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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Do you wear shoes at home? Or do have have shoes off at the door rule?

42 replies

cosymum43 · 31/03/2008 19:23

Do you wear shoes or slippers at home.Or do you go bare foot or walk around in socks.Do you have a shoes off at the door house rule just for your family or does everyone have to remove their shoes in your house.Perhaps you are flexible and let people choose for themselves. If you have a shoes off rule,do you provide slippers for guests to wear or do they bring their own.It is increasingly popular nowadays to have a shoes off rule and also more socially acceptable. Why is that?Vogue magazine said that slippers were now the number one household accessory.Why has there been a sudden seachange to wearing slippers and also having shoes off house rules.But ultimately is it not just about personal choice to have a shoes off rule in the house.
Is it not down to the each homeowner to make thier own house etiquette rules.However,some people feel can uncomfortable in walking around the house in just socks or bare foot especially in colder climate swhere feet can get very cold without slippers or shoes.
So should visitors be warned in advance that you dont allow shoes in the house so they can bring their own slippers, and/or should a good host provide a selection a clean slippers for the visitors to put on.People on boths side of the debate can get very uptight about this whole subject
when basically its pretty harmless thing to just slip your shoes off at the door.Unless there is a medical reason for wearing shoes in the house i cant imagine why anyone would actually choose to wear them
All of my family automatically kick our shoes off in our entrance hall. And if we staying in for the rest of the day we remove our socks and put them in a basket that i leave by the door and get straight into our comfy slippers.And yes the basket is emptied at least once a day and the contents put straight in the washer. So theres no nasty lingering smells.And i must say it just seems to be the customary thing to do in all the homes in our area.I have lived in many different parts of Britain and Canada and i must say its been just been the thing to automatically do before going into the house. And yes with the British and Canadian cold and wet weather it definately a case of wearing your slippers in the house.
And on an extremely practical level, i have a large family, and our carpets are only a few months old and perhaps i made a mistake when i chose the color, but our carpets are beige.And as we live in a coastal town the roads and paths are quite dirty, so the only way i can keep my carpets clean, i have no choice but to insist that, unless somebody has a medical problem or disibility, that all shoes come off at the door.No-body has ever got upset or offended by this , and our friends all bring their carpet slippers with them. In fact i bought all my four lovely childrens best friends their own pair of comfy slippers to put on when they visit. And they are left on their own special shelf by the door, just so they feel especially welcome and comfortable in our house.And yes lots of their mums have done the same for us.A little kindness goes a long way.

OP posts:

berolina · 31/03/2008 20:06

Shoes off at the door. I live in a city and the pavements are just too full of grot and shit and grime. We wear crocs at home.

hifi · 31/03/2008 20:11

i am shocked when people dont automatically take them off. i even have those blue shoe cover things so BT men dont dirty my carpets, they cant take theirs off for elf and safety. wisteria maybe you could use the same argument. if i am staying at someones house i will take my own slippers, wouldnt want to wear someone elses.

Blu · 31/03/2008 20:12

All the kids round here automatically remove their shoes on entering any house, and will continue to do so until all dogs are under control of a responsible owner!

Doormats are realy NOT the solution for a big sticky stinking load of dogshit!

I wear thick socks round the house.

booge · 31/03/2008 20:13

I wear shoes in the house and I would never ask anyone to take theirs off, I'm not that precious. If I visited someone however and they didn't wear shoes in the house I would take mine off.

booge · 31/03/2008 20:14

hifi, do you really have blue shoe covers???

Wheelybug · 31/03/2008 20:14

I wear socks/barefoot around the house depending on temperature. I can't bear/bare (?) slippers.

I certainly don't expect people to take shoes off downstairs as we have wood floors but I do expect people to take shoes off upstairs which is carpetted BUT I wouldn't ask them to (I would ask children though). TBH, there is little need for visitors to go upstairs (unless they're staying of course).

MIL always makes a big thing about having her slippers with her as she can't abide wood floors (not that she says that - you can just tell).

hifi · 31/03/2008 20:18

i have a box of them booge,everyone steals them from me to give to their BT men.

sushistar · 31/03/2008 20:20

We both have slippers and we always always take our shoes off. We live in central london, and even aside from all the dog poo and people's spit on the pavements shoes also carry lots of the pollutants emmited by cars- heavy metals and other nasties. Yuk!

We have a row of shoes in our hallway and most people get the hint and remove their shoes. I don't ask them if they don't, but I think it's a bit rude.

As soon as we can afford it I'm goint to replace our hallway carpet with a hard flooring - maybe bamboo or cork. I love the Japanese tradition of havin slippers for guests, but we don't do that.

mumdebump · 31/03/2008 20:34

I would love to have a shoes-off policy indoors but can't seem to train DH who is in and out of house like a yo-yo. He seems to think that is OK to wear 'house shoes' as slippers in house and garden, never mind that he will have trodden in mud and bird poo and made feeble attempt to wipe them on doormats. Also DD is now crawling and rolling about on floors now, so really don't want her to be rubbing her face in all the disgusting things that have been on the soles of our shoes.

Hall and kitchen have hard floors so don't mind shoes on there as I can mop them (occasionally ) but am trying to impose no shoes in living room or upstairs which have carpet. Has anyone any ideas about how to retrain DH, other than saying 'SHOES' very pointedly everything he walks in to living room. I hate being a nag.

quarkee · 31/03/2008 20:36

we once went to view a house and they insisted we take our shoes off - not the best way to attract a prospective purchaser (and the house was a mess) . Having said that we take our shoes off amd wear slippers. Ds (2 yrs old) insists on MIL wearing her 'pippers' when she comes to visit (sweet) - can i ask, cosy, why did you start this thread??

CountessDracula · 31/03/2008 20:37

I take my shoes off if I am going upstairs if I remember but I often don't

I wouldn't dream of telling people to take shoes off at the door they might have smelly feet or someting

MrsGuyOfGisbourne · 31/03/2008 20:42

Blu - us too - round here the kids all automatically take their shoes off in each others houses and we have always done it at home. I don't ask adults to do so, people we know well tend to do so automatically. We have wooden and stone floors (underfloor heating under the stone floors,very toasty in the morning) but the thought of shoes on carpets is UGH!!! ( Tho' thinking about it I find carpets pretty ugh too - we only have carpet on the stairs...)

Fizzylemonade · 31/03/2008 20:42

Shoes off!!! If you have children who use the school toilets and husbands/partners who also use public work toilets they must walk around with the most awful stuff on the bottom of their shoes!

I did consider buying slippers for visitors (my sister has slippers for guests) most people whip off their shoes in my hall when they see all our shoes there.

I wouldn't ask someone to do it though. I did have a workman who put those shoe covers on when he came in (they were his)

LyraSilvertongue · 31/03/2008 20:54

DP will tread on anything in his outdoor shoes - bathmats, cushions (DC always throw them on the floor when they sit on the sofa), even the children's pyjamas if they're left on the floor after getting dressed for school. I have to nag him all the time. He doesn't see what the problem is So I have to make sure I pick everything up to stop him treading on them.

Maidamess · 31/03/2008 20:59

Yes Lyra my dh is like that. Great clods of dried mud everywhere. His parents never take their shoes off in their house either

RustyBear · 31/03/2008 21:03

It's strange - I don't have a shoes off rule, but every single one of DS & DD's teenage friends automatically take their shoes off as soon as they come in. I wear slippersm, DS & DD just go barefoot, DH is the only one that wears shoes but that will stop when we get our new carpet....

perpetualworrier · 31/03/2008 21:03

Does anyone know what the "rules" are i.e. what does formal etiquette say?

I once had all the extended family to mine for Christmas day and I distinctly remember a distant female relative, who thought she was a bit posh, barking "shoes" at her DH when he slipped them off momentarily at about 3pm! I have to admit I always thought it was not the done thing, unless you had slippers to wear, but now it seems ruder not to assume that you should remove them.

I always do, my children def always do, but I would never ask a visitor to. When I go visiting I always wear socks now, as otherwise I freeze and if I'm staying the day I take my slippers.

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