AIBU to think wearing shoes indoors is a bit odd?

[Livefreely]

For thinking it’s weird to wear shoes inside the house?! Had a couple over last week for lunch and they never took shoes off- even if it’s not bad weather the bottom of shoes are filthy!! So would they go round their house all day in shoes? So weird to me!!
now I’m cleaning my floors as they are so dirty!

no one tell them about the amount of dead skin people spread around in one day 😂

so many neurotic people on this thread! I wish I had the time to change into ‘indoor clothes’ or spend all my time worrying how a bit of outside dirt might affect me!

I grew up in the countryside - playing outside in mud, shovelling horse shit into wheelbarrows! Of course I’d take my boots off and leave outside (and sometimes my trousers too)! Some dirt and germ exposure is good for you. As long as you clean regularly this is totally a non issue.

I don't understand how a shoes on house works in practice.

So when you get home from work, and you're not going out again, you just keep your shoes on all evening? You curl up on the sofa with your shoes on? Would it be dependent on the shoes, eg a pair of trainers you keep on, but heels you take off? At what point do you take them off?

We all walk around our house bare feet most of the year. And will always offer or automatically take our shoes off in other people's houses. The majority of our guests will take shoes off when they come in. But I never ask anyone to remove shoes, and I will tell anyone with mobility problems not to bother. I live rurally and in damp weather a million pine needles will always come in on every pair of shoes, you have to walk along wet gravel paths to get to the door so shoes are often noticeably dirty. My carpets in the lounge get filthy if people don't take off shoes and it annoys me that I have to up the cleaning frequency, we all regularly sit on the carpet to play game, get the best spot in front of the fire, do puzzles etc. Not so bothered about the hard floors. I don't sit on those and they are quick and easy to mop.

Does that make me posh or common?

I think common sense is key

I've just returned home from the supermarket and inadvertently stepped in some old vomit

I took my shoes AND my trousers off at the door as they are fairly long on me and I was afraid, the hem might have brushed against it.

If I've been out and about in central London, I often change my clothes unless I've been wearing a coat

But if I've walked somewhere clean and dry, then no, I wipe my feet on the mat.

Growing up, I knew no one who took their shoes off and if you watch TV programmes from the 1980s you'll see that it's all shoes on.

No need to apologise but please do share how so?

I am always bemused by the adverts for fitted wardrobes, which have shelves and racks for shoes. Who in their right mind would want dirty shoes, upstairs, in their bedroom? I don't understand the concept at all.

Well, I don’t disagree, but I’m assuming that the vibe is less ‘the manky ASICS runners in which I walk the dogs’ than ‘aspirational Sarah Jessica Parker walk-in wardrobe with serried ranks of Louboutin stilettos in which the closest they get to dirt is two steps between my front step and a taxi’ kind of thing.

They have. Though usually it’s been displaced onto posters’ class-conscious mothers!

@Oliveoyquite simple really. Walk in the house, unpack shopping go about daily chores. Sometimes take shoes off and put on slippers for comfort. If sitting on sofa and fancy putting my feet up, take off shoes!

Wow, god forbid someone puts a pair of shoes in the wardrobe in the bedroom. I can’t even imagine what might happen if you slept in a room where a pair of shoes that had ventured outside might have been! This thread is killing me 😂😂😂

@Velveting and @poetryandwine can you help me understand.

I think I assume (historically at least)

upper class shoes on (because someone else cleans the floor, dogs are more important than humans and tatty old carpets look effortlessly classy)

Middle class shoes off (because you do your own cleaning and carpets are bloody expensive, looking pristine reflects well on the home maker)

Lower class anything goes (because there are bigger problems than worrying about shoes on or off - leaning towards shoes on as flooring more likely to be hard wearing and heating less likely to be on)

Now - I have no idea.

When you go to bed.

Shoes off for everyone here. For various reasons. I clock it whenever I watch telly and someone walks inside a house with shoes on.

I don't think it's "disgusting" but not wearing outdoor shoes in the house saves on the amount of hoovering/cleaning so it just seems more sensible. It's also more comfortable.

We only have carpet upstairs and no one wears their shoes upstairs. I'm not really bothered about people (guests) wearing shoes downstairs as it's hard floors and the robot hoover will just eat any "bits" later. There's a shoe rack by the front door and we (household members) generally take shoes off when we come in. We also each have a pair of sliders by the back door for going out in the garden but I admit that i sometimes wear mine in the kitchen when I'm cooking if I have no socks on, as I hate getting crumbs stuck to my feet. Floor gets robot-hoovered daily and steam mopped weekly. No one has died from the "garden germs" from my sliders.

When i lived at home with parents we were a shoes on house, even upstairs. It seems strange now but guess what, no one died from shoe germs then either.

Clearly shoes on people have been taught to sit properly. I have my feet underneath me most of the time (including at my office desk) so very rarely have shoes on as its really uncomfortable.

If you sit with ankles crossed to the side on a proper chair rather than lounging then I think shoes work better.

I am over invested, and procrastinating. I think I need to step away from this thread! 😂

I guess it’s what you’re used to. I was raised to take shoes off when you’re indoors so it’s habit now.

Wrong as regards much of the ‘ordinary’ MC, certainly in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, etc. I’m not saying that there wasn’t the odd hygiene-obsessed MC germophobe in those decades, too. But it wasn’t the MC norm.

No shoes indoors is extremely weird to me. I'm 67, and can't recall a single time in my life that I've visited a 'shoes off' house. Not once. Honestly. I guess it's a generational thing - you young'uns and your cream carpets!

The upper classes focus on guests’ preferences and do not pay overt attention to their behaviour. An undue focus on keeping one’s house clean is considered nitpicking.

Agree with all this - it is a class thing.

The amusing part of all this is the the people who demand shoes off for their cream carpets are all a bit Hyacinth Bouquet - they think they are
posh but in reality it’s the height of bad manners and the upper class wouldn’t dream of asking (in their manors with stone floors and dogs).

It’s fine not to wear shoes in your own house. It’s bad manners to ask guests to take them off. And it is a sign of being lower class that people don’t know this.

This does not apply to other cultures. I am talking about this country.

You’ve got it. I think. I am not British but I married into a UMC academic/Civil Service family. The older social circle is very much Shoes On.

Of course our Asian friends are Shoes Off. Now we have a variety of friends and I’ve noticed that more of the younger ones and Northern Europeans are also Shoes Off.

Yep - exactly. You value your carpets over your guests comfort.

I take it you mean the Shoes Off folk?

Perhaps but I was replying in response to someone saying it’s the poor trying to be posh or appear to be more ‘middle class’. Don’t think anyone can get away pretending theirs upper class as they are a separate entity

We didn’t take shoes off at home and we were very working class 😳 I would appear I have moved up the ‘class’ ladder these days and I take my shoes off 😂

All of the above is moot though as I think it’s vile bringing the crap from outside in to your carpets 🤢 but whatever floats your boat.

I think people need to remember that the ‘upper’ class predominantly don’t have carpets in their stately homes. The average Jo does in the UK but that’s only recently so that will play a factor in wanting to keep them clean.