Should you take your shoes off at home? - Or at other people's homes?

[uptower]

Ask that question in Japan

 

[Rumpel]

Ask that question in Japan

I ask it here - for the US.

 

[skeptic llc]

When my wife and I bought our first house, my ability to wear shoes inside was specifically negotiated (i.e., you pick the house, I keep my shoes on inside it). I hate being shoeless. But if I arrive at someone's door and they take shoes off in their house, so do I -- who cares? Might as well be polite.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

I can understand that. And if there is mud etc on the shoes.
But that is not the norm.

Usually shoes are clean.
Why remove clean shoes?

Because shoes are rarely clean

The bottom of the shoes will have dirt on them. Socks most likely not. I dont want dirt tracked through my house when it can be contained at the entrance

 

[Rumpel]

Might as well be polite.

So you think anybody who keeps his shoes on is impolite?
I do not think so.

I see it as utterly impolite to order one's guests about and demand that they should undress.

 

[Rumpel]

dont want dirt tracked through my house

Where do you live?
Somewhere near the Congo?
Or in Outer Mongolia?

Or somewhere else where people usually walk on dirty dirt roads?

 

[skeptic llc]

So you think anybody who keeps his shoes on is impolite?
I do not think so.

I see it as utterly impolite to order one's guests about and demand that they should undress.

They don't have to "order" or "demand." They manage (sorry, can't come up with a better term) their house in a certain way, and a visitor shouldn't come in and undo it. If they don't smoke in the house, I don't smoke in the house. (Well, I don't smoke anymore, but if I still did.) Same idea.

 

[Rumpel]

Smoking is another field.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Where do you live?
Somewhere near the Congo?
Or in Outer Mongolia?

Or somewhere else where people usually walk on dirty dirt roads?

Calgary Canada
We can have snow on the ground for months on end. Most floors are either wood or carpet. I don’t want rocks caught in the bottom of shoes scratching my wood floor, or dirt being tracked on light coloured carpet.
Most people are the same here, shoes come off at the entrance. It is just standard to practice

 

[Rumpel]

A new idea:

Shoes are usually very clean.
At least in our region here.

Carpets are not always clean.
Now if a guest walks with his clean shoes across a dirty carpet, may he then not ask the host to remove that dirty carpet, so that his shoes remain clean?
After all: The guest should be King! Not those bossy hosts that seem to be the norm in some regions!

Just an idea!

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

A new idea:

Shoes are usually very clean.
At least in our region here.

Carpets are not always clean.
Now if a guest walks with his clean shoes across a dirty carpet, may he then not ask the host to remove that dirty carpet, so that his shoes remain clean?
After all: The guest should be King! Not those bossy hosts that seem to be the norm in some regions!

Just an idea!

German streets never get dust or rocks, never get rained on, never have animals do their thing on them?

Or do Germans clean the bottom of their shoes every 20 minutes?

 

[Rumpel]

A new idea:

Shoes are usually very clean.
At least in our region here.

Carpets are not always clean.
Now if a guest walks with his clean shoes across a dirty carpet, may he then not ask the host to remove that dirty carpet, so that his shoes remain clean?
After all: The guest should be King! Not those bossy hosts that seem to be the norm in some regions!

Just an idea!

May I repeat my statement:

I think it an original idea,

A bit funny, but with some truth in it.

 

[Rumpel]

do Germans clean the bottom of their shoes every 20 minutes?

Germans and Germans are different - they are not all the same.

But there should be a general agreement: If shoes are dirty, which is very rarely the case, the guest removes them without being asked
If shoes are clean, which is the norm, they may be kept on.

 

[Fledermaus]

Where do you live?
Somewhere near the Congo?
Or in Outer Mongolia?

Or somewhere else where people usually walk on dirty dirt roads?

Have you ever traveled?

 

[Aunt Antifa]

Germans and Germans are different - they are not all the same.

But there should be a general agreement: If shoes are dirty, which is very rarely the case, the guest removes them without being asked
If shoes are clean, which is the norm, they may be kept on.

But here’s the thing: even if they’re dirty (normal, every day dirt, not that htey just tracked through mud): it shouldn’t matter. They’re a guest. Guests are made to feel like that. If you have to do a little extra cleaning after, so be it.

Guest. Welcome. Feel free to put your shoe-adorned feet up, friend. Stay a while.

 

[WillyPete]

I see it as utterly impolite to order one's guests about and demand that they should undress.

That's a self-correcting problem, unless you for some reason prefer to associate with people you find impolite.

 

[Rumpel]

But here’s the thing: even if they’re dirty (normal, every day dirt, not that htey just tracked through mud): it shouldn’t matter. They’re a guest. Guests are made to feel like that. If you have to do a little extra cleaning after, so be it.

Guest. Welcome. Feel free to put your shoe-adorned feet up, friend. Stay a while.

Well said!

And in addition - we have doormats here, where the little bit of dust that may be under shoe can be easily removed.

 

[Rexedgar]

“When in Rome.........”

 

[Aunt Antifa]

Well said!

And in addition - we have doormats here, where the little bit of dust that may be under shoe can be easily removed.

We add these things to our homes in part so people feel okay to come in *despite* the elements, right? There’s a reason they’re called “welcome mats”.

 

[Rumpel]

@ Canada

Must be a very poor country.

Completely snowed in 12 months a year - 31 days per month - 24 hours a day.

You have my deepest sympathy.

 

[Rumpel]

Whereas the US seems to be a bit more like the Congo.

Muddy roads everywhere.

12 months a year - 31 days per month - 24 hours a day.

And dirt and shit where-ever you go.

I feel great pity for the US.

I understand that it is strictly forbidden to enter any building with shoes on.

 

[Rumpel]

• Total voters 20 now

 

[JasperL]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/27/science/shoes-in-house-germs.html#:~:text=Taking off shoes inside the,sick, you can probably relax.
And what is your opinion?

The replies are interesting. Looks like it's a cultural and regional thing. In my area in Tennessee, you take your shoes off if they're very dirty, at home or at someone else's house. I keep shoes by the back door for walking the dog. Those come off at the door. If I go out the front door with 'regular' shoes, they stay on when I get home until I decide I'm more comfortable with them off. Otherwise, leave them on.

I did have friends from California as a kid, and we had to remove our shoes before going inside his house, but they were 'weird' and smoked pot and reportedly walked around nude! What we called hippies back in the day.

Except for them and a few other cases, it's basically unheard of to ask guests to remove their shoes, and it's not done really at all, except, again, if someone's shoes are dirty because of bad weather, snow or something similar. If asked, I'd of course happily take them off or do whatever the homeowner wanted/expected, because I'm their guest. If they're in stocking feet, I'd happily join them. My default inside our house is barefoot or in socks, but that's a comfort thing, not a sanitation or cleanliness thing.

 

[JasperL]

You should follow the house rules. Some people will look at you very weirdly if you take your shoes off in their home. While other people have it as a requirement.

LOL, yeah, in this area coming in someone's house for a dinner or for drinks or whatever and then dropping your nice shoes off at the front door would be VERY unexpected. I've pretty much never seen it happen. In the summer we live in shorts, and I don't typically wear socks with shoes, and going into someone's house then going barefoot is just not commonly done, other than a lake house or cabin or something, or with very good friends.

I can totally understand it in northern climates, and cities, where your shoes might be covered in snow or chemical ice melt and the dirt from a city street that was two steps away, but it's different when I leave my house, walk five steps to the car, drive to someone's house, then 10 steps to their front door. The shoes are clean...

 

[JasperL]

Probably true. Seems like more of backyard BBQ in your shorts and thongs--- or a wedding reception in the park kind of crowd around here. I'm sure most have never been to a dinner party where you sit down at assigned seats around a table with fine china and silverware without plastic 2 liter bottles of Mountain Dew on the table. Few people today even know what is proper attire for a wedding or a funeral. See people showing up in t shirts and jeans. I'm glad I don't run in those kinds of circles. Went to a funeral for someone from work who had died and besides the stiff in the box and the preacher, I was the only other one who wore a suit and tie. A suit--- not a sports coat and slacks. A dark suit.

I sometimes wear a suit as well, but it's only because in a former life when accountants wore suits to work I had to buy them. I haven't worn a suit for a job in at least 10 years, and only then because I had to be in court for a client, which means that's how old my newest suit is. I'm not buying one for a funeral 3 times a year when the custom now is look respectable for the family, and few of them will be in a suit, even wealthy families in my area. About the only men showing up in suits at the last funeral for a wealthy lawyer were other lawyers, who work in them daily. Everyone else - mostly sports jacket and a tie, but many in just a nice shirt and slacks, which is the new local dress code for business for everyone not going to court on a regular basis.