Do you wear shoes inside

[Boo Boo]

yeah I don't wear shoes inside, it was the way I was brought up - my Mum was very strict on it and now with my own home I fully understand why. DH will still wear his shoes inside even though I tell him all the time, he takes them off but then gets into bad habits again. DD takes hers off.

People who blatantly turn round and disrespect your house rules - whatever they may be - are in my opinion downright rude and obnoxious....grr to them ....and as for walking on a baby rug - no offence, but puhleese, what are they thinking???

Floors get dirty on their own without having all the crap from outside walked in - and it is a pita to constantly be cleaning it....

Do you have a sign at all on your front door??? Maybe it's time....

Good luck with your in-laws.

Laurin x

[didispunk]

I NEVER wear shoes inside.. I think of peoples house and clenliness and they wear and tear on their flooring.. i think if everyone didnt wear shoes.. how clean there house would be and floor wise.

[AnyDream]

I wear shoes inside the house only sometimes, but I don't specifically take them off when I get home. Unless i see lots of shoes near the front door, I don't offer to take them off. If I see a de-shoeing zone, I always offer to take mine off.

This custom is very location dependent. In Darwin it is more usual for people to remove their shoes before entering...most have fairly light footwear so it is easy to slip them off...plus more comfy in the heat. I note most of the replies in this thread hail from more northerly type areas of Australia. Down here in the temperate zones, ppl are more likely to be wearing heavy boots or laceups...they certainly wipe their feet before entering, and would certainly remove work boots or shoes that are muddy, etc. But it is not common at all for people to take their shoes off when they enter someone's home. It took a lot of getting used to after all those years in Darwin!

[Inanna]

I guess it does make it harder MD if it's cold with boots etc... But Sunshine Sieben is German & it is customary over there?

When I lived in Vic I still took them off & expected others to do so... I guess it's personal.

[~clover~]

TBH, I've always had people offer to take their boots off over any other shoes. To everyone I know wearing work boots inside someone's house is very rude.
I wear thongs & nothing else. Occasionally if its freezing, ugg boots, but thats it. I hate shoes & would love to be bare foot all the time.
Shoes that aren't clearly dirty don't bother me. The kids get dressed & put their shoes on before school etc & will walk around with them on.
I do vacuum every day, at least every second day & I clean my carpets with mum's vax every 6 months anyway.
As I said, we are used to it so we don't walk in cat heads. Since they don't grow here I don't care so much. But walking on a baby blanket with shoes on is just nasty! What on earth are these people thinking? Ask them if they would mind if you walked all over their beds with shoes on!

[*LittleMissSummer*]

DP and i are very anal about shoes in our house. We have a tiled area at the front door so we have rugs where shoes go and our visitors take their shoes off. I do the same at other peoples houses, something ive always done.

[melhoneybee]

we take our shoes off when we come into our house, and leave them jusd inside our front door under a cupboard. We would never leave them outside due to the risk from funnelwebs.
In the summer i am barefoot inside, and in the winter we both have slippers that are only worn inside.
I take my shoes off when visiting other peoples homes if that is what they do also

[Cherished]

We never wear shoes inside, we built our house last year and all the carpet is new etc, I find it really rude when people come over and don't take their shoes off because they will be doing a tour of the house and they will be walking on the carpet. Even if it wasn't new why would they want to dirty our clean tiles and carpet Soooo I ask them to take them off before they come in!

[Phteven]

Nope, no shoes inside. In winter I wear slippers inside to keep my feet warm.

I have a friend who supplies bathroom slippers - there are a couple of pairs of $2 rubber slippers at the bathroom door to wear into the bathroom so that you don't track anything from the floor of the bathroom around the house. I'm not sure why she bothers, you could operate in her bathroom, maybe it's a habit left-over from living in places with grottier bathrooms.

[Floweryfields]

I do wear my shoes inside, and my house isn't disgusting as has been mentioned! I don't have a problem taking my shoes off at others houses if this is what they do themselves, but I do feel underdressed if I go to a party all dressed up and have to take my shoes off.

[AliB]

I feel like such a grub! I take my shoes off but only because I like to be barefoot.. and so I can put my feet on the coffee table without grossing myself out!!!

TBH our floors are always a mess, we have a tiny narrow terrace, basically straight into the lounge room from the street. As we have no side access we wheel our bicyles in and out through the lounge too. Even the green bin has to go through every now and then. A hardy, antique persian carpet hides the chunks, but I hadn't thought about how it wil be when bub arrives

[Queen]

Nope, but if I do not have to put on shoes I don't.....

[Mrs Jak]

My neighbour is from Austria and I have noticed she is very particular about not wearing shoes in her house.

I don't really wear them in the house, but sometimes on my way out the door I have them on. I take them off before entering other people's houses, but couldn't care less if people wear them in our house.

Shoes have the same 'germs' on them that the concrete and grass, dirt and tiles have on them and kids and babies play on those surfaces. (obviously not newborns though)

My floors are kept quite clean too.

[fionas]

I wear shoes inside the house and really don't like padding around in bare feet/socks in other people's houses.

My dad had very smelly feet so I'm sure mum preferred he kept his shoes ON, hence we were a shoe-wearing house.

I guess I'm from the germs are good school of thought . Works for us - we rarely get sick. I've never had antibiotics in my adult life, DD hasn't had them yet.

[Curly]

I never wear shoes inside...never have. I like being barefoot. And yes, I lived in Melbourne for 7 years...I just wore socks in winter then!

However I wouldn't ask someone to take their shoes off when they come into my house in case for some reason they would be embarrassed (holes in socks, smelly feet, cracked heels). And I would feel rude asking them to do so.

I also feel strange taking my shoes off in someone's house and would prefer not to.

[AnyDream]

I guess it does make it harder MD if it's cold with boots etc... But Sunshine Sieben is German & it is customary over there?

I wonder how many of those German homes have underfloor heating .

Naw, in my earlier post I was making the observation that it seems to be the customary practice in some areas of Oz more than others...I actually wonder if this has more to do with diff standards of dress and ideas about formality/informality - eg the dress standard in general in warmer areas tends to be less formal day-to-day than in the colder climates...taking your shoes off is a more informal act.

But it is nice to air your toesies out in the tropics

[sunshine_sieben]

Yes, Inanna, you are right, even in Germany we take our shoes off. Especially in winter when we are wearing heavy boots. I don't think people think about the reasons so much but it would be a huge problem if we didn't take our shoes off in winter. when it snows, small stones are being scattered all over the footpaths so people don't slip. These stones stay around for months, even when there is no snow. Of course, they get stuck in your shoes. So if you wore your shoes inside, you would certainly ruin people's floors. Add to that all the snow which would make such a mess.
When I was living in Sydney most people took their shoes off inside, too. So it's definitely not just a warm climate thing.
But I agree, Marydean, it is much easier not to wear your shoes in the house when you only have to slide in and out of thongs. So, when I'm only wearing thongs, I always kick them off, even if I only have to run in quickly to get my wallet. But when I wear lace-ups or somthing a little more difficult, I might be guilty of not always taking the off if I just need to run in quickly.

Talking about under floor heating in Germany: it is very rare. My parents who built their house about 20 years ago had it in one of their bathrooms but nowhere else. It is now broken and they won't bother fixing it. Most modern houses are well insulated and have good centralheating so it never gets as cold as say in Sydney. But we also have lots of buildings that are a few hundred years old with very high ceilings that get freezing cold. some people with colder houses provide washable guest slippers so their guests have toastie feet.

Someone mentioned about feeling underdressed at parties with no shoes. At parties we usually leave them on, just wipe them well when entering the house. I guess you have to clean afterwards anyway. Shoes are only taken off at informal occasions.

By the way, I really am no clean freak. Which is why my IL's seem to think I'm being a big hypocrite. I do believe germs are good and let DD play in the dirt. I have taken antibiotics twice in my whole life and none of my kids ever have. But I do think it's different for a tiny baby, who by the way, I would not lat play on the bare concrete or grass. But that is probably more because I'd be worried about green ants in the grass and abrasions from the concrete.

Someone mentioned that they don't know how to tell people not to walk on the baby rug with shoes on. I'd just be really polite and say something along the lines: "I'd prefer if you didn't walk over the baby rug with your shoes on. I just washed it" or pretend you think it was an accident and say "Ooops, you just stepped on baby's rug"

By the way, My in-laws do now take their shoes off when coming in. But they always make a big fuss over it and have a giggle cause I'm so weird. They almost make it out to be a bad habit. They did however do it without flinching when they were staying at my mum and dad's house. For my house, they now even bought some slippers for winter as they prefer not to be in socks. Which is fine by me.

Most people seem to not wear their shoes inside, judging by all your posts. Those who do would usually take them off at someone else's house if that's what is the done thing. So maybe I'm not so weird after all...

[Sopdet]

I take my shoes off the minute I get inside a place. I never wear shoes when I am at home. I have a pair of slip-on shoes by the front door to put on when I need to go outside while I am at home.

One of my friends when visiting my place in London had stepped in some dog poo and hadn't noticed, she ignored my no shoe, socks only rule, she traipsed it the whole way through the hallway, up the stairs and onto the carpet in the bathroom. This was not nice to clean and the smell was there for a while as it was winter.