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>Every now and again (say I enter a house which has a no-shoe rule), someone will spot them and find the concept strange, I find it more strange that people we
by strict9 3y ago
>Every now and again (say I enter a house which has a no-shoe rule), someone will spot them and find the concept strange,
I find it more strange that people wear outside shoes inside. The same shoes that go on dirt, mud, who knows what else are used to walk on your floors and carpets.
Taking your shoes off at the door prevents a lot of dirt/who-knows-what from entering the house.
- surfsvammel 3y agoShoes at left at the door, you wash your hands whenever you come in from being outside, or somewhere else, and no clothes that have been outside, in or on the beds. That’s what I teach my kids.
- zeeshanmh215 3y agothen imagine people using toilet papers to clean their ass after poops. so disgusting and culture-less people.
- wry_discontent 3y agoI don't like taking my shoes off unless I'm relaxing. It's a physical reminder to do stuff. If I'm watching a show and I need to get up to do something, I'll put my shoes back on.
- jhbadger 3y agoDo you take your shoes off at work? (assuming you still have a non-virtual workplace) Any argument about how shoes are unsanitary (not that we live in a time where the streets are covered in horseshit anymore) should apply equally to the workplace as in the home, no?
- dmm 3y agoShoes carry large amounts of fecal bateria into homes, including E. coli: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/shoes-carry-poop-bacteria-into-nyc-buildings-study-finds-180981680/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/shoes-carry-poop-b... > should apply equally to the workplace as in the home, no? Probably. You should bring it up with your boss.
- Terr_ 3y ago(Not OP) I would like to but there's a Prisoner's Dilemma going on. If I take off my shoes but some of my coworkers still track icky crap in, then it is worse for me than if we all uniformly kept our outdoor shoes on. One option is to have some office shoes or sandals, which will also help protect from culinary mistakes in the break-room.
- gopalv 3y ago> Do you take your shoes off at work? (assuming you still have a non-virtual workplace) In India, when the dust kills computers by clogging fans, you'll see workplaces with computers have a "leave your shoes outside" board. I'm not sure what happens today, but this was true when I lived there. That's mostly because everyone coming in is usually spent the last half mile on foot and the shoes will basically flake-off indoors in the lowered humidity. Also, for some reason my dentist's office has a "employees must change into shoes" notice, suspiciously in the bay area. Maybe they had some contamination issues ("work shoes" that could be santized properly?) or maybe they had employees wear sandals into the office & they had to enforce the rule after someone dropped a sharp on a toe?
- gadders 3y agoI always thought people should wear slippers at work.
- DanHulton 3y agoYeah, I always had a nice pair of "business-appropriate" slippers for any office I worked in. Especially great in the winter, when I can just shuck off my wet winter boots and swap into my comfy office slippers.
- wombat-man 3y agoWearing house slippers or birkenstocks at work is great.
- 99_00 3y agoPeople interact with the floor of their home differently than the floor of their workplace.
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago>Do you take your shoes off at work? (assuming you still have a non-virtual workplace) I do, and I switch to to my Birkenstocks at work, as my feet can breathe way better in them and it also gives my sneakers an ~8h rest to stay smell-free and cool until I have to go home and put them back on. Continuously wearing the same pair of sneakers for about 10h per day is ... not great. My feet would be in a swampy sweat broth.
- klyrs 3y ago> My feet would be in a swampy sweat broth. People who always wear shoes all day every day think tend to think that feet are gross. And that's because their feet are disgusting, and they project that onto everybody else.
- ChuckNorris89 3y agoI didn't project anything. I said my feet are less sweaty in Birkenstock sandals than in Sneakers as they breathe less and less sweat and more fresh air is always better.
- proto_lambda 3y ago> People who always wear shoes all day every day They explicitly weren't talking about you.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mchaver 3y agoIt's honestly not a bad idea to have footwear dedicated to certain spaces. I support the idea of office slippers.
- parentheses 3y agoThere is no reason for this equivalence. My main reasoning is reducing cleaning effort on my end. If the office were to have a no shoes rule I'd be walking around in socks or barefoot as long as others do. Sharing foot bacteria with my coworkers is also a different ballgame than sharing it with my wife and kid. The family is already sharing quite a bit of bacteria so what's a bit of foot stuff.
- bjornasm 3y agoUhm no? Unlike in my home the work environment have professionals washing regularly, no food is prepared, no kids play at the floor and the floors and furniture is made to be easily cleaned. So no. Not at all. (But I wear birkenstocks at work, so nice taking off my shoes that are made to be used outside and rather use footwear that are more fit for the inside).
- filoleg 3y ago> Do you take your shoes off at work? No, because I consider the office to be a shared public space, and none of the people working in the office actually live there. Office is not my personal space, it is a transient area.
- kklisura 3y agoI do. Company I work for provides space for leaving your outside shoes and keeping your inside shoes or slippers. I wore slippers until few years ago, but now I wear comfy snickers in office. Some of my colleagues still wear slippers.
- JohnFen 3y agoWhere I currently work, you are required to wear shoes (because although I work in an office, the other half of the building is a factory where shoes are a safety issue, and it's easier to have a blanket "shoes required" rule for everybody). The place I worked at before also had a "shoes required" rule, but I don't know why. My assumption is that someone had stinky feet at some point.
- dizhn 3y agoI do and it's amazing (slippers). Of course not everyone can do that.
- ReleaseCandidat 3y agoI did when when still working in offices, as did almost all colleagues - wearing slippers, not without shoes. Not just because of the dirt but I also can't imagine wearing winter boots in a 23°C office.
- unglaublich 3y agoYup! At a big company I am the only one on the floor, but I don’t care. I also don’t care about the dust on my socks. I only care about breathability and freedom of movement.
- taeric 3y agoWould also apply to eating establishments. Libraries. Basically any environment where you aren't wearing shoes for safety.
- pyrale 3y agoI wish office places made it doable. Get to work, get your slippers, be comfortable.
- lesquivemeau 3y agoI do. It's company policy where i work. It's very uncommon in my country though (France) to take off shoes at work, even though it's very common at home.
- stevekemp 3y agoI live in Finland, and people take their shoes off in their homes almost universally. At the office? It's about 50/50. Some people work in their socks, some have indoor-slippers. In my previous two companies I'd take my shoes off every day when entering the office, leaving them in the handy shoe-racks near the entrance. In my current job I admit I tend to keep them on, but that's largely because I'm smoking more than usually and putting my boots back on and off multiple times gets annoying in an office environment.
- Terr_ 3y agoWorking from home has only increased the distinction for me: Not only do the shoes come off (like always) but unless I anticipate going back out soon, I'll switch from denim jeans to lounge/sleepwear, jacket to hoodie. So today I identify a lot with Mister Rogers' opening show routine, despite how elaborate it seemed to my younger-self.
- sokoloff 3y agoI've gotten to the point where when I put on jeans, my dog gets excited (assuming that we're going for a walk).
- taeric 3y agoI do find pets amusing. If you have a dog, all of the concerns most people voice about shoes applies to the dog. And they often seem to seek out poop to step in. We've been forced to bath our dog because he found coyote scat and thought that was good to wear.
- thih9 3y agoAnecdotally, this checks. Shoes off, dog sits on the couch, dog’s habits fall under the field of bacteriology.
- bqmjjx0kac 3y agoIt's like fuzz testing for your immune system.
- jahsome 3y agoAll the while they ignore the litter box... And flush their human toilets with the lid open... The world's a gross place. I know it's unavoidable for some (e.g. OCD) but by and large, I tend to think people spend an inordinate amount of time pursuing an unreasonable level of cleanliness.
- jojobas 3y ago
- vkou 3y agoIf you have dogs, they usually don't take off their shoes when they go inside, so you may as well keep wearing shoes if you have hardwood floors. Shoes on carpet are always icky, though.
- arkitaip 3y agoThat's why you wash your dog's paws.
- midoridensha 3y agoThat's why you leave the dog outside.
- parentheses 3y agoI don't have a hard "no shoes" rule in my home but I would if it was more the norm in the US.
- velcrovan 3y agoIt is the norm in Minnesota. Growing up, we never wore shoes in our own home or in the homes of anyone we visited. Still the case today.
- masklinn 3y agoShoes indoor seems even more insane in northern locations. Yeah go and track slush and salt on the wooden floors, will you?
- idiotsecant 3y agoYou just knock the snow off your shoes, it's not that crazy.
- masklinn 3y agoA shoe you've "knocked the snow off" is still full of snow, just less of it. It's also full of slush and salt.
- idiotsecant 3y agoNot really? It's negligible if you have a mat.
- jghn 3y agoThings can be judgement calls. It's not like everyone takes a strict always on or always off ruling. If someone is going to track some obvious crap inside that's a different story than if they were walking around in normal conditions.
- JohnFen 3y ago
- candiddevmike 3y agoAFAIK wearing outdoor shoes indoors is mostly an American thing, especially within big cities/on the coasts. As a midwesterner, shoes always come off at the door, who knows what you stepped in.
- modo_ 3y agoMate, trust me that San Franciscans are quick to pop their shoes off at the door haha
- TacticalCoder 3y ago> AFAIK wearing outdoor shoes indoors is mostly an American thing, It's ultra common in many european countries. I've got one friend where the rule at his house his "shoes off" but most others keep their shoes inside. It's also highly common for people living in houses to have a "shoes on inside, but only on the ground floor" and shoes off upstairs. So I guess YMMV.
- pjerem 3y agoIt’s also a variable rule when you have guests. I (n=1) don’t wear outdoor shoes at home but I’ll allow my guests to keep them. I’ll clean when they’ll leave. When I’m at home I can wear slippers but my guests can’t so I allow them to keep their shoes.
- dizhn 3y agoWhen the rule of the land is no shoes, traditionally you'll have guest slippers.
- Toutouxc 3y agoInteresting, I don’t think I’ve ever visited a “shoes on” household in my whole life in Czechia. Some households offer slippers to guests (in houses with cold floors), but you obviously don’t wear those anywhere else.
- tapland 3y agoCoyld you name a few of those "many"? Scandinavia, Germany and down to the metiterranean and everything east of incl. Croatia I think it's all shoes off?
- jghn 3y agoMy dogs go out and roll around in whatever the heck on the ground. And then come inside. Someone wearing their shoes isn't going to make much difference unless they've stepped in something particularly gross.
- driverdan 3y agoYou don't wipe your dogs' feet off if they're dirty?
- jghn 3y agoIf they're notably gross, yes. But not if they were just outside and came in normal. Which is my point. If someone's shoes are notably gross, that's also a different story.
- rootusrootus 3y agoHa! My 65 pound dog still thinks she's a puppy (and she's 8 years old, dammit), the idea of trying to slow her down long enough to clean her feet just makes me smile. The blasts past me at a hundred miles an hour and then tears up the stairs so fast that I think one of these days she may actually tear the carpet. And anyway, have you ever tried to get a dog's paws clean? Like, meaningfully clean? I have Roombas and I hire a housecleaner once a week. Our house is actually pretty clean in spite of the silly dog.
- NikolaNovak 3y agoThose are strongly correlated rather than independent variables though - see my sibling comment :) [1] 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36424356 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36424356
- BurningFrog 3y agoI think it depends on how muddy the environment is. In some areas, it's a really minor concern.
- swader999 3y agoThat seems to be an American thing. In Canada everyone takes their shoes off inside houses.
- vram22 3y agoLiterally takes their shoes off inside the house, or takes them off outside, and then steps in?
- __d 3y agoIs a "mud room" a Canadian thing?
- khalladay 3y agoTakes their shoes off in the "entrance" (or mud room maybe, though I've never known anyone who calls it that) of the house, which is generally a small tiled area immediately inside any doors that lead to the outside. Shoes are left on the tile (or a mat / plastic shoe thing) and then folks walk without shoes from the entrance area into the rest of the house.
- vram22 3y agoI think it's a good idea.
- morkalork 3y agoLeaving shoes outside doesn't work unless the outside portion of the entrance is well sheltered. I've definitely seen it before in condo buildings where there will be a mat and boots neatly lined up in the hallway. Seemed strange though.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoHow many microbes are actually on hot, dry, sun-baked pavement?
- ReleaseCandidat 3y agoI don't know and don't care. But the dog shit that's covering it isn't dry yet.
- OldManRyan 3y agoHow often are you stepping in dog shit that this is a concern?
- vram22 3y agoOne word: parasites.
- syntheweave 3y agoI recall a Reddit thread on this where many people chimed in with their experiences, which seemed to have a distinctly climate-driven element: * Shoes off = don't track mud and dirt inside * Shoes on = don't expose yourself to insects And then depending on cultural background they would tend to keep one or the other habit after moving to a different climate norm. The shoe habits predate modern construction, so they may not matter like they used to.
- TRiG_Ireland 3y agoI was visiting a friend once who happily wore the same shoes inside and outside his house, but was uncomfortable with me being barefoot inside and outside his house. Apparently my bare feet would track dirt into his house, but his shoes wouldn't? Eh, people are strange.
- rootusrootus 3y agoI've met people who have feet so nasty that I do wonder if the germs they hide under their socks aren't actually worse than random germs found in dirt. Those folks are welcome to wear their shoes in my house.
- jancsika 3y agoI rankly speculate you have no dogs.
- rconti 3y agoI grew up in a family of neatniks, and yet, the very concept of taking your shoes off when going inside perplexed me, on the rare occasion where I found a "no shoes" house. (Northwest USA). Living the SF Bay Area now, I'd say it's slightly more common to take one's shoes off indoors, but certainly not the rule. I just generally don't step in disgusting stuff. I don't want it on my shoes, whether or not I'm wearing them indoors. I don't live on a farm. I don't regularly walk across fields or on dirt roads. My shoes are relatively clean, and I don't have wall-to-wall carpet so I don't have to worry about dirtying the carpet so much.
- Jarwain 3y agoThe lease for my current rental asks us not to wear shoes indoors. This is due to the wood flooring and how small rocks can get stuck to the underside of one's shoe and scratch up the floor
- detourdog 3y agoI would like to make that rule but could never look myself in the mirror after doing it. I have apartments with fresh maple floors from a forest that I got after running out of reclaimed maple floors from schools.
- endominus 3y agoReminds me of an old joke, retold to fit many ethnicities. Three men take advantage of a break in a diplomatic council to visit the bathroom. After they are done relieving themselves, the Japanese man fair blasts his hands with water, soaping and rinsing several times. He explains, "In my country, we hold ourselves to high hygenic standards. I try to remain as clean as possible." The Iranian man soaps and rinses quickly, using a minimal amount. He says, "In my country, we are taught to conserve our resources. We must not waste the blessing we have been given." The American does not even look at the line of faucets, casually saying over his shoulder as he leaves the room, "My dad taught me not to piss on my hands."
- JohnFen 3y agoAlthough I'm never offended or anything when someone asks me to take my shoes off, I'm always uncomfortable doing it. It makes me feel exposed and vulnerable. As a result, I'd never ask guests to remove their shoes (even though I wear slippers in my place). It's an oddly sensitive topic, though. I've seen people get offended at being asked, and I've seen people get offended because guests didn't automatically take their shoes off without being asked. Weirdness all around.
- benatkin 3y agoI find it strange that you find it strange that I don't find it strange. Wearing my shoes inside is very normal to me. In my current place I have to take my shoes off, so I can adapt, but it still isn't normal to me.
- bko 3y agoNot saying that I agree but here's an oped arguing against it. Even a refusal! (cultural reasons for removing shoes are respected though) Here’s Why I’ll Be Keeping My Shoes on in Your Shoeless Home https://www.wsj.com/articles/heres-why-ill-be-keeping-my-shoes-on-in-your-shoeless-home-11644503227 https://www.wsj.com/articles/heres-why-ill-be-keeping-my-sho... Or archive version https://archive.is/BSr91 https://archive.is/BSr91
- midoridensha 3y agoThe author of that sounds like an archetypical arrogant, insufferable, American Karen. She's not welcome in my Tokyo home.
- pyrale 3y agoSounds like the kind of insufferable person that will also argue about the food they're served, the music they hear, and even the way you decorated your home. > cultural reasons for removing shoes are respected though "I will show no respect for your decisions regarding your personal space, but only if that doesn't make me look bad" ...And of course, when you read a bit further, you realize that this kind of person doesn't understand the decision because there ought to be some kind of domestic fixing their mess. > Why don’t I just leave my shoes on and give you the amount of money [...] You can use it to hire a housecleaner to mop up after my shoe detritus.
- JohnFen 3y ago> Sounds like the kind of insufferable person Indeed. And it's just plain being a bad guest. When you're a guest at someone's house, honoring their wishes about things like this is a duty. It's showing them respect.
- bko 3y agoI guess the Crux of the argument is: Why are you assuming that your guests’ shoes are dirtier than your floors? They believe a floor mat would suffice and it's rude to expect people to get their socks or bare feet dirty from the floor. Maybe slippers are the answer?
- __MatrixMan__ 3y agoI tried to take the "shoes off in the house" thing seriously for a while but I'm back to just letting the floor be dirty. You need a pair of shoes at every exit and you need to enter the way you last exited and you need to set whatever you're carrying down to put your shoes on and take them off all the time. Plus your guests who don't have a shoe at every doorway end up cold inside or walking around in their socks outside, and it's not like I can get the dog to wash her feet at the door... It's just too much. Down is where the dirt goes.
- deepspace 3y ago> You need a pair of shoes at every exit How many exits do you have? Most houses have only one front entrance. All other exits lead to the deck or garden, where people just go barefoot.
- coffeebeqn 3y agoAmerican houses often have a garage entrance in addition. Depending on the season you’ll want shoes in the back too
- youainti 3y agoI grew up in a house that had 3 back doors, a front and a garage door. Turns out that multiple remodels really messes with layouts. Where to put your shoes was a big issue
- __MatrixMan__ 3y agoI think it's an artifact of this whole "your home is an investment" thing we do. It's like if you're not planning upgrades that make it look better on zillow (upgrades that potentially invalidate initial design considerations) then you're being financially irresponsible.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y agoFour: two to the front patio, one to the back, one to the garage. It's kind of a dumb layout. Maybe I'd feel differently if it were barefoot temp year-round, but that's pretty much just a summer thing here. Plus it's kind of irresponsible to heat you house to barefoot-friendly temps so now you've gotta have slippers for everyone...
- sparrish 3y agoI got 4 boys and way too many legos. Only time I'm taking my shoes off is when I'm in bed or in the shower. It's just too dangerous to go barefoot. <grin>
- ralfd 3y agoFor that we invented house shoes: http://foottalk.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-very-short-history-of-slippers.html http://foottalk.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-very-short-history-of...
- NikolaNovak 3y agoThere are cultural differences. Where I was born in a European country, it was positively unthinkable. Nobody ever wore outside shoes inside. In fact, my grandma would be upset if I set in my daily jeans upon my bed - jeans that set in school seat, street car seat, benches, dirt, etc, should not be in contact with where I'll sleep. In USA and Canada, it seems to largely be an instinct to say "Don't take off your shoes, please!" out of politeness. I think there are other aspects too, though they get fuzzier. In my country/childhood, kids were discouraged from playing on the floor in unfamiliar places. I observe less of that in Canada. Most dogs were "outdoor animals", whereas here dogs are pervasively inside. Many people sleep with dogs in their bed!! Completely crazy to me and completely normal to my Canadian wife :-)
- x3874 3y ago> In fact, my grandma would be upset if I set in my daily jeans upon my bed - jeans that set in school seat, street car seat, benches, dirt, etc, should not be in contact with where I'll sleep. This. And not only where you sleep. Public transport seats or even chairs that were used by many, many people over the years are just yuck. Same with door handles (i so hate the Americanbones - you can't use your elbow or wrist to push them!), public transport, handrails, ATM pinpads...
- ctvo 3y ago> Public transport seats or even chairs that were used by many, many people over the years are just yuck. Same with door handles (i so hate the Americanbones - you can't use your elbow or wrist to push them!), public transport, handrails, ATM pinpads... At what point do you come to the terms with our inability to eliminate all germs and get on with life? I apologize if it's a condition and not just a preference.
- LordShredda 3y agoI'm sorry but if you set foot in my clean house you clean your hands and keep your shoes away from my clean floor. God knows where you've been and what you've touched before
- fsckboy 3y ago> that go on dirt, mud, who knows what else are used to walk on your floors and carpets...prevents a lot of dirt/who-knows-what from entering the house. so you think people should just never walk barefoot outside on unpaved surfaces, the way our ancestors evolved to, where nature exists in every state between birth and death? (you don't need to repeat any part of your argument, trust me, I get it, just pointing out the obvious problem with it)
- minitech 3y agoHookworms (and sharp rocks with a bone to pick with humanity) love appeals to nature. Also, I’ll do you one better than some unspecified ancestors: we have evolved to wear shoes.
- JPws_Prntr_Fngr 3y agoNo, we have not. [0] And especially not pointy closed toe modern ones. [0] https://www.joe-nimble.com/media/image/45/e8/7b/conventional-vs-functional-footwear.jpg https://www.joe-nimble.com/media/image/45/e8/7b/conventional...
- GuB-42 3y agoIt is one of these cultural things, and will be forever a controversial topic. Personally, I don't think there is a right answer, except to respect your host. I put it with: airplane seat reclining, casual nudity, hanging clothes from windows, just about anything sexual,...
- idopmstuff 3y agoMy in-laws are immigrants from Europe, and they have a no-shoe policy. They also have a German Shepherd and a Lab who go out for three walks a day and traipse around in the backyard in between. Makes the lack of shoes seem sort of pointless to me.
- guidoism 3y agoFor me the shoes thing isn’t about dirt. It’s about public bathrooms. If a shoe has stepped in a public bathroom. Especially those in bars or gas stations I don’t want that shit (literally) being spread al over my house.
- idopmstuff 3y agoMy dogs step in their own shit sometimes. They're idiots, but I still generally wouldn't assume a dog hasn't stepped on a surface worse than a public bathroom.
- quicklime 3y agoIn New York a lot of dogs wear shoes when they’re out in walks, which I assume are taken off when they go back home.
- morkalork 3y agoI've known people who trained their dogs to stamp/pat their feet on an old folded up towel laid by the door. Seemed pretty ingenious given how wet and slushy the climate is half the year.
- tshaddox 3y agoI like wearing shoes inside your house for the same reason I like wearing shoes outside: I don't know what might be on the floor and I don't want certain things that might be on the floor on my socks or skin. But of course, as a house guest I will respect the host's norms.
- markeibes 3y agoAmericans don't walk, they drive so their shoes are very clean.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y agoAt least in my corner of America, it's expected that you buy a house that's too big for you and then spend the rest of your life doing home improvement projects on it. So our shoes are usually tracking sawdust or other such debris from the garage to whichever part of the house we're working on and back. I should have just rented.
- rationalist 3y agoThat sounds like a terrible, ill-informed, stereotype. Maybe they don't walk as much on average, but shoes get dirty no matter what country you're in.
- thelastgallon 3y agoIn the US (and quite possibly all of the Western world), it is unacceptable to wash with water. 1) Wipe hands with paper towels after eating. Hands are still greasy, grease finds its way all over the house, door knobs, tap handles, keyboards, mice. 2) Use toilet paper. Completely unacceptable to use water. It leads to toilet paper shortages and crusty bottoms (less crusty with toilet paper), but nobody has a clue that an alternative is available and works better. [1] 3) Shoes inside, even on bed. You can see this on all the shows/movies. Third world has footwear(shoe/flipflops) outside, wash feet when you come inside. Or indoor slippers. [1] https://youtu.be/bXK_vHNNht4 https://youtu.be/bXK_vHNNht4
- augusto-moura 3y agoI don't have any evidence to back that up, nor am I expert on the topic. But I find that dirt (and outside shoes) is usually fine, you will find more dangerous bacteria in door knobs, coins, etc. Basically everything your hand touches has a higher risk of getting you sick. That doesn't hide the fact that having a dirty floor looks gross though, from a aesthetic standpoint
- m463 3y agoI switched to super-light-weight inside shoes and couldn't be happier. They work like slippers in a pinch, or like proper shoes if you pull up the heel. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089MB3NLN https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089MB3NLN
- friend_and_foe 3y agoYup, different cultures get different things right. Asians and pacific islanders get the "no shoes in the house" thing 100% and it's a rule in my house now, I do not care. Unless youre a contractor working on something in the house, youre taking your shoes off or hanging out outside.
- Graffur 3y agoWhat do you think that dirt is going to do to you? What about if you have a child who rolls around in the grass and then comes in? Or a baby pram who's wheels go everywhere, or a wheelchair user enters your house, or you have a cat or a dog? While I do take my shoes off in my hall and wear socks in doors all the time, I think the no shoes thing has entered meme territory.
- goodbyesf 3y ago> I find it more strange that people wear outside shoes inside. Not making excuses but when you have to be in and out your house many times a day, it gets quite annoying having to take your shoes off only to put it back on a few minutes later. The real animals are people who go to bed with their shoes on. Inexcusable that.
- andelink 3y agoI’ve never heard of people sleeping with shoes on. Did you mean that literally?
- NoPicklez 3y agoGrowing up in Australia in my house growing up we never took our shoes off at the door unless they were unnecessarily muddy. All of our shoes were in our rooms or in our wardrobes. I suppose the thought process is yes those shoes that have been in dirt and who knows what else are being walked through the house, so what? The house gets vacuumed and mopped regularly.
- lostlogin 3y ago> Growing up in Australia in my house growing up we never took our shoes off Across the ditch it’s not uncommon for the opposite to be true. No shoes - supermarket, shops, mall, hospital (!), etc. Bare feet is the way to go in summer but my personal line is drawn a little earlier than many. Presumably these people have all the same problems as the ‘always shoes’ people.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Waterluvian 3y agoI find this so unthinkable that I think I need to go experience it. Surely the Americans who do this aren’t insane. I mean, Mr Rogers changes his shoes. So maybe that’s it? Wearing slippers inside is normal here. Or maybe it’s places without winter? I’m sure if I go and experience it something will click.
- rootusrootus 3y agoI have a labrador retriever. I'm not too worried about my shoes, provided they're not caked with mud or something. Also, hard floors are bad for your feet if you go barefoot. I do have indoor-only shoes that I wear fairly often, though like I said, I don't stress too much about it. Between the dog and the cats with their litter boxes, shoe-borne germs are pretty far down my list.
- anonporridge 3y ago> Also, hard floors are bad for your feet if you go barefoot. citation needed.
- mmmBacon 3y agoWe remove our shoes inside. But a carpet cleaner told me that being barefoot inside is worse than wearing outside shoes due to the oils in your feet. I looked this up and it seems to bear some weight. So now we have to wear socks.
- balaji1 3y ago> people wear outside shoes inside so do they keep shoes on all day? doesn't it get sweaty, itchy, etc...
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoIf you grow up in a clean country that isn’t very muddy outside, you might not ever notice the need to change shoes in something like a mud room. But spend one winter in Beijing (or Eastern Europe or basically anywhere in the non-fully developed world), and it became really obvious to me why you need indoor and outdoor shoes, and why you have to thoroughly wash your face a few times a day. That being said, conditions that you are used to will influence whether or not you believe shoes have to be changed between outside and inside.
- fsckboy 3y ago>If you grow up in a clean country that isn’t very muddy outside what are you even talking about? have you ever walked to the far side of the parking lot you live in the middle of?
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoWe don’t have many parking lots where I live. What are you talking about?
- _8j50 3y agoWho cares if dirt gets in? You have to clean anyways right? Is dirt more powerful outside than inside? Dirt in the air doesn't matter? If your shoe has excessive dirt, you can wipe it on a matt as you ener right? Also, not changing socks means now random people leave feet sweat and nastiness all over the house floor.
- foozed 3y agoReading through the comments, the oddest thing to me is that practically no one talked about the question of comfort. I live and come from northern europe, so like most people and households here we take off our shoes. I guess it's mainly because the weather is shit here half the year but a big part is also that it's just awesome to remove your shoes at home!