Wearing Shoes Inside - The Fuck?

[karloss01]

my house i'm not bothered if you wear your shoes or not, as my dog can't take his feet off. some of my friends families do nut really it isn't a big deal. UK by the way.

 

[AgentLampshade]

As I write this, my feet are resting on a stool across from me, it's comfortable when browsing. Couldn't do that while wearing shoes.

 

[kasperbbs]

People wear slippers where i'm from. The way i see it shoes are uncomfortable indoors, they bring dirt and it's the last thing i want after wearing them for 9-10 hours every day, besides i think it's rude if you come in to someones home with your shoes on and bring dirt all over the place.

 

[Alcoholidayer]

I'm Indian, and in our country people generally wear slippers inside, or remove all footwear near the entrance(there's usually a shoe cupboard there) and remain barefoot inside the house

 

[BakaSmurf]

You step inside my house you damn well take your filthy shoes off at the door and place them on the shoe rack or there will be hell to pay. I'm not even joking, you track dirt into my house you're automatically marked off as an inconsiderate jackass that will not be invited within again.

I live in northern Canada, fyi.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

It might have to do with the climate in the different regions.
Here in Norway, if you're walking through the door with your shoes on you'd on most days be tracking in a shitload of mud or snow.

Won't the trolls steal your boots or something though?

I've only heard of people who have a lot of carpeting requesting you take your shoes off. Also the Japanese and wacky Europeans. My house doesn't have any carpeting, it's either hardwood or tile. Have you ever walked barefoot on tile in the winter? It also keeps you from stubbing your toe sometimes, a definite plus.

I'm more concerned about the hardwood floors than the carpet in my house. Living somewhere it snows a decent chunk of the year and gets sand/salt on the roads, that stuff is absolutely horrible to track in and grind into the finished floor. It destroys the surface in a hurry if you let that crap get everywhere in the winter. It's not exactly great for the carpet either, but it's not quite as immediately obvious as gouges in a polished floor. So yeah, shoes off at the door always in the winter (or whenever you're tracking other stuff into the house on them) and usually out of habit the rest of the time.

 

[keosegg]

I am known as- amongst the scientific community, a nut, so needless to say, I have a few issues about this subject.

I feel that there are parts of the human body that are intrinsically unclean, those parts are the feet, genitals and the business end of the rear end. Now I know this is irrational of me, but I can't help it, I just consider these parts of the body to be dirty (I don't even like to touch my own penis without a pair of latex gloves when I'm peeing).

As a result, I dislike being exposed to these parts of the body, which is why, unless I'm in bed, I have shoes on and I fully expect everyone else to comply to my rules when they're around me. If they don't, they can expect me to come at the with a bucket of hospital grade bleach.

...Needless to say I no longer have friends.

In all seriousness, I do consider the feet to be intrinsically dirty, so having them enclosed a nice thick layer of cloth/rubber/etc. alleviates my anxiety about them.

 

[UrieHusky]

Strange.. strange people.

I don't think I've ever taken my shoes off in any house ever..

I had one flat where I was asked to not wear shoes inside and to ask visitors to take theirs off.

Landlord never noticed that I constantly wore my work boots inside because of a little thing called a VACUUM CLEANER.. As for scuff marks.. if you're dragging your feet that much you're a bit of a dipper anyway lol.

I even use my bed as a foot rest while wearing shoes.. it's seriously not a big deal, wipe your feet on the welcome mat and you're fine, plus I tend not to walk on mud, being in a city and all... we have these wonderful things called foot paths, which means your shoes are seriously unlikely to get dirty >_>

 

[excalipoor]

This thread is blowing my mind so hard. Cultural differences aside, how could anyone possibly feel comfortable and relaxed in their own house, wearing shoes?

I don't wear shoes indoors, or pants. NO PANTS!!!

This guy has the right idea.

 

[GameMaNiAC]

We aren't neanderthals here in Canada, either. You take your damn shoes off in my house... And everyone else's house, too.

Slippers are fine, as long as they don't go outside.

Pretty much this.

We always take our shoes off when indoors in homes. We like our floors and carpets clean.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I wear shoes inside for the sake of added support. I have a limp and a bit of a balance problem, and having shoes on helps with my, well, physical confidence, when walking around is considered. Slippers don't offer me any kind of support, so I might as well not be wearing shoes at all.

I tend to explain the situation to people I visit who I know to be in the "shoes off" camp, and the shoes I wear day-in and day-out don't see much more than the campus' hallways and my own damn house. I switch to boots when I need to head out in the winter and keep my shoes either in my locker or back home, depending on where I'm most likely to spend time.

It might be polite and it might seem cleaner to you, but all you'll get by forcing me to go about with my sock-feet is a lot of awkward stumbles. If I ever set foot in Japan, for instance, I'd need some sort of interpreter to make it clear that I'm not trying to be an asshole or otherwise disrespectful - I just can't afford to go about barefoot.

So when I saw the thread title, my response was "What? Everybody's got a clean pair of shoes lying around somewhere, right?"

 

[acsoundwave]

Unless I'm visiting my brother's apartment (carpet), it's shoes/slippers/socks on or not until I go to bed. (I live in the US.) Where I live, there's an outdoor mat to wipe your feet off, and two indoor mats to wipe your feet off in the foyer: the shoes' soles will be clean before we enter the house proper.

It just depends on the house, I suppose. I freely admit that we Americans are weird. Damn our individualist, non-conformist streaks!

 

[TheLazyGeek]

I stick to being barefoot or wearing slippers. Socks and shoes always bother my feet and I can't wait to get home when I'm out because I literally kick them off as I walk through the door.

Usually against a wall. That's how everyone knows I'm home when they hear a pair of thuds on the wall.

 

[tehroc]

why not just run around the house in socks?

you still have to change them every day so it is not bad to make them more "dirty" by sliding on parquet.

Just wearing socks puts holes in them. I went to a rave once and I took off my shoes so I could slide around better on the dance floor, by the time I left the only intact part of the socks was the elastic around the ankles.

(thankfully I didnt step on anything like discarded used needles or other related crap. I didn't relaize how stupid it was until afterwards.)

 

[Lieju]

I used to wonder that too.

I live in Finland, and here people take their shoes off. You just don't want the mud/snow/crap on your floor, and of course the shoes you will wear most of the year will be rather uncomfortably hot inside.

Any pets that go outside (dog/cat/ferret) will be washed if they are muddy.

All that being said, I don't see what the fuss is about the floor getting dirty. I clean my floor roughly weekly so it doesn't get visibly dirty and don't think about the state of it between then unless I have been doing something like sawing wood. Feet are designed to step on things and immune systems are designed to encounter and deal with germs (and are strengthened by doing so). What is the big deal about the floor not being clean and sterilised at all times?

I'm not concerned of germs, I'm concerned of my floor and carpets.
Plus heaps of mud on the floor don't exactly look nice either.

And if you walk barefoot inside (or even wearing socks) it's much nicer to walk on a clean floor.

Have you ever stubbed your toe on a piece of furniture? Wearing shoes prevents that you know.

Have you ever hurt your head on a doorframe or a or lamp something? Wearing a helmet prevents that you know.

 

[Diluted Dante]

This thread is blowing my mind so hard. Cultural differences aside, how could anyone possibly feel comfortable and relaxed in their own house, wearing shoes?

Because wearing shoes really isn't something that affects your comfort greatly. And if it is, what shoes are you wearing exactly?

I'm with UrieHusky on this. I own a hoover. Why would I give the remotest shit about people in my house wearing their shoes?

 

[SamtheDeathclaw]

Man, if you take off your shoes any time you enter someone's house down here, you're likely to get a lot of weird looks. For some people, that's a really familiar thing to do, and doing it in front of someone you don't really know is weird.
Of course, a lot of people here wear boots that take upwards of several minutes to take off, so there's also that.

 

[Aetherlblade]

Huh? I guess that's mostly an American thing. In Europe most people take off their shoes inside. In Russia keeping your shoes on inside is an absolute no-go.

Dunno about that. I really know no-one in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany or France who does this. Nor many people in Norway, Sweden or Denmark for that matter.

And I know a lot of people from all these countries as friends, collegues etc.

 

[Stormfire Rebellion]

I'm from Alaska, so maybe that's why I side with the canadians...but I cringe and have an inner dilemma whenever someone walks into my house without taking off their shoes or tells me I don't need to take mine off in their home. But I'm also from an Eastern European immigrant family as well, so that may influence it. But I think here in Alaska more people will expect you to take your shoes off than leave them on when entering their home.

 

[Aetherlblade]

We aren't neanderthals here in Canada, either. You take your damn shoes off in my house... And everyone else's house, too.

Slippers are fine, as long as they don't go outside.

Pretty much this.

We always take our shoes off when indoors in homes. We like our floors and carpets clean.

But, doesn't that mean you ARE neaderthals? They didnt have shoes inside their caves either. We do in our mancaves.