Anyone have a "shoes off" household?

soylatte · March 2014

Just wondering if I am being unreasonable about this. We live in an area surrounded by wildlife - geese, coyotes, you name it. Before baby is here I plan on deep cleaning the carpet in our family room and asking people to remove their shoes (want to be able to allow baby on the floor, etc.) The rest of our first floor is hard wood w/ area rugs, which are easier to clean. But because of all the crap tracked in on shoes, I don't want it in the family room. Thoughts? Am I paranoid, having read too many articles about what gets tracked in on shoes??? I can take the harsh comments if I'm ridiculous. Thanks. :-)

tjkdlhb · March 2014

I cannot for the life of me understand shoes in a house. So much mud! I think it's a CDN vs US thing.

jjh471 · March 2014

We don't do shoes in the house. For guests it's okay but if it's rainy and muddy out we ask them to take them off.. we've never had anyone complain

Miles2Go · March 2014

We are a shoes off household. Just because everything stays cleaner, and we don't have any carpet. Your house, your rules. I don't see anything wrong with it.

britab · March 2014

We always take our shoes off and most of our guests do too. My dad is elderly and is a diabetic with foot issues. We don't expect him to and I hope others wouldn't be rude about it.

jane8188 · March 2014

I didn't know there were shoes on households. I thought people always took their shoes off?

Helmink0804 · March 2014

We take our shoes off. We make all kids take shoes off. Our friends all take shoes off but my aunts and uncles and parents keep them on.

Sweetiepie51 · March 2014

It must be a Canadian thing, I don't know any shoes ON households. We always take our shoes off when entering our own home and any other.

Bayberry12 · March 2014

We also have a shoes off house. We don't have guests too often, but when we do most take their shoes off when they see us. Some people ask if they have too take theirs off, and we usually say "we don't wear shoes inside, but you can keep them on if your not comfortable."

However, once the baby comes, there will be no shoes allowed inside.

Like the others have said, your house your rules. I will say it is sooo much cleaner inside if shoes are not worn in the house.

MusicATWork · March 2014

We remove our shoes when we walk into the entrance of our house, and we have a carpet to put shoes on in the winter. Same thing when coming in by the back patio door, we leave our shoes on the carpet before walking into the house. We also always take off our shoes when going to anyone's house.

cnbean · March 2014

I think this is a regional thing. When we lived in Texas and New Mexico no one seemed to take shoes off. But here in Alaska pretty much everyone takes their shoes off when they go inside. Too much mud and snow to track that through a house! I've seen some cute little signs in the past that ask visitors to take shoes off, you might be able to find an idea for that on pinterest or something. That way everyone knows you expect it and its not a huge hassle to tell everyone.

ThereBeDragons · March 2014

We don't wear shoes in the house, but more because we like to put our feet up on the furniture and have no desire to clean the furniture. We have all hardwoods and tile with the exception of a low pile rug in baby's room because carpeting kills my asthma.

We don't, however, insist on guests taking theirs off. They are welcome to, but they usually don't unless their feet are muddy or they have a no shoes rule in their own house. The path from car to front door is paved and has a nice open patio so if they're tracking in dirt/mud they were tracking it into their car first. (We don't live in a walk-friendly city)

We have had carpeting before and enforced a no shoes rule though. I can't really imagine trying to get wall to wall carpeting clean enough to want to let my kid shove her face in it though. It's a different thing when you can take a rug out back and beat it clean.

spacepotatoes · March 2014

Yeah, another Canadian here...everyone I know has a "shoes off" household. In the winter, we do slippers sometimes but otherwise, nothing.

kalette · March 2014

Shoes. Off.
My DH can attest to the fact that I barely let shoes through the front door because they track so much crap onto my entry way rugs.. especially now in the winter when everything is covered in sand and salt.

ho11yday · March 2014

We don't keep our shoes on in the house (they stay in the garage, but we do have check them for creepy-crawlies); however, our guests hardly ever comply. Likewise, upon entering other people's homes, I also take off my shoes.

However, I've read (a couple years ago) that keeping shoes off in the house does keep down allergens unless you have a dog, which tracks in just as much nastiness as shoes do.

Shell+Bell · March 2014

Sorry, this question seems strange to me. I've never been to a "shoes on household." Haha for what it's worth, I'm also canadian, didn't know this was a CDN trait, but seems I've learned something new.

LoveIsAll25 · March 2014

We take our shoes off before entering our house. But we don't make our guest take their shoe's off. They usually do they take them off on snowy/rainy days.

I am sure if you ask your visitors to take them off before entering the house they will have no problem doing it. Specially when it will result in seeing a baby.

apinkpelican · March 2014

We don't have rules about it in our house. We take shoes off just bc it's more comfy but never ask guests to. A friend of mine with a 'no shoes' house has a basket by the door with slippers and comfy socks in case your guest was not prepared or is uncomfortable taking shoes off. I always thought that was a nice way to have guests comply but feel more comfortable in doing so.

springbeduk2 · March 2014

Pretty much shoes off. Our floors are crappy and ancient and need to be replaced but shoes off is comfier and DH (who thinks I'm even 50 times more clumsy than I actually am) is always worried about me stepping on a cat. Of course stepping on a baby having some floor time or learning to crawl is way worse.

On the other hand ... some germs are good. Kids survived and thrived and had way less allergies when they played in dirt (and all that is in it from wildlife, etc.) except for of course occasional bad things (but now we have antibiotics and nice things like that for when you need them). Scratched up nice hardwood floors (by sand/gravel in shoe tread); miserably mud-stained nice carpets; fingers hurt by being stepped on in a shoed foot ... those are bad.

So ... shoes off but skip the deep cleaning? And let/make kiddo play outside a lot as soon as old enough.

usernewname · March 2014

I'm Canadian! I didn't know it was our kinda thing. We are shoes off too unless you have "indoor" shoes/slippers. Same at all the schools I've worked at too. We don't wear outdoor shoes inside.

We like to keep our igloos clean

getitdone · March 2014

I guess I am in the minority here. We are a shoes on household. We take our shoes off to put on slippers but that is once we change out of our work clothes. We would never ask guests to take their shoes off unless they are muddy or wet but our friends do that any way. If a friend asked me to take my shoes off if they are not muddy or wet, I would but I would think twice about going back to that friends' house unless I bring my own slippers. I do not like being in my own home in just socks so I definitely don't want to be in someone else's house with no socks or shoes.

alphalyrae · March 2014

We don't wear shoes in the house, and have a shoe rack right next to the front door. We've never actually said anything to people who come over, but most of our friends tend to take their shoes off, especially when there is bad weather outside.

I instinctively take my shoes off when I go to another person's home. Generally, if they don't mind, they are quick to say 'You don't need to take those off!', and I reply that I don't mind/leave them on if they aren't muddy or wet. I don't traipse around their house with bare feet though, I almost always have socks on.

IBackBevo · March 2014

We never wore shoes growing up in the house. Never. I don't think it is unreasonable...at all.

As an aside, I sort of got into it with my FIL over this issue when we had our first home. We had bbrand new, off - white carpet and he had been outside and literally had grass covered shoes. I asked him to take them off and he responded with some rude ass and slightly racist comment about he wasn't Asian and I must have been living with my brother too long. My brother's is live in girlfriend at the time was Asian and I had lived with them like 3 years earlier. It really pissed me off.

pistolpackinmomma · March 2014

cnbean said:

I think this is a regional thing. When we lived in Texas and New Mexico no one seemed to take shoes off. But here in Alaska pretty much everyone takes their shoes off when they go inside. Too much mud and snow to track that through a house! I've seen some cute little signs in the past that ask visitors to take shoes off, you might be able to find an idea for that on pinterest or something. That way everyone knows you expect it and its not a huge hassle to tell everyone.

I have a sign that says "Life is full of choices, take off your shoes or scrub the floors". I was raised to always take my shoes off when visiting someone and most do the same here. My in laws are a different story and I've had to "retrain" DH to take his off but he has always taken them off at other peoples houses. My FIL is the only one who doesn't really take his off even though he does for anyone else's house. But that's a whole different story.

MrsT2008 · March 2014

We take ours off mostly out of habit. We do not ask guests to take off their shoes though. A lot of them do anyway. Especially if it's wet outside.

Xath · March 2014

We don't wear shoes in the house for many reasons (I don't wear shoes wherever I can get away with it), but we don't ask guests to remove theirs.

awknyc · March 2014

Being Korean I was raised not wearing shoes in the house. Makes things so much cleaner especially when there's going to be a LO crawling around all over the place. Guests know to take off shoes when entering the house but if they should ever want to keep their shoes on we have shoe covers from Home Depot that they can just slip on.

jenb_99 · March 2014

Paranoid, as far as germs go. Yeah, crap gets tracked in, but it's really not the junk on the floor that makes your family sick. It's what comes in on their hands and gets spread over your counters and into your food. Look at all the kids who grow up in the country, and babies who crawl around in dirt and grass in backyards.

I like the idea of a shoes-off household for appearance and general cleanliness, though. I hate vacuuming and sweeping, and I hate the look of dirty carpet and floors.

CVislo · March 2014

Personally, I sweep and clean my floors so often that it was never a big deal to me when we lived in North Carolina. However, now that we are in Japan, it's polite to remove shoes before entering someone's home. So not only do we remove shoes at other people's homes, we now have a no shoes rule in our home. The only time shoes are worn in the house is when groceries are being brought in from the car... And even then, the person wearing the shoes doesn't come past the entry way tile floor.

meli1025 · March 2014

It's shoes off in this house too. If I'm having a party I tend to be more lenient, but otherwise everyone removes their shoes and doesn't have a problem with it.

momthatlifts · March 2014

Me and my husband just moved and we absolutely have a shoes off rule.

LindsayB0505 · March 2014

I'm also Canadian. Can someone please explain to me WHY you WOULD wear your outside (dirty) shoes in your house? I really don't get it.

jsaffer01 · March 2014

For my job I go into people's homes and work with their children.. More often than not I take my shoes off when entering their home. If the parents say I don't need to take them off I won't. But if it's been raining or snowing I will def take them off, because I don't want to track the mud and wetness around their home.

In my own house, we take our shoes off, and we put slippers on.. However when we have guests come over we don't ask them to take theirs off unless they want to.

dragossoul84 · March 2014

No shoes in our house either. We put a nice expensive carpet in when we gutted our house and I don't want it wrecked. Also its so easy to track things in and then our Toddler gets them. DH forgot to take his shoes off and tracked in rock salt that I caught DS trying to eat. I got there first and got it away from him and cleaned it up but really whats the point of shoes in a house?

whitneymarie003 · March 2014

We are also a strict shoes off household. It drives me nuts when people leave their shoes on! I still feel bad asking people to take them off but we have a lot of carpet and I am a neat freak. There is just never a season where shoes on is ok, IMO.

CookingStar · March 2014

Nothing to do with us or can thing, we always take out shoes when you enter the house. It's just cleaner! Unless you want to just be washing floors all the time- snow mud rain salt germs from who knows where in your house ??!

soylatte · March 2014

I am finding the comments incredibly helpful and can't say THANK YOU loud enough. :-)

gurleymomma · March 2014

I grew up in a no shoes household and dh grew up in a home where they wear shoes.it can be annoying since we live in the country but i just deal with it.fil has a prostetic leg from the knee down so removing shoes for him is pretty impossible,ive just learned to break out the broom and vacum after he leaves.

Divine0chaos · March 2014

We have a shoes off household and I think it's totally reasonable. We keep shoes at the door so guests get the hint if not I politely ask. There are some cute etsy signs about little hands on floors etc.

Janniepp · March 2014

I don't think it's a Canadian thing at all. I am Canadian and none of my family or friends have homes where they wear their shoes inside. We do have slippers to keep our toes cozy in the winter but that's about it:)

SurprisePartySue · March 2014

I guess it's just either how your raised or personal preference. We are a shoes on home. I just never really think about it at my house. When I get dressed in the morning I put my shoes on. When I get home I usually put sweats and uggs on. Our entire house is hardwood floors, except for the guest bedrooms, so I guess it isn't a big deal for me.