Burning Question: Take It Off?
When it comes to shoes in your house, what’s the deal? Do you have an always-off-at-the-door policy? Do you wear them inside and out without a second thought? Do you encourage kids to remove their shoes while adults may leave them on if you’re hosting a party? Or do you have that pile of adult shoes near the door with guests walking around in their socks or stockings when you have people over for dinner?
We’re itching to hear where you stand on the issue. In fact, we whipped up this handy little poll to keep everything tabulated:
[poll id="10"]
And we’d love to hear more about why you voted the way you did, so feel free to comment away with more details.
Psst- Sherry’s cheap-o flats are from Target, just in case you shoe-loving ladies are wondering.
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I think it really depends. In the winter it gets really messy out here, so we try to take off shoes right away when we walk in the door, and same with guests. But other than that generally we and guests wear shoes in the house and it’s ok. It’s basically a rule of if it’s messy or wet out – take them off. If it’s nice out, leave ‘em on if you like.
We almost always take off our shoes at the door, and keep a shoe rack just below our coat rack. But…if other people want to leave their shoes on, that is fine with me. I have certainly been stuck having to take my shoes off, only to realize that my socks have an embarrassing hole or are on inside out, and I don’t want to put anyone else in that position!
We have a 150 pound mastiff, so we always joke that there’s no reason to take your shoes off when we live with livestock!
Rain, snow & mud, kids shoes off. Adults who know how to wipe their feet on the outside & inside mats, shoes on. :)
My husband is gung ho on shoes off but I don’t mind. I don’t feel comfortable walking around other people’s houses in socks (I’m short) or in bare feet (my husband thinks that’s gross but surely I can’t be expected to wear socks everywhere!!)
So unless ladies are wearing heels I say “keep your shoes on” before Hubs can say anything.
What’s the point of having fab shoes if you have to take them off. (Of course I ignore the germ on the bottom of shoes factor).
We try not to wear our shoes in the house, and we take off the kiddo’s sneakers when we bring him inside, but if someone stops by to chat in the kitchen, or they come through the deck sliding doors, we don’t say a word if they want to hang out with their boots on. It doesn’t take long to tidy the dirt afterwards, and we like our guests to feel comfortable.
We live in Saskatchewan so really there is no choice in the shoe removal, we have to much snow. In the summer its ok to wear you sandles in the house on the main floor but only because its hardwood and easily washable.
sort of off topic – but, cute shoes! where did you get those baby’s???!
Hey Amelia,
Target! They were super cheap. By their Mossimo brand. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
No rules – as a matter of fact I’d almost rather people leave their shoes on so that they can’t tell if I cleaned the hardwood floors or not by the color of their socks when they leave!
My husband and I take our shoes off when we come home, but it drives me wild when people require their guests to take their shoes off. I don’t think it is approriate to invite adults over and then expect them to leave their shoes at the door!!
My husband grew up always taking your shoes off. I grew up wearing your shoes in the house. My grandpa (in his 80′s at the time)had a story that when he went to visit his brother (age 70ish) in Florida in a retirement community and EVERYONE took their shoes off at the door. So everytime they went to visit someone, they had to take their shoes off and then put them right back on a short time later! My grandpa thought this was the most absurd thing. The only time I MAKE people take their shoes off at my house is in the winter with all the snow. I’m sorry, but I just don’t like water all over my floor or that squeaking noise wet shoes make.
I have a strict shoe off policy for myself. But my husband has this strange love of wearing shoes. He says it’s cozy, and so he leaves them on. I don’t require anything of my guests; they can do as they please. However, I have really cheap carpet, two cats with claws and a dust problem (due to the buildings age) so I don’t much care. Have at it!
We live near a major harbor, so winter can bring more than the average amount of salt on our shoes. We also have some large Egyptian carpet that would suffer if we tracked across them regularly. We think the Japanese are onto something good about keeping our home clean from the outside world. Shoes off!
If it’s messy outside (like it is here in Chicago this morning) I think most people know to take their shoes off when going into someones home to avoid puddles and such. Other than that, I really have no preference. I’m pretty much barefoot all the time so if my guests wish to follow suit, so be it, but I won’t force the issue!
I think it’s rude to ask guests to remove their shoes. Kids are messy, so that is different. In my own home, I’m always barefoot.
Shoes off outside the door, no exceptions, no questions. It’s not a clean-freak thing, it’s just a Hawaiian thing. Slippahs off at the door!
We don’t have shoe rules, but have friends that do. It really made me aware of my socks and I ended up doing an entire sock drawer clean out and re-stock. You don’t want to be the one at the dinner party with holey socks!
http://40daysof.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/what-are-you-reading/
Generally speaking, we have a shoes off for everyone policy. It cuts down on cleaning and doesn’t track as much dirt, germs, pesticides and such into the house. We do, however, make exceptions if we’re having a large party or if there’s a professional that has to come in, i.e. a repairman. I admit, though, that I clean up after them! OCD much?? ;)
We always take our shoes off. I have a pair I only wear around the house because standing on tile hurts my feet. There is no hard rule about guests. Now if it is rainy or snowy out I will leave extra mats by the door and guests will usually take their shoes off.
I feel like it’s sort of rude to tell people to take their shoes off. It’s not exactly the best way to make someone feel welcome in your home. It’s like saying, you can come in but don’t get my house dirty. In the winter it’s understandable with slush, salt, etc but otherwise I don’t think it makes for a nice welcome.
Where I’m from everyone takes their shoes off before entering a home. There is one exemption, and that is when people are dressed up and going to a party or fancy dinner, then everyone keeps them on… probably because the ladies want to look good in their high heals and also the host is going to need to scrub the floors anyway.
Personally, I find it off-putting when people request that I remove my shoes. It makes me wonder if it’s ok to sit down on the couch! Unless someone’s shoes are particularly muddy or wet, I would never ask a guest to remove their shoes. I always wear footwear in our house, whether it’s flip-flops or slippers.
New house, new hardwood floors, new rule…shoes off, for everyone. Although, I am having a difficult time enforcing, we are still getting use to the routine.
I started a shoes off policy at my house once I was diagnosed with asthma and my allergies were insane! I can see the eyes roll when I ask them to remove, but my close friends now bring slippers with them when they come over. I think it’s much more casual and “friendly!”
This seems to be a regional difference between Canada and the US. In Canada, no one ever leaves their shoes on in the house unless explicitly told to.
As our 4 month old is getting closer and closer to crawling (i.e. finding stuff on the floor to lick) we are asking people to remove their shoes when in the house. We definately don’t wear them, but will make exceptions for certain guests. Close friends remove, older people or those that might have a hard time balancing/bending/knealing not so much.
Since I’ve reworked our “hyphen” in our 1885 house into a psuedo mud room, we try to remember to take our shoes off and put them in the shoe tray when it’s wet out or if we’ve been working in the yard. Otherwise, our white tile floors in the mudroom and kitchen would never really be white!
Oh John, you know us so well…I WAS wondering where she got those cute flats! :)
We always remove them…I read an article when my babies were young (crawling age) that said you drastically increase the amount to lead in your home and on your floors when you wear shoes in the house, so since then, the shoes come off. I didn’t do a ton of reasearch, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt! Now my kids are 4 and 7 and they even tell their friends to take off their shoes when they come in!
We did a science experiment in college science lab, and you should of seen all the gross junk that grew in the petri dish after we swabbed the bottoms of some shoes… more than even bathroom door and toilet handles, cell phones, any everything!
Take your shoes off please!
This is a funny debate to me because where I live in Canada everyone takes off their shoes. In my city we have snow eight months of the year. The four months when I can wear cute sandles, they just slip off at the door. I never even heard of people keeping their shoes on until I was an adult.
Being from Sweden, of course we take our shoes off! But if we have a dinner party, we don´t ask the adults to take off their shoes, only kids. Must say many of our American friends here in CT also seem to take off their shoes at their own houses.
After you have kids, and especially when they get to that crawling state, I think a lot of people start thinking about dirty floors and shoes, and what you drag in.
I usually remove my shoes at the door by habit, but it’s not a rule. Right now my carpets are so trashed it truly wouldn’t matter. But when the new carpets get installed (in the bedrooms) there will be NO shoes! I’m putting Bamboo in the main rooms though so I won’t have this issue of stains in the carpets anymore!
I’ve only lived in the South, but have never heard of making folks take their shoes off before coming into your home. If they want to take them off and pad around barefoot or sock-footed that is OK by me but my husband has a thing about bare feet so he always wears shoes. I’ve simply never heard of this custom.
I have to agree with Courtney… this does seem like a regional difference. I am in Canada too and have NEVER even heard of people regularly wearing shoes in the house (like she said unless specifically told to… usually because you are just quickly grabbing something or they haven’t had a chance to sweep the room you are in or something). You more have to tell people to leave their shoes on if you want them to than take them off (and the ones who “assume” and leave them on are considered rude because nobody does it here). I always thought it was funny as a kid watching tv and seeing all the people wearing shoes in the house, I thought it was a TV thing but maybe it is just an American thing?
So what is the shoe protocol at Casa Petersik? :)
Great question btw!
Hey Andrea P,
We generally have a shoes off policy here at Casa Petersik, just because we’ve noticed that it cuts down on cleaning efforts (who doesn’t love that). It’s also kind of second nature to us since we both grew up in shoes-off homes. We don’t ever ask our guests to take their shoes off, but we do have a basket of our shoes by the door- so that’s usually enough of a visual cue to get people to slip off their shoes as well. We’re super casual folks (we never host fancy dinner parties) and it’s pretty low key over here all the time… which we actually think encourages people to kick off their shoes and relax.
xo,
s
We slip into our slippers when we are home. We have no problems with our feet, but our podiatrist indicated that everyone should wear support on their feet even when at home.
We also have slippers for guests!
I grew up on a military base in Japan and took away the custom of removing shoes at the door and ask guests to do the same. Now that I have a crawling baby, I can take comfort in the fact that there is no tracked-in who-knows-what from the soles of shoes on the floor.
Right now there is no rule in our house. I wanted to have everyone (at least family membetsr) remove their shoes when coming in, but I kinda got vetoed by the hubby. For one, his boys have very smelly feet and two, we don’t have an entry way and therefore, no easy storage of things like that.
If we ever move into a bigger house, I’m totally making that the rule.
In a perfect world, no one would wear shoes in my house… and I would never need to mop the floor! Sometimes they get left in the garage or on the mat but we don’t have a very good entry set up yet. That needs to be our next project. We have a very small laundry room off the garage and that is where we come in most of the time. There is no room for an entry way set up so I have a real dilemma of where to set up an inviting entry with a coat rack and bench.
I also just saw an article on cnn.com yesterday that talked about cancer risks being higher than we originally thought because of things in our environment. (no kidding, right?) One of the suggestions at the end of the article was to remove shoes to prevent tracking pesticides into your home. So beyond the dirt and grime you can see, there are reasons you can’t see too.
{Sorry for the dissertation, guess who just indulged in an espresso!}
I live in Canada and everyone I know takes their shoes off the door. On the odd occasion that someone asks me to keep my shoes on I actually feel weird walking around their house in my dirty shoes. When I think about where I walk in throughout the day (subway & city streets!) I have no problem taking my shoes off.
I just want to throw in some agreement to the Canada-U.S. debate. My American friends seem to wear their shoes in the house, but this just does not happen in Canada in my experience. I’m guessing it’s weather related.
Definitely shoes off. We’re an asian family, and that’s how asian culture goes. We also do expect all guests to take their shoes off – we live in NYC, and honestly, it grosses me out a bit to think of wearing shoes in the house, when you know the shoes have been walking around in the subway and other places.
I hate sweeping and my bf isn’t the best at it, so I vote SHOES OFF all the time to avoid making a bigger mess of the floors than they have to be.
I find it so gross when people don’t take their shoes off in the thouse. Who knows what is on the bottom of your shoes.. think about where all you have stepped in outside, and how dirty that is. Why take all that inside where you sleep, live, etc. ugh! =)
Shoes off for all! I’m not cleaning my floors every day.
I’m loving these responses, especially the people who find it rude when asked to take their shoes off. I don’t require that, but having grown up in Europe, and having most of my family still live all over there, this isn’t even debatable. You just do it. It’s interesting too, that all my friends who live here that have European backgrounds (I’m talking about 1st or 2nd generation) also have strict shoes-off policies. Our grandmas must have done a solid job instilling that in us, huh?
And besides, it’s your home, so it should be your rules, yes?
Shoes make an outfit so I say keep them on!
We always removed our shoes because we had white carpets and if we didn’t, they’d be black carpets! But when we switched to wood laminate last year, the habit stuck and we still take them off by the door. I believe it keeps everything cleaner, and you’re not tracking in all of that dirt/pesticides/germs throughout your house. Who wants that?? Yuck!
Depends on the season – it is absolutely necessary to remove shoes and boots in the winter (I live in MN) but in the summer, if it hasn’t been raining and your shoes are clean, then you could keep them on. Although at my friends and families houses we always take off shoes – and they always take off their shoes when they come to my house. I think its just ingrained in our behavior. We don’t even have to ask. Sometimes someone might tell you you can leave them on.
Cute kicks, Sherry! I appreciate people taking their shoes off at my house. I take my shoes off when I am a guest at other people’s homes. Sometimes, like at my gma’s, I have to bring slippers because it’s cold and OTHER people don’t take their shoes off so it can get dirty. Happy Friday!