to ask people to take their shoes off and how would I do it?

[Pennybubbly]

OK, not a huge one in the grand scale of things, but here goes.
I've lived in Japan for 14 years now and am married to a Japanese bloke. We have 2 young dcs.
We will be moving back to the UK in the future and one of the customs here that has stuck with me is how everyone is expected to remove their shoes before they enter someone's home.
It's principally a matter of cleanliness and if you think about it, when you have small kids rolling around on the floor, it makes sense for it to be on a space where you have not walked in shoes which have in turn walked in cat wee and general dirt outside.
My DH would be horrified if someone came into our house without taking their shoes off (which of course they never do here) and though he accepts it's not the custom in the UK to do so, and would therefore never criticise (of course) friends and relatives who wear shoes in their homes, he would not want people to do so in our house. And neither would I.
So question is: AIBU and how can I ask people in the nicest possible way to respect DH's culture?

everyone who gets people to take their shoes off... do you use fabric conditioner?

Can you use it on tweed?

Only on the doilies and the crinoline lady toilet roll covers. Why?

no really, do you use it?

OMG

lol

No. Why?

I don't. Fucking waste of money if you ask me.

you don't use it, swishy?

i know you don't, messalina. feelthy.

Oh just seen the post about the friend with a sign saying Please Remove your Choos. Hideous beyond belief and not remotely funny.

I suspect they wear pant under their pyjamas too, Aitch

(Can, open, oops, worms all over the place)

lol. but they smell lovely...

That would be pants, of course

Nope, I never use fabric conditioner Aitch. Why?

Nope, no pants under pyjamas here either... are you suggesting all the 'shoes off' houses are a bit OTT on the hygiene front or something?

One question: whya re most people saying it's OK if it's a 'cultural' thing, i.e. Japanese, but not OK for an ordinary British person to have this rule in their house? Each family has their own culture, and in ours, it's shoes off .

i do.

most of the people i know who have 'shoes off' homes use so much fabric conditioner on their clothes that it makes me feel a bit sick. i have made this connection while standing nursing a coffee with cold feet and feeling boaked by the strong aroma of lenor.

lenor is a bit common tbh

I do too but don't get too excited the washing powder is smartprice and the softener is own brand

No, I don't use fabric conditioner, never have done.

And almost nothing in my house matches anything else, either, if you're implying you have to be overly houseproud and fussy to want outdoor shoes to come off. (And I don't mean things don't match in a 'carefully planned to within an inch of its life to look casually bohemian' sort of way, I mean they truly don't match!)

In fact my house is a bit of a dump in many ways, but at least the floors aren't as grubby as they would be if we'd had outdoor shoes all over them for the five years we've been here.

you have cleaned in the last five years, i take it?

Have cleaned cat piss off the floor. Going to bed now as feel staying up all night to debate floors is a bit too keen.

I use fabric conditioner...and?..lol

I suspect I could smash most of your stereotypes on this front. Our house is untidy, I don't iron, no fabric conditioner, I don't categorise my washing or colour code it or any such rubbish -in fact it mostly sits in clean piles waiting to be put away. hoovering gets done maybe once a week, dusting occasionally (very). Bedlinen gets changed when we remember and ther are no doilys, antimacassas (sp?), knitted loo roll covers, twee little signs etc etc.

I do own a carpet shampoo machine, however .

We simply don;t wear shoes at home, and most of our visitors do as we do, which seems normal enough to me. It's never occurred to me to supply slippers, but perhaps I will jow consider it for those who would like the option. I never force people to take their shoes off -most just do it in response to shoerack and me & kids in socks. In other people's houses, I tend to automatically take mine off without thinking, but if they say not to then I won't or if it occurs to me then I always follow the host's lead. On special occasions where we have lots of visitors who are not close family then people will wear shoes and I won't feel the need to say anything or faint or anything .

Of course.