Why don't people remove their shoes when they come into the house?

What? People come in your house with shoes on? They do not do that in my house.

For the same reason they pee on your floor when they come visit.

I’m a big neat freak, when you come over, shoes off or fuck off. I often have to ask people to do this too. Seems so natural for people to walk in a place with their shoes on, and I hate it when people do it here. I just don’t want it to happen.
Although with my roomate in here, the clean factor in here has gone down to severe degrees, and it’s depressing me.

Still, I always take off my boots when going to someone’s place. It’s like second nature to me, passed on by my dad. Many times, people stop me and say I don’t have to take off my footwear. Just seems a bit odd to me, since I was raised with a total no shoes in the house rule lol.

Some people have worse on their feet. The sole of their shoes could possibly be better. The japanese don’t do it because of germs, they do it because the wood they use on their floors scratch easily and tatami mats are not easily cleaned. They do it mostly to perserve the expensive tatamis. Plus heels can damage the mats as well.
Also in the old days before roads where built, dirt was tracked in more often because shoes would have mud and manure from the animals that lived on the farms.

This is less likely to happen in Asiatic countries. I know some people who wear shoes inside their house but those are separate shoes that meant to be used inside a house, different from shoes that they use to walk outside.

People who live in the wild and more outdoorsy environment will also wear their everyday outdoor shoes inside their house, it’s simply because it has been the culture or they might be a bit lazy to take off their shoes or to clean the dirty, and will always be dirty floor.

They don’t do it in the US because they are lazy and because they think some nefarious fungus in someones’ toe jamb will get loose and infect them.

People take off there shoes usually in my house, but I do not insist on it. I taught my niece and nephew to do it when they were little. One time their grandma came with them, my MIL, and when they kicked their shoes off at the front door she scolded them verbally, or started to. In Mexico, and most Latin American countries this would simply not be done. A while later, maybe months or years, one day when the kids ran into her house and tracked some dirt in, she said, “maybe JL is right about having them take their shoes off.” My BIL, the son of my MIL, thinks it is gross because people have germs on their feet, but actually when they have tested this theory, people who allows shoes to be worn inside have much germier floors. Think about it, think about what is on the ground. The cleanest option is to change to house shoes, or I guess maybe having your socks on.

My sons and DIL do it but I don’t unless asked. I wear orthotics and it is very uncomfortable to me to be without shoes on. In England, many people take off their shoes and put on slippers when they get home.

@Hypocrisy_Central I think a lot of people do it in the US. Especially if people are close friendS or family, and are visiting for a casual visit, not a party.

I need shoes on to support my thrashed ankles. I will however do a shit check before going inside. I’m usually working when at anothers’ home and I’m not going to remove my shoes every time I go in and out And I’d rather not show off my holey socks.

US person here. There are only two households where shoes were asked to be taken off upon entry. Neither were the house I grew up in. I don’t know why…it sure makes sense to take them off.

My cat has a tendency to piss on the carpet, so I ‘m desensitized to wearing shoes downstairs. However, in my room, I’m more particular.

Strict no shoes policy in the Cruiser household. Now I just have to figure a way to get Sadie to remove her paws….at least she licks them clean.

My father and several of my relatives have arthritis and 2 of my relatives have diabetes. It’s very difficult for them to walk in the first place and would be very hard for them to have to take off and put on their shoes every time they went to someone’s home. It’s hard enough for them to put on their shoes in the first place and they certainly wouldn’t want to try to do that difficult (embarrassing to them) task in front of other people. For elderly folks, the fat pads have worn down on their feet and it can be very painful for them to walk on tile or hardwood floors without their shoes.

Some people have sweaty, smelly feet that are best left inside of shoes.

When I’m at home, I go in and out of the house a lot during the day. If I’m in my bare feet, my feet get really dusty and dirty and you can’t just wipe the dirt off on the mat, like I can with my shoes (my feet are still dirty looking even if I wipe them on the mat and they leave visible foot prints, whereas my shoes don’t). What I usually do, is put on flip flops if I’m going to go outside, then I take the flip flops off, when I come into the house, but I just don’t want to do that with regular shoes all day long.

I keep a supply of slip on booties that cover the shoes of anyone who does not want to remove their shoes. I do understand some people need their shoes.

I don’t wear shoes.

@ddude1116 Exactly. Many people live with dogs. They go outside and roll in the grass. Sniff piss, walk on piss and even sometimes step on shit and then go in the house daily and roll over the carpet and lay their private parts all over the floor. What makes their stuff any cleaner than our shoes? Its not like I don’t own slippers, vacuum and deordorize my carpets. And I wear slippers. So long as they people don’t have actual shit or mud on their shoes, I don’t see an issue with it. I have a mat in the front for them to wipe their shoes just in case and wipes ready for them to clean off anything that doesn’t come off. I lived with 3 brothers and it was a blessing for them to keep their shoes on. When those suckers came off in the summer time, you had to leave the room.

I don’t have carpet, so I tend to keep my shoes on. Otherwise my feet tend to hurt from walking around barefoot all day.

I also don’t lick my floors any more often than I lick my shoes. ~

No shoes in my house.

No clothes in my house….well, shorts….but I come out of everything else as soon as I hit the door. It’s that military college background.

@plethora I don’t think you are being honest with us. Are you saying that you require your visitors to remove their clothes before they are allowed into your house? Do you really want to see me without my clothes?

Agreed! I’ve been raised to always take my shoes off when I enter the house, and leave my shoes at the front or back, near the door. You’re right @josie Chinese and Japanese people do it all the time. But I’ve seen some white people’s families do it too.

Yeah, it’s much more sanitary to take your shoes off before entering the house. What I find really disgusting is when I see people sitting or lying on their beds with their outdoor shoes on. Or going to bed with their shoes on. Yuck!!

I don’t care how freshly polished and clean my dress shoes are——they come off when I enter any home! Lol.

@plethora Thank goodness. I once went to a party at someones home. During the little gathering it came out that the couple liked to walk about butt naked all day long every day. It got me wondering about the food and door knobs and furniture. I wouldn’t eat food that was made in a bathroom, so the thought that they may unconciously touch a private area and then the food or counters grossed me out. I was afraid to ask them if they wore clothes when cooking. I didn’t want to know the answer.

You could go around all day trying to fight all the germs we come into contact with but it’s a losing battle. It’s not always easy to take one’s shoes off when entering a home and somewhere along the line carpeting can probably harbor just as many germs as outdoors. Most people who enter my home feel as though they should take their shoes off because I have light colored carpeting (go figure), and because I don’t wear street shoes in my home. Also like @Pandora said, what about those with dogs (ewww!) and then the dog puts their paws on you and lick your face.

@Pandora Thank you for sharing that…:) Please be assured that private parts do not come into contact with food and remain covered.

Thank goodness for our mud room. Shoes go off in there and then the dogs run past us with all their filth.

I don’t mind shoes in the house, but we have all wood floors. They are much easier to clean than carpet. I swear I’ll never have a house with carpet, ever again.

@YARNLADY On the front porch…..and I’ve been waiting just for you…:)

I used to try to take my shoes off when coming in the house, but times when I might forget something and had to run back in, already late for work, it was too much trouble to take them off, put them back on again (especially new sneakers that you could not just slip your foot into). So it got where I would make exceptions, and then it got to where it just never happened any more.

I do remove them when I am home for good, but there are times when I will run in from outside to wash my hands, go to the bathroom, or get something, and it’s just too much to remove them each time. I try to wear flip flops in the house, but not always.

Here in england I find that most people leave their slippers by the door so when they get home they can take off their shoes and change into slippers. As a family thats what we do, and we prefer that our guests do the same.

My mom never let anyone wear shoes in our house and I always made sure my friends took off their shoes when they came over. I wasn’t aware it was that uncommon. Even now when my parents aren’t asking me to do it like they used to, it’s just habit. I don’t even like wearing shoes in the house.

Not sure, but I usually keep mine on unless the people ask me to take them off…otherwise I feel weird taking my shoes off in someone elses house..although I wish they’d do it in mine.

I take my shoes off, always, because I don’t like wearing shoes. But I don’t have a policy on others wearing their shoes in my house because it’s all hard flooring, so everything they track in can be mopped off (and really, with 3 cats, what are they going to track in that my cats won’t put there anyway?).

People ALWAYS take their shoes off at my place. I’m a total germ freak with wall to wall white carpeting. I even have little booties for people like the cable guy and others that are not allowed to remove their shoes per company policy.

When I lived in Alabama, Arizona and Florida, people generally didn’t take their shoes off upon entering a house, unless requested to. 99% of the people I know in Minnesota insist on it.

I came to a conclusion that it’s mostly a regional cultural trait whether to take shoes off or not. It seems to be a very Scandinavian/German thing to take shoes off automatically.

This regional tendency isn’t 100% but a very strong tendency both ways… with people becoming more and more willing to move to new cities, I suspect they’re bringing their regional culture with them and being puzzled out of their minds when others aren’t doing the same. What’s “commonsense” in Minnesota is not necessarily commonsense in Florida.

@linguaphile – interesting comment about the Scandinavian/German thing. I swear that my no shoe thing isn’t just my germphobia – it’s gotta be what my great grandparents passed down through generations Helga and Otto wouldn’t dream of shoes in the house. :)

@JessicaRTBH I’m not German/Scandinavian, am from Alabama, so I still have a hard time taking my shoes off up here in Minnesota. Except when it’s snowy outside—it makes so much sense not to track mud and snow in the house! :D

I’m really uncomfortable without shoes on. I never go barefoot, even if I don’t go out all day! Years ago, when I bought my first brand new home, we did have a no shoes inside policy, but I quickly got over it. If someone asks me to remove my shoes in their home, I do, but I’m not terribly happy about it.

I do hate it when someone has a no-shoes policy, and doesn’t have some kind of seating apparatus in the foyer (or where ever the last place you can have shoes on is) for people whose shoes require more attention than simply slipping out of them. This is basically asking for an unbalanced klutz like me to fall down just beyond the no-shoes line with my shoes still on.

Specific to you: Because you don’t ask them to. Nicely.

In general: Vacuum Cleaners. Rather than preventing things from happening, we humans prefer to break things (even ourselves) and then find inventive ways of fixing what we break.

Well, I’m just a disgusting old Yank so I leave my shoes on, unless someone asks me to remove them. I figure there’s a good chance that I or anyone else, for that matter won’t be licking my carpets or floors so it’s probably OK.

You come into my house, you remove the footwear….keep the socks on though smelly feet!

@linguaphile I think it is cultural, but the cultures have their reasons. In hotter climates there is not as much dirt, or snow for that matter, being tracked in, except maybe on a rainy day. Walk in with snow boots, or shoes that might be damp and cold, seems logical to kick those off once inside. Moreover colder climates tend to utilize carpeting in the house, which is more of a problem when someone tracks in mud, and you would not want to get it damp with snow. In Japan, and other parts of the Asian continent, many have very expensive area rugs, and so again logical they askforpeople to remove their shoes. In hot climates, like many parts of Latin America as I pointed out, they use ceremic, marble, and other stone floors many times, which can be cold and hard on the feet, so wearing a shoe makes sense. Anyway, I would guess the cultural or regional expectations grew out of a logical reason.

It’s Canadian custom to take off one’s shoes in the house. I’ve never had to ask someone to take off their shoes at my place – they just automatically do. I feel weird wearing shoes in my house, even when I’ve just forgotten something and run back inside for a minute.

@JLeslie Yes, that’s what I was saying and I think confusion happens with the increased mobility around the country. People move to new places for jobs and they bring their regional culture with them, then become confused or even offended when others aren’t doing the same. I’m very observant of regional quirks/cultural traits; I notice the tiniest differences among regions and that’s one of the first things I noticed when I first moved to Minnesota—the shoe thing. Most people here behave exactly as @Seelix described. They even remove their flip flops at the door in the summer!

@linguaphile Right, people get offended or judgemental, ethnocentric.

@JLeslie To illustrate one example of a very tiny cultural difference… In Minnesota, you have to decline an offer 2 times before you accept it on the third offer. The giver is expected to offer 3 times if the offer’s genuine. If it is only offered 1 or 2 times, the receiver knows that the giver just meant to be polite. After the third decline, the giver knows the receiver really didn’t want it. This is for food, drinks, amenities.

@linguaphile Oy. Similar to the Italians. Eat, eat, you didn’t eat enough, have more. You have to refuse several times until they give up.

The thing is people should understand that when someone is new amongst us, they may not know the customs. I run into this with my inlaws. I’ll ask, “what’s the rule?” When something like this comes up and their reply is, “there is no rule.” Which is an outright lie. Well, from their perspective they are not lying, but they think any idiot should know. Of course, they are being ignorant to ignore there simply are cutural differences, and they have all sorts of expectations in their heads. They actually acknowledge cultural differences pretty quick when the gringos are acting like, well, gringos. LOL. If I ask my SIL directly is that a cutural difference maybe, her husband asks also some times, she is offended and says stop trying to say it because we are a different culture. All I can think is it is some sort of insecurtiy, because from her husband and my perspective, we are just trying to understand the differences, not say ours is better. If i say to her I think we miscommunicated she thinks I am criticizing her English and she must have said something incorreclty or understood something incorrectly. But, her English is extremely good, it has nothing to do with language usually, it usually has to do with our own perceptions on things and how we hear them. Can happen between two native born Americans, it happens all of the time, but she takes it very personally.

My point is being aware of cultural differences is a good thing I think, and I usually catch the differences from region to region like you do.

Midwest hug when we greet each other after a long time away. Northeast kiss on the cheek, maybe an added hug for very close relations and friends. There are more, but I am going to make a question about it instead of side tracking too much on this Q.

@JLeslie See you at that Q then! I love that topic!

@JLeslie Of course, they are being ignorant to ignore there simply are cutural differences, and they have all sorts of expectations in their heads. Logically isn’t that the crux of most problems? Not really seeing other customs and cultures for what they are, be it religion based of the culture, domestically, economically, socially, educationally, sexually, etc. What one culture does seem daffy to another. It all comes down to how you filter the logic.

Shoes walk everywhere in just about everything. Carpet fibers are porous, so they will pick up substances off the bottom of shoes. That is logical because you have to clean your carpets at some time. Feet are living, they sweat, they can grow fungus or microbes, some of which can be transferred to other people or not smell very nice. If you are going with crap from outside coming in, you go with shoe removal. If you are going with people keeping their microbes to themselves, and their feet odor in check, you go with keeping the feet covered. The simple solution would be to take the shoes off but also be more diligent in washing your feet as to not harbor more microbes than not, and keep the sweat down that causes feet to smell. Good luck with that.

@Hypocrisy_Central I would never say people who have smelly feet don’t wash enough. For whatever reason their feet seem to harbor certain bacterias, sometimes they do everything right and they still suffer from the problem. Actually, keeping our feet all locked up in socks and shoes probably exasperates some of those problems.

Also, wouldn’t you say there is a difference between simple cultural difference, and customs that are harmful? If some culture traditionally does some sort of possibly harmful ritual, I am going to call it out as not ok.

@JLeslie*For whatever reason their feet seem to harbor certain bacterias, sometimes they do everything right and they still suffer from the problem.* Washing of the feet, or not, would be more of a cultural thing. Here in the US from the time you are small you are told wash your hands, you do so before you handle food, making it, or eating it. My mother use to say wash your hands after handling an animal, pet or otherwise. You are told to wash when leaving the bathroom, and of you don’t you will get severely rebuked. We are told all the time to wash our hands for one reason or another. If we had the same thing for feet then a lot of the anxiety over feet might not be present. Maybe, there would be foot sanitizer products to kill those nasty bacteria leaving the feet better smelling. We are not a culture of feet washers so we don’t have that.

Also, wouldn’t you say there is a difference between simple cultural difference, and customs that are harmful? If some culture traditionally does some sort of possibly harmful ritual, I am going to call it out as not ok. I will side with actual danger and not probable danger because I don’t agree. Could having a 5yr race a camel be dangerous? Yes, if the camel trips and rolls over the 5yr old, or the kid falls off the camel. That is a long way to fall for a 5yr old. Is that more dangerous than a 10yr old American girl taking riding lessons, and learning to do jumps? The horse can trip and roll over her causing injuries or death. In the UK kids race these supped up go-karts that can reach 60mph on the straight-aways. They might have some protections but they are still karts, an accident the right way and the kid is toast. Can I say the UK parents that do that and the culture that enjoys it reckless? Or the boys of the Masai who go out on the Serengeti at age 13 to bag them a lion to cross over from boy to man, I can say irresponsible? To me, without knowing what training these boys had in hunting lions I might say it doesn’t seem like a good ideal. I am sure they didn’t learn to hunt lions on a Wii. They might be quite capable at hunting lions by that age. Some cultures might think the US reckless for allowing minors to date with out a chaperone. But many in the US would not agree with that.

@Hypocrisy_Central I think the Arab culture, or maybe it is the Muslim religion, I really don’t know which, has more rituals for cleaning feet. But, again, bathing feet will help control a foot odor problem, but some people just harbor more bacteria, or specific bacteria that are more troublesome. Similar to some people when they sweat have very bad underarm odor, some don’t even if the both wash regularly. I thinkitis very frustrating for those people who do everything right and still have trouble, especially of people are assuming they are unclean. Some of body odor has to do with what we eat also, but that is a different topic.