I take mine off if they have mud or whatever, but I take mine off at the door a lot anyway, because I'm home. I'm not going to wear my shoes much when I am watching TV, doing homework, etc. I guess sometimes I forget cause I do find my shoes upstairs.
This organizing/cleaning website called Fly Lady would tell you to put them on in the morning because you feel more dressed and ready to do things so she would say wear your shoes while doing housework.
Hey I guess this is just one of those things where people and cultures are different and have different ways of viewing things. I can see both sides of the coin.
Yes, CNK, I remember the previous discussion, but I don't remember the conclusion, other than people who don't are shocked that there are people who do and vice versa. LOL
I have to say it's more a CULTURE thing than a climate thing.
My feelings are very much like Anastasia's -- it's too familiar, too personal, to remove shoes in another person's home, as if you were "right at home", without being invited to take them off. I would be shocked if, say, a colleague visited my home and took off their shoes -- they don't live here, and they are not so close to the family that they can assume such familiarity and ease in my house. These same people also ought not to be putting feet up on furniture -- especially since many of us own valuable antiques!!
We keep a doormat outside the door, and one inside the door. In messier areas of the south (like farms or extensive gardens), you keep a shoe scrubber outside as well, to scrape off horse poop or things like that. Most American homes also have at least one entry door (front door or the door from the garage) opening onto an uncarpeted area, sometimes as small as the width of the door-square, where you have a chance to lay another wiping mat, OR set up a shoe-removal location, if you want to. My experience in homes where people DO remove their shoes at the door, however, is that you end up with a pile of unattractive and smelly mess that no one wants to take responsibility for, and it just becomes an eyesore.
Here in the south, mudrooms are common in older homes (and I understand they are common in snowy areas, too). It is understood that messy shoes enter through the mudroom, to either be changed for shoes you can wear in the house, or to be cleaned before proceeding into the house.
Really? This is so fascinating. I think leaving your shoes on shows familiarity and ease - too much ease - like you think you own the place.
Interesting.
Just this morning I was watching Property Virgins and there go two men walking through someone's house with their shoes on. Even on the carpeting. Like, ewww. Your shoes are dirty and you're walking on the carpet?
Quote:Bare feet are treated to the comforting sensation of walking on smooth wood, or other flooring, an uncommon experience in itself
Bare feet are also treated to a lifetime of special Orthopedic Shoes & braces for the rest of your life. That is my lifelong sentence after going barefoot and shoeless for 45 years.
Ask any ORTHOPEDIC Surgeon and he will tell you the same thing.
And he will also tell you how dangeorus a life time of wearing sandals and flip-flops are as well.
So anyway, My advice to everyone here, is to leave your shoes ON at all times. Till you are either ready for bed or for snuggling on a couch.
Trust me you don't want to end up like me.
Do I miss being barefoot, HELL YES.
Do I hate wearing my braces, DOUBLE hell YES.
But do I miss the PAIN my feet were in due to my lifelong neglect of going barefoot all sumer long? HELL NO! So, if this message even reaches one person, my work here is done
I know this will sound really weird to a lot of people, but have shoe covers that I ask workers/repair people to use before entering my home.
They always have on the dirtiest and most disgusting boots, but I certainly don't expect them to sit down and unlace/relace their boot while doing the work and coming in and out of my residence. I have light colored floors and carpets and filthy work boots fucked up my floors. (I learned this from allowing the them to wear boot inside my house because I didn't want to offend them by asking them to remove their shoes).
So, shoe covers it is.
I use to have crippling plantar fasciitis and I had to wear shoes indoors for the arch support. They were strictly indoor shoes though.
NKB -- you ever watch an old and stupid sitcom called "The Beverly Hillbillies"? Part of the theme song, which is supposed to show how inviting the ignorant hicks are, is that they invite you into your house to "sit a spell....take your shoes off....". That's a typical attitude -- taking shoes off is for family, or for making you feel like family. The rest of you, we expect to be leaving the house before too long!! HA HA!
BeachBum has a point, too, about lacing and unlacing. If you have people take their shoes off, you have to provide a seating area at the point where the shoes are removed, for those without slip-on shoes. Otherwise, they take their shoes to a chair in your living room to put on their shoes, and what do you have? -- you have dirty shoes on your carpet, the same outcome as if you had allowed them to keep their shoes on!
(06-04-2010 09:46 AM)Jo Wrote: [ -> ]Yes, CNK, I remember the previous discussion, but I don't remember the conclusion, other than people who don't are shocked that there are people who do and vice versa. LOL
I'm glad someone else remembers this!
(06-04-2010 01:58 PM)Truckerswife Wrote: [ -> ]Bare feet are also treated to a lifetime of special Orthopedic Shoes & braces for the rest of your life. That is my lifelong sentence after going barefoot and shoeless for 45 years.
Ask any ORTHOPEDIC Surgeon and he will tell you the same thing.
And he will also tell you how dangeorus a life time of wearing sandals and flip-flops are as well.
I can totally understand this if you were standing or walking all day at work but at home?
Who here does more standing / walking at home that during the rest of the day?
My Dr. told me the same thing about flip flops. Personally, I hate flip flops. I can't stand that little bit of rubber between my toes - it hurts.
My dinning room floor is kind of an off white colour (not my choice - it was here when we moved in) and there are scuff marks on it from people who wore their shoes. Grrr. This just means more work for me trying to get rid of them, which is difficult.
Oh - and here's another thing we do here. We take slippers to other people's houses.
I don't normally do this but when people come over here, they sometimes bring slippers. Do Americans do this?
I've honestly never heard of the practice of taking slippers to another person's home.
I've never seen anyone in the US, Europe or Mexico bring slippers to anyone's house. Sounds like a good idea, though, since walking around in bare feet or socks isn't very practical when your feet are sensitive like mine. But, again, if I'd taken my shoes off in any of the homes that I visited in the UK, it would have been scandalous, and if I'd brought my own slippers, they would have thought I was nuts.
I leave my shoes on because I absolutely abhor being barefoot. When I come home from work I leave my shoes on, or put a thick pair of socks on. The last thing I take off when I get the shower or bed is my shoes or socks. Yes, I sometimes even undress with my shoes on. I just absolutely hate to be barefoot and I don't like wearing flip flips.
I also agree with PG, it's a cultural thing. Kicking your shoes off in someone's home indicates familiarity and intimacy.
A woman I work with is big on taking off your shoes when you go in someone's house. She's Italian and says it's common in Italy.
At my last place of employment most of the ladies took their shoes off. I loved it. I hate wearing shoes and love walking around barefoot.
(06-05-2010 04:21 PM)Horse Racer Wrote: [ -> ]A woman I work with is big on taking off your shoes when you go in someone's house. She's Italian and says it's common in Italy.
Maybe it's regional in Italy, because my experience with Italy and Italians is shoes stay on in other people's homes. The Italians I know are from Rome and up north near Milan.
(06-05-2010 04:21 PM)Horse Racer Wrote: [ -> ]I leave my shoes on because I absolutely abhor being barefoot.
Me, too. It's extremely uncomfortable and where I grew up it was a rednecky cultural thing to do (HR, you've lived where I grew up!). It was a redneck stereotype, that unfortunately many people I saw lived up to, to have dirty filthy bare feet out all over the place, even in the WalMart or supermarket. I never go barefoot, it feels terrible.
A friend of mine was walking around barefoot at his office once, back when he worked for the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and he got in a bit of trouble for it. His boss scolded him and told him barefoot people in the south are more likely to pick up hookworm and he'd better keep his shoes on at work. I thought that was an interesting take on it.
Quote:Me, too. It's extremely uncomfortable and where I grew up it was a rednecky cultural thing to do (HR, you've lived where I grew up!). It was a redneck stereotype, that unfortunately many people I saw lived up to, to have dirty filthy bare feet out all over the place, even in the WalMart or supermarket. I never go barefoot, it feels terrible.
I sure know what you mean! I lived there for enough years. Although I grew up in a northern city, we had many transplanted Appalachians, so the stereotype of the barefoot hillbilly was a strong one.
This is a fascinating topic, and one that came up recently with my girlfriend. When visiting my girlfriend up in Washington, she asked me to take my shoes off. I'd never before been asked to remove my shoes when entering someones house unless they just got new carpeting or were Asian.
I feel the same as a lot of people here, that it is too intimate, and too presumptuous to think you can just take your shoes off in someones house. I'd feel extremely uncomfortable in someones home if i had my shoes off. It was a little weird doing it at my girlfriends place. At my home, as soon as i get home shoes come off. but at someone elses house, no way, not unless im staying the night, and then only when i actually get ready to go to sleep would i take my shoes off.
No, we don't take our shoes off in other people's homes. Who the hell knows what's been on their floors?
Also, I don't want to see or smell your gross, dirty socks. Please keep your shoes ON.
As for at home, we have these neat Trello-Glide slippers from Lands' End we can wear inside or out, like to the mailbox, or for light yardwork. Much better for feet than flip-flops. And we have heavy-duty doormats at every door, so if you take a second or two to wipe off on them, you won't bring anything unbearable inside.
I think this may be a Canada/Hawaii/Northern US thing, having to do with mud, snow and, I don't know . . . plants? Anyway, I have lived in states from Alaska to Florida and have seen little of this, if any.
ETA: If I became acquainted with someone who wanted me to remove my shoes in their house, I would actually be insulted. I know how to wipe my feet on a doormat. This is one of those cultural things that might be a deal-breaker for me. It would be just like being told to wear high heels, or to take off my clothes. I would avoid such situations.
For an experiment, the other day I entered an elderly woman's home to massage her dog, I had not met her before, she saw my business card and called me up. I saw that she had very clean looking light beige wall-to-wall carpet, so I asked if she'd like me to remove my shoes. She told me not to, and she was wearing regular street shoes, too, and she kept them on the whole time I was there. I did eventually remove my shoes anyway because I massaged her dog on the floor (on the dog bed) and it's easier for me to move around on the floor into different positions without my shoes on. I kept my socks on, of course, but I was freshly showered and not smelly. I now wonder if she was offended by me removing my shoes anyway!
Fascinating Anastasia.
I saw an episode of House Hunters; she was Canadian, he was American. She took her shoes off, he did not.