Shoes: On or off indoors?

[catherine]

I was reading a LIVESTRONG article which says that wearing shoes indoors may make you vulnerable to infectious disease. They even did a study with "brand new sneakers" that showed 99% of the outside bacteria came into the home--stuff like C. Diff and E-coli.

I don't disagree that those things may have shown up under the microscope, but I don't think that I have ever gotten sick because of what was tracked into the house. On the contrary, the Hygiene Hypothesis has shown that bringing that nasty dirt indoors can actually strengthen the immune system.

There are other reasons to take shoes off at the door-you don't have to vacuum or swiffer as much. Your floors stay pristine longer. I might go shoeless indoors for those two reasons, but not the germ reason.

What about you--are you a shoes off person in your home? If so why? Are you worried about germs?

[herbgeek]

Shoes off here. It just grosses me out to think the dog poop and people spit on the ground is coming into my house. There are plenty other things out there (and stuff in my house too) to challenge my immune system.

[littlebittybobby]

Okay----I feel like that is sound reasoning. Take your shoes off, right away. Yup. At the same time, I will put on indoor-only footwear before I would put on anything else, because when you are a hermit batchelor with several catts, there always exists the possibility of biological hazards that have not yet been addressed. See? But yeah---until I can go about and check, it can be a minefield. See? This is a good reason to keep flip-flops or sandals or slip-on shooz on the ready. Hope that helps you kids some. Thankk mee.

[Tradd]

Off. I prefer bare feet and no socks at home.

[bae]

I live in the PNW. Shoes-off. Most homes around here have a mudroom or similar space to leave shoes in the HAZMAT zone.

[iris lilies]

DH was trained by his mother to take his shoes off in their large back porch. I guess today that would be known as a “mudroom. “But that made sense because they had farm animal stuff to be tracked in, plus there was carpet in their house.


So I could tell him he must takeoff his shoes before he comes in the house and he would be fine with that, but I don’t insist on it here. In Hermann all of our floors are hardwood and easy to clean. During the summer yeah things get tracked in but that is the least of the floor soil. During the summer I have to sweep up animal hair every day, every damn day.

[pinkytoe]

We went shoeless after having hardwoods refinished upstairs and new wood downstairs. I don't mind dirt but lawn chemicals, oil, spit etc seem gross to bring into your house.

[dado potato]

At the exterior door where I come in and go out is my closet for outerwear. On the floor of this closet is a raised rack with room for outdoor moccasins, lace-up shoes and boots. On top of the raised rack is a space for my indoor slippers while I am out. When I come in, I place outdoor footwear on the rack and put on my slippers. They have gray felt uppers and white soles.

When I am sleeping, my slippers are on the bedroom floor in front of a folding canvas chair.

I do not believe I am obsessive about wasted time-and-motion, but certain routines feel so-o-o good.



There was no fire to be seen, only clouds of smoke and Mr. Prothero standing in the middle of them {the family} waving his slipper as though he were conducting.
-- Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales

[iris lilies]

We went shoeless after having hardwoods refinished upstairs and new wood downstairs. I don't mind dirt but lawn chemicals, oil, spit etc seem gross to bring into your house.

In my city house I had dogs that peed, vomited, sometimes pooped, etc. on the floors. My current dog is super clean and wouldn’t dream of doing any of those things, well, there is an occasional spit up.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I prefer not wearing shoes, of course that's often true outside too, in which case bare feet are going to bring in as much dirt as shoes.

[catherine]

Interesting--most of you seem to be "shoes off." The reason I ask is because we are going to redo our old pine floors this winter. DH is very, very oblivious to the pitfalls of "shoes inside." I don't think I'm going to change him. I have no problem with shoes off, and I actually would love to go in that direction--especially after we redo the floors. But it won't make much of a difference because I can't even get him to wipe his feet before he comes in.

The house we rented at Thanksgiving said in their "house rules," no outside shoes indoors. And to make it easy for renters, they had a basket of scuffs just inside the door. I used the basket. Not DH. He exits and enters our house at least 10 times a day, and he wears boots that take time to unlace and remove, and I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting him to be shoeless indoors.

[pinkytoe]

I absorbed the "shoeless" practice from my SIL who is probably the most annoyingly tidy woman on the planet. When they bought their holiday house in the high country, she placed a large beautiful basket full of various slippers next to a long bench just inside the front door. At first, I thought it was presumptuous/rude but now wearing street shoes inside seems gross to me.

[rosarugosa]

Okay----I feel like that is sound reasoning. Take your shoes off, right away. Yup. At the same time, I will put on indoor-only footwear before I would put on anything else, because when you are a hermit batchelor with several catts, there always exists the possibility of biological hazards that have not yet been addressed. See? But yeah---until I can go about and check, it can be a minefield. See? This is a good reason to keep flip-flops or sandals or slip-on shooz on the ready. Hope that helps you kids some. Thankk mee.

I'm with you on this one; you don't have to be a hermit bachelor, just a pet owner, and no matter how much I vacuum, there are 8 little paws tracking kitty litter around all the time. My house isn't warm enough for bare feet most of the time, so we have indoor shoes, although DH often prefers stocking feet. Two of our most frequent visitors have a dedicated pair of slippers here. I don't expect everyone who comes into the house to go shoeless unless it's really snowy or otherwise messy outside.

[nswef]

I wear slides in the house and keep clogs next to the door for going outside. I have outside yard shoes in the garage. Husband wears his shoes in the house- sneakers, but does change to outdoor shoes for big jobs. He would NOT wear slides or just socks.

[littlebittybobby]

Okay---tell you what: Compromise is always good, no matter what. No exceptions, no ands, ifs, or buts. So yeah---the compromise is to take ONE shoe off and leave the other on. This effects a risk reduction of 50%, which is pretty good for a half-measure. Yup. Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.

[catherine]

Okay---tell you what: Compromise is always good, no matter what. No exceptions, no ands, ifs, or buts. So yeah---the compromise is to take ONE shoe off and leave the other on. This effects a risk reduction of 50%, which is pretty good for a half-measure. Yup. Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.

I might suggest that to DH! :~)

[pinkytoe]

Sounds like an old nursery rhyme ...one shoe off and one shoe on.

[happystuff]

Anyone is welcome in my house and I don't ask them to remove any of their clothing. LOL.

[iris lilies]

Anyone is welcome in my house and I don't ask them to remove any of their clothing. LOL.
I’ve only had one friend over the years and I remember who asked that everyone takeoff shoes when they went in their house. I was OK with it, it didn’t bother me.

[ToomuchStuff]

Generally shoes off, upstairs. Going through the basement, to the garage or outside, not so much as I am normally fixing something etc. and it is a mix of concrete and tile. (generally work type of area's)

Now that doesn't mean if there is an emergency, I am not going to stop and remove my shoes.

[Teacher Terry]

I had my kids trained to take off their shoes in a mud room we had in our old house. Husband 2 was very clean and always did it. I never asked my guests to.

[ToomuchStuff]

I had my kids trained to take off their shoes in a mud room we had in our old house. Husband 2 was very clean and always did it. I never asked my guests to.

Actually a good point. One person I know (with the dirtiest shoes), wears shoes due to an amputation.

[Klunick]

Used to not wear shoes inside (or outside if possible) but over the last few months I have started to have soreness in my feet from an old injury. I found wearing shoes all the time seems to help and got rid of the pain for the most part.