Why do people ask guests to take their shoes off before they enter their homes?

I also hate when I get invited to a home and they still have plastic on the furniture.

Since I want to spend time with my granddaughter, I have learned to abide by the “shoes off” rule of their house even though it is not my pattern at home. The justification is that they don’t want germs brought in and it frustrating to have to change to just go out in the backyard. But every one has their own house rules and I am trying to rein in my righteous indignation when I can.

You go on about the comfort of the guest, but please take into consideration that the guest also needs to honor that the host has graciously invited them into their home.

I am inconvenienced when people want me to remove my shoes, but I respect their desire to have their home be a certain way, and I am pleased and delighted that they invite me over.

Welcome to Fluther.

Because they don’t want the dirt/mud/dogshit that is on your shoes on their bloody carpet.
It is not a difficult concept.

@ragingloli Exactly! respect an others rules in their home. It is customary in Japan, for centuries.( to make a visitor feel at home.).

I am in the habit of taking off my shoes after entering my apartment and placing them on a mat specifically for that. I have seen other apartments that ruined there carpets by not adhering to this . The poor janitor had to rip out all of a new carpet because of irresponsible tenants.
It also makes it sanitary and less upkeep plus respect the building owners time and money to create a nice place for our residents to live in. its up to us to keep it clean.
How would you feel moving into a new apartment with unkempt carpets and Gawd knows whats in them? Steam cleaning would not take out the wall to wall carpets that the janitor had to take out and charge the previous tenants for damages as well.

I wonder if this custom was started centuries back when it was customary to leave ones weapons at the door as a sign of good faith in having talks?
I guess nowadays its a sing of no “Mat destruction” LOL

Japanese and Hawaiian cultures both are no shoes in house. No shoes in house

Not only do we insist your shoes are removed but you also must wash your feet in the moat, dry them in the breeze & pop on fluffy carpet slippers we have neatly stacked in the entrance hall.
Failure to comply results in…we release the hounds!!

located this article:
https://www.lifehack.org/317735/scientists-discover-why-you-should-take-off-your-shoes-before-entering-your-home

When you live on a farm you don’t have a choice and neither does someone that is visiting.
It is for everyone’s own good…health wise not clean wise.

When I was working, I often had to enter a customer’s home, and was asked to remove my work boots. Sometimes I did, sometimes I put grocery bags over them.
I don’t think it’s rude. It’s more just trying to care for your stuff.

My son did that for a while. Now that he has a child and a dog, he laughs at it.

@filmfann, I am chuckling at that, I have always had dogs, cats, kids, and really, the best advice I can give is “don’t lick stuff”.

A lot of interesting cultures in the world prescribe the removal of shoes indoors. Sometimes, special slippers are provided for guests. Unless you are embarrassed about your socks, I see no reason why this is a problem. I see it more as a sign of hospitality than the opposite.

The one reason how I could see removing shoes could be a problem is if you have really really stinky feet, or a bad infection that you could somehow spread to somebody else inn that house.

Otherwise no big deal, but I might need to be reminded pretty often before I got the hang of it.

Stinky feet. shoes, and dirty socks can usually be dealt with.

I’d tell my host of an infection. Or even dirty socks.
When I was in seminary I had a mentor, a Presbyterian minister, who usually took his shoes off in the office while sitting at his desk or in the office—never really asking ME to do so, just his way of doing things. Seems like he had some slippers or sandals he’d slip into often.

Really, all it takes is clean socks and clean shoe insides.

To help keep the carpet clean.

It seems like such a small thing to ask. My house, my rules. Your house, your rules. It’s no biggie. Unless you make it so.

If I have slide on shoes, no biggie. If it’s a pair of shoes or boots that I need to sit down to take off, I hope there is a chair or bench I can sit on.

Wait – people wear their shoes inside the house? Why? Aren’t shoes for outside? I’m confused.

I heard an urban legend in Canada where an R.C.M.P. officer walked in a ladies house with muddy boots. She made him mop up the mud before he left.

Because they want to avoid dirt and shit on their carpets and their hard wood floors from getting scratched .

As Willie stated, we remove our shoes in Hawaii. It’s the way things are done. It would be extremely rude not to take off one’s shoes.

Please remove your slippahs and no take mo bettah ones when you leave.

Wearing shoes inside vs not seems to be a cultural thing. I’m in Massachusetts and wearing shoes inside the house would be unusual in my experience. Most/all houses I know have mudrooms or entryways that are used for storing shoes when entering the house. And those that do not have a separate entry usually have a mat inside the door for shoes.

Are there places in the US where it is common to wear shoes inside? If so, what type of climate?

Thinking about this and I have more questions. If shoes are worn in the house, when are they put on or taken off? Is putting shoes on part of getting dressed in the morning, or do you put shoes on the first time you go outside and then leave them on? When do they come off? Bedtime?

Depends on what kind of flooring the house being visited has. Marble floors, I would find it weird if the owner asks me to remove my shoes. I guess they might be wearing slippers so maybe if they give me one then, ok sure. Still weird though.

I am an Asian and I must say that Asian people would never actually have to ‘ask’ you to do it. When you come to someone else’s house you should at least have a tact about how things are working there. Just because you’re invited doesn’t mean you get to decide how things should happen in somebody else’s house. It’s likely that those who invited you didn’t know you have no desire to respect their culture, or perhaps they trusted that you’ll be respectful for such simple issue (how much of a problem is it to just take off your shoes?). You don’t get to decide how often they should clean their properties. You’re not the one who put on the efforts.

If I go by your logic I can also bring flea-infested pets, wearing no clothes, turning on loud music, etc when I get invited in to someone else’ house. They should have no power to control me, right? They should be capable enough to handle those situation and I don’t need to be mindful of others’ comfort since I was invited by them anyway, I am the the boss whenever I go, the boss doesn’t need to care about others’ feeling. Well, in the end, you’re free to not enter the house if taking off your shoes is such a big issue for you to complain about, I doubt it’ll have any effect on those that invited you.

Might I suggest not coming to my house then.

This question seems more to be about what guests are “entitled” to rather than the actual wearing or not of shoes, the indoor shoe thing seems to be a prickly subject forsome.

@hmmmmmm, are you mocking us or really don’t get it? It’s hard to tell without inflection and body language.

If you take your shoes off at my house, prepare yourself to get hairy socks.

@canidmajor – Not mocking. Serious questions.

@hmmmmmm: Sounds like a separate question, then.

My cousin has a beautiful condo in NYC and she asks that you remove your shoes when you’re in the apartment. She provides slippers for those who want something on their feet. I understand because I think of NYC as being very dirty, even though she lives in a nice area. I have friends who live in suburban NY and they used to have people remove their shoes. She had a mudroom and the floor of the mudroom would be wet with snow, rain and dirt from outside (which is the purpose of the mudroom). It was hard to put shoes on, however, in the mudroom because nobody wants to step onto the wet mudroom floor with socks on, get the socks wet and dirty and then put those into shoes. Also, when going in and out of her yard, it was inconvenient to take shoes off, put them back on, etc.

Totally it was what the homeowners preferred in both examples, and totally they have the right to have things how they want in their home. Both my friend and my cousin are wonderful hosts and nobody minded dealing with slight inconveniences in exchange for a lovely visit.

We have an acquaintance who has a “shoes off” policy. No big deal. It’s not how we roll at my house, but it’s OK.

@hmmmmmm Different people are different. Rick puts his shoes on first thing as he’s getting out of bed, and takes them off as he’s getting into bed at night. I don’t get it, actually! Why?
I am “barefoot” whenever possible when I’m at home. Even in the winter,except I do wear socks in the winter. If I’m home, shoes are off. In the summer, I only wear flip flops when I go out, if it’s at all possible.

As for our acquaintance at whose house we take our shoes off, she has a tiled entry way and we just drop them there.

In my own house I try to take my shoes off at the door, and my daughter does, too, but if I’m running in quickly, like if I forgot something, I’m not going to take the shoes off and then have to deal with putting them back on, because that would double the time it takes me to run in. Also if it’s wet outside, like it is now with snow, I don’t want to have wet socks if I were to track snow into the house. For me it’s not a hard and fast rule but it’s something I strive for when it’s convenient.

As to “why” people do it, I assume it’s an attempt to keep their rugs and floors clean. I wouldn’t call it a “disorder.” It’s a “preference.” I have plenty of preferences of my own at my house.

They only ask the clueless guests who do not immediately notice that everyone else has their shoes off.
When I am a guest, upon entering someone’s home I ALWAYS look to see if there is a mat or a pile of shoes near the door. I then look at my host’s feet and follow their lead.
It only takes me half a second to respect their wishes – without their having to ask.

Well, @LuckyGuy, speaking as a “clueless guest”, I prefer to be reminded, as most of my friends do not necessarily have a shoes-off policy, so it is not in my normal range of things I notice.
And lots of people do have a pile of shoes by the door, running shoes, kids’ athletic shoes, gardening clogs, stuff like that, while still wearing ordinary street shoes indoors.

I have only known one person in my life who had a shoes off policy so it’s not something I would look for at anyone else’s house. I’d notice eventually, though, and follow suit. Like @LuckyGuy said, it ain’t no big deal.

@canidmajor Hey “clueless” :-)
I lived in Japan for many years and virtually everyone takes off their shoes – even in nice restaurants and offices!. My engineering office had a no shoes policy. People took off their shoes and put on slippers.

If you’re not sure, try to be the second person entering the house and watch. Also a quick glance at the hosts feet will tell you too.
It is far better to start to take of your shoes and let the host tell you not to bother.

You would be surprised how social gaffes affect others’ opinions of certain guests.
For example, if I saw a guest double dipping his chip in the French onion dip I’d think twice before inviting him again.

My place is shoes off
Take a stroll through just about any public bathroom to learn why

Most of us have not spent time in a country where it is customary for everyone to take off their shoes @LuckyGuy. Japan has lots and lots of customs that we don’t have, and it would be important to learn them and observe them if you are there.
As I said, in my whole life I’ve only known one person who asks people to take off their shoes. That’s 1 out of thousands of homes I’ve visited. It isn’t going to occur to me to look around to see if people have shoes on or off, though I would imagine if they were off I’d notice it soon enough.

@LuckyGuy, I am assuming that someone let me in. I am not living in a country where it is a given to do that. I feel that it is incumbent on the host to let me know what their personal preferences are, and I am not being rude by not trying to second guess.
When people come into my home, I feel that it is up to me to let them know how I prefer things.

If someone is disgusted that I wear my shoes all day, inside of my home and out, they are welcome to pass on the visit. If they decide to come in, I recommend that they don’t lick my floor.