stuff does get trodden in. I would only clean my shoes if I had unfortunately trodden in something though.

I don’t put my bag on the floor, there is no need I do see people put them on the floor of public loos and you can see them under the door, it’s not exactly clean is it. Plus I suppose someone could grab it. There could be piss on the floor it’s unlikely a chair would have been peed on so a bag on a chair is very different.

Luckily I only have guests who wouldn't considering leaving their shoes on and walking on a cream carpet, or care that their shoes matched their outfits

My daughter uses wheels / crutches. If I were to be concerned about shoes inside, I’d have to make sure her wheels / crutches were equally clean. None of us have died because of people’s old pizza being on them.

Ok, so it is a purely hypothetical scenario. Bravely refusing something (visiting a friend with shoes off home) that no-one offered your, for the sake of keeping the artfully crafted match between shoes and outfit.

Bit OTT

I am exactly the same as you, OP, except for wiping soles and sides of shoes. I live in the most urban of urban cities in North America and I think exactly the same thoughts. I have trained my children never to put anything down in the subway floor, to balance it on their feet like penguins with their eggs. At home, no shoes/ coats/ shopping bags/ school bags cross through the door from the hallway into the rest of the house. The hallway is large, with closets and shoe racks and space to leave everything overnight.

🙁

It’s shockingly rude to expect to walk around in someone’s house wearing outside shoes. Wow. Who do you think you are and what right do you think you have, “politely refusing” to do as every other person does, IN SOMEONE ELSE’S HOUSE, because you match your shoes to your outfit? I’ve never heard such a thing. Thank goodness I have never come across someone like this, I don’t know what I’d say to them tbh! Even strangers/tradespeople etc always offer to remove shoes/put shoe covers on. Actually, I do have a pair of covers by the front door. Would you also refuse to put those on because they spoil your aesthetic?!

I’m with you, the streets where I live are rank as is the seafront. I inwardly cringe when I see people sitting or putting bags etc near all the dog pissy, human wee areas. Some people seem oblivious and in some ways I envy them, ignorance is bliss!