Wearing Shoes in the House

Nords:

Thanks. I am fortunate to have found this great group of ER's.

Great limmerik. Translated: "The law does not concern itself with trifles" :D...which is what many of my clients stated as their defense when I was an active lawyer, in the context of, "why is the (fill in the _____ federal or state authority) picking on me, I never did anything to anyone.  Why don't "they" go after the real criminals?!?""  I hope I have not made a statement against my own interest, albiet in latin ;).

By the way, I have hung up my "legal briefs" and earn what passes as cash flow from a few teaching stints and advising small companies once in a while.  

Once I hit my $ target I thought it was time for my money to get busy and work for me.  Now I have time to recall how much latin I have never used except to figure out the tough words reading medical texts. It was easy to pick up survival Spanish and Italian though.

I like to concept of being able to wear comfortable slippers while listening to the monday Am traffic reports, knowing full well I am not out there stuck in traffic. No amount of money can induce me to wear wingtips ever again, either in or outside my home. I always had a secret disgust with suits, ties and wingtips...the prison uniform of corporate life.
 
 
By the way, I have hung up my "legal briefs"...
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Good one! I'm going to have to bow out of this and let a real pro sustain the volley.

"Considering" your last reply, John Galt, I hope it's not the "end". Your turn!
 
"The end" is when I am dead. Right now, I am glad LEX
has joined us.

JG
 
The first thing I do when I go home at night is kick off my shoes and take off my socks. It is more comfortable for me and I remove the socks because I hate getting my socks dirty or worn from walking around in them with out shoes.

Because I associate no shoes with being comfortable and I figure most people kick off their shoes when at home, I tend to like my guests to do the same thing. I want people in my home being comfortable. If people don't kick off their shoes, I feel as though they are not relaxed or comfortable.

As for foot smell. I can only remember two occassions when foot smell ever became an issue and it wasn't an issue with me. On one occassion, both go back about 20 years or more ago, a friend and his wife were over my house watching a movie with me. I was single at the time. A few minutes into the movie, the guy's wife hollered at him to put his shoes back on that his feet smelled. I hadn't been aware of his feet smelling until she said something and then I was more annoyed that she made an issue out of it instead of just being quiet about it. Even when I realized I could smell his feet, it didn't seem to bother me. Perhaps it was because it was such a short encounter.

The other time, I wa playing a video game and I was laying on the floor, as it happened near a friend's husband's feet. It was one of those times where a situation just kind of happened but all of the sudden his wife complained that his feet were too close to me. While I never smelled any foot odor, I felt embarrassed when I suddenly realized how close I was laying to his feet.

In both instances, it seemed as if the idea of foot odor bothered the wives more than it did me. And to be honest, I would much rather have someone comfortable in my house than for them to be worried about foot odor.

While each person has their different views on the wearing and removing of shoes, I don't think anyone can say that one feeling is more right than another. To me, it is all about comfort. And I find that in my circle of life, women are more comfortable removing their shoes in public or when around family and friends then men.

My wife would prefer people remove their shoes in our house so they don't get the carpets dirty. Our carpets are on the light side so dirt shows up on them easily. I have only known my wife to ever ask workmen to remove their shoes. While I would want workmen to remove their shoes for comfort, I think if I asked them to remove their shoes, they would look at me like I have 6 heads.

And one more thought on foot odor. The smell of burning leaves makes me nautious, sick to my stomach and gives me a headache. Many people enjoy the smell of burning leaves. I would much rather have people comfortable in my house and smell their stinky feet then to smell burning leaves. Foot odor doesn't make me sick or give me a headache.
 
bf6067 said:
 In both instances, it seemed as if the idea of foot odor bothered the wives more than it did me.
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I believe women are much more physiologically attuned to smells, both pleasant and unpleasant, than are most men. I think it is built in.

Mikey
 
Don't know about eastern Europe but an old lab director((Austria?) told the story back in his youth about the house watchdogs - could tell who was who in the household by their foot oder.

Me - I'm still intigued by'you don't know my name's' thoughts on the creative uses of a leaf blower - fish camp with plywood/epoxy deck paint and all. Deck shoes inside - fisherman's boots in the mud room area outside. Shop vac for fine cleaning.
 
unclemick2 said:
Don't know about eastern Europe but an old lab director((Austria?) told the story back in his youth about the house watchdogs - could tell who was who in the household by their foot oder.

Me - I'm still intigued by'you don't know my name's' thoughts on the creative uses of a leaf blower - fish camp with plywood/epoxy deck paint and all. Deck shoes inside - fisherman's boots in the mud room area outside. Shop vac for fine cleaning.
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As many of you know, we have 4 dogs. Last night, DW opened the back
door let 2 of them in, muddy as pigs. She says "it will clean up" and
she does have state of the art equipment. Anyway, she is way more relaxed about the floors than I am. To her credit, she usually ends
up vacuuming and mopping while I loaf.

JG
 
Maybe I'm Asian at heart. I don't wear "outside clothes" in bed, at least not pants. Even used to harass my girlfriend when she used to work at jewlery shop (manufacturing) and clothes smelled bad when came home. Tried to get her to change before even sitting on the bed. (I'm the one with sensitive nose.)

Our shoes stay by front door, we don't bother guests about it, and maybe 1/3 of other houses/apt's I visit have shoes off at door.
Even one house with a dog. Yes, paws get wiped. And something else, too, but lets not discuss that.
 
We  usually do not wear shoes in the house.  Out where we live
(no sidewalks, no paved driveway, not to mention lots of dog poo  :)  ) the shoes get pretty
messy.  But, we have no rules, just the "reasonable person"
approach for everyone.  I like unclemick's system and we are
kind of fish-campesque here as well.

JG
 
lazyday said:
Maybe I'm Asian at heart. I don't wear "outside clothes" in bed, at least not pants. Even used to harass my girlfriend when she used to work at jewlery shop (manufacturing) and clothes smelled bad when came home. Tried to get her to change before even sitting on the bed.  (I'm the one with sensitive nose.)

Our shoes stay by front door, we don't bother guests about it, and maybe 1/3 of other houses/apt's I visit have shoes off at door.
Even one house with a dog. Yes, paws get wiped. And something else, too, but lets not discuss that.
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Wiping paws is a real pain, and with four dogs, that's ummmmmmmmm,
16 paws!! What we do usually is let the dogs take turns being
"house doggie". They all really like when their turn comes up :)

JG
 
You dont know me said:
Three dogs, three cats, three people. Shoes are not my biggest problem...
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three people :confused:
three dogs, three cats, the baby all have excuses but the 2 adults ?? :D ;)
 
He's a people too.

By the time the dogs are done with the carpet, i'm probably removing crap from it with my shoes rather than redepositing it...
 
If not wearing shoes in your house makes you happy than by all means do it.

Sometimes I wear shoes in the house sometimes I don't when I lived in my RV I didn't wear shoes inside. RVs are small spaces and dirt, sand, muck can make for an unhappy camper.

For the most part I don't worry about it-winter time I leave the shoes/boots at the door keeps the wet and salt out of the living area.

Summer time I go bare foot when I can...it is just not a big deal when you visit do as you please mind that the dogs might lick your toes the cats rub up against you. But that is another issue.....I don't worry about that either...
Kitty
 
The primary reason to remove your shoes is comfort; after a 12-hr shift, I can't wait to get naked ASAP...
 
I used to never wear shoes, inside or out, but when I was diagnosed as a diabetic I was advised to always wear shoes inside and outside as diabetics can not afford to have any foot infection. Worked for me.
 
brewer12345 said:
Well, those of us with a rather, um, casual approach to housekeeping tend to wear shoes in the house because stepping on small, hard things in your socks hurts. Personally, I am pretty clumsy, and when I walk into the furniture, steps, etc., it is a lot less painful if you are wearing shoes.
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What he said.

Casual housekeeping also means sticky spots on vinyl.
 
Martha said:
I grew up on a farm in a very rural area. Everyone wore shoes in the house. The back door to our house had a metal scraper inbedded into the cement step. You scraped the manure off your shoes and went inside. No big deal.

I made city friends when I went to college and discovered many new things, like broccoli, controlled substances, radical politics, and taking shoes off when you went into a home.
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Around these parts of Minnesota - people do it automatically:

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The trip to visit DW family on a cattle spread in Texas - we started to take them off - they looked at us like we were from another planet - you mean it's alright to wear our shoes in your house cousin Naomi? - "of course- keep 'em on - heaven sakes!..."
 
We live in a penthouse and by the time anyone gets to our door they have walked on more carpet than is in most anyone's house. So we insist on shoes on. We keep ours off for comfort when not entertaining but keep sandals at the door for when we go out on the patio.

We keep the patio clean enough that guests can go in and out without too much adverse impact. Once in a while we have to get the carpets cleaned to compensate.
 
Wow - a resurrection!

We generally always take our shoes off in our house. The kids ALWAYS have to take theirs off.

We NEVER ask guests to remove their shoes - as guests, they are allowed rights than our family members don't have! besides, many women consider shoes as part of their outfit and may not want to remove them.

As for additional dirt - we bought a Bissel carpet cleaner (more due to our dog than anything else) and use it monthly or so.
 
No shoes in our house, but we would never ask a guest to remove their shoes. However, when our son was younger (9-10 yrs old), I've heard him tell his company to take their shoes off at the door. "Outside" type shoes in the garage; dress shoes in the closet. You can carry your shoes from the closet to the door and slip them on right before you go out. It's no big deal; it's automatic with us. By the way, our dog gets his feet wiped with a towel before he comes in.
 
While we don't ask guests to remove their shoes, we do not wear shoes in the house. I generally don't want whatever might be on the floors of public areas (e.g. restrooms) to get on our floors.

I must be even more freakish than I thought as I didn't see any other posts raise this concern. Oh well.
 
DW is Swedish, so it's shoes off in our house.

I've read that 75% of dirt on the floor comes in from shoes worn outside.

If someone visits, I let them wear their shoes inside. They usually see the shoes by the door, and ask if they need to take them off. I say it's "shoes optional."

The biggest problem is going in an out a lot, and having to put on/off shoes. I've solved this by using loafer type no-tie shoes most of the time.
 
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