Taking shoes off before you come inside your house

I think it looks pernickety too. For a dressed-up occasion (if only!) are guests expected to kick off their heels at the door and pad around in tights?

Our house was also my Dad's surgery. We had literally hundred of people through the door. Shoe removal never entered anyone's heads. Somehow, despite this onslaught of potential filth, we managed and never caught any nasty bugs from the patients!

We had a shoe scraper outside the door but dad never used it coming in from the garden.

Jaylucy my mum did that from the garden door through the back kitchen when dad had been up the garden picking veg and digging up some potatoes. I used to have to tell her when he was coming down the garden so she'd be ready with the newspaper.

I've just remembered the scenes in last of the Summer Wine, when the character played by Thora Hird used to get her poor husband to walk into the kitchen on sheets of newspaper!(grin)

I don't think it's necessarily a modern thing as I've been trained since being a tot to take outdoor shoes off as soon as I get in the house and put slippers on. Still do it. I have to say I wasn't always careful as a child about where I was standing outside. Plus Granny had a thing about changing carpets regularly, so there was always a new carpet somewhere in the house, no idea why! I'd never ask anyone to take their shoes off to come in our house but people invariably do. Even workmen bring blue plastic overshoes. Though I do think next time I might have bleachable carpets - GC proof!

As a child I was always ordered to remove my shoes when going into someone's house, including our own. I have continued this throughout my life and I do appreciate it when guests remove their shoes. We live in the countryside and there is always mud and dirt around. When visiting, even to the neighbours, we always take slippers with us to wear inside. I think it is a considerate thing to do as most people don't like to have dirt trampled through their carpets.

What's the problem ? I have been in several homes where that is standard and it has often started with how the parents are !
Many homes I visited in my childhood asked you to remove your shoes did so in the belief that it would cut down on the wear and tear of the carpets.
Just make sure that you remember to take your slippers with you next time you visit or ask him to supply you with some to keep there and give him your shoe sizes!
Could be worse - I used to know someone that didn't even allow you to wear your shoes in his car !!!

It’s a hygiene thing. I have disposable slippers for people who don’t like it. For elderly and disabled I wouldn’t expect it.

I would be happy that House has high standards of cleanliness.

My eldest son is just the same and they have very cold wooden floors which are highly slippy! I always take my slippers when I go to his house, which hasn’t been in a while because of Covid. We change into our slippers at home but I dont insist people take their shoes off in case they have smelly feet!

My mother used to keep a length of rolled up "Druggit' in the cupboard under the stairs (can't use the phrase glory hole these days).
This was ceremonially rolled out during any wet weather from the front door.

We take ours off in the hall but I don’t insist visitors do. I had a friend whose husband wouldn’t let you take your shoes off!! He hated the thought of peoples bare feet on his floors. ?

My lounge and bedrooms are carpeted and only the '*chosen few*', who are respectful and do not need asking to remove their shoes, go into these rooms.
The other rooms in my property are tiled or with other floor coverings that a wipe over is sufficient should they experience muddy boots/shoes or 'paws'.

We never have here, some people take their shoes off when they come in and others don't. I'm now worried either way. Just wipe your feet if it's wet outside is all I expect.
The only people that do ask visitors to is my bil and his wife, and also his two children do in their houses too.
It's one of the new fads which seem pointless and not very welcoming to me.

Shoes off was never a thing in any of our family when I was a child and we’ve never done it. (Dare I add that my folks thought it a decidedly lower-class thing?)
Obviously if shoes are very wet or muddy people take them off anyway though.

I don’t much like being asked to take shoes off but of course will do so if people ask, but my feet do tend to feel cold if I don’t have socks on, and no, I don’t want anyone else’s old slippers on my bare feet, thank you.

An ex colleague has virtually white carpet right through so I can understand her insistence, but then I find it hard to understand why anyone would choose white carpet.

I have a Vax and give them a good wash now and then but our carpets are pretty ancient now, plus the moths have been at them, but I won’t replace them until youngest Gdc - 15 months - is past the ultra-messy stage.

My children and grandchildren take theirs off, I take mine off, unless I’m in briefly, DH doesn’t, unless he’s got particularly dirty shoes. I think it started when the children were small, friends generally don’t.

Unless you have a baby crawling round on the floor, what on earth do a few bacteria matter? Not that we ever removed shoes when we did have babies. They survived.

I was never brought up to it, an used to find it very oddly pernickety when I encountered people who did.

Now I wish I had - the wee rented house has pale oatmeal carpets that I've allowed to become engrainedly grubby.

When I look back, as a child all our rooms were lino-ed, with a dark carpet/rug in the middle, so there was no need to take shoes off.

DW Ashcombe has a daughter who insists on this. If I dress up smartly, including nice shoes, to visit you - why would I want to take the shoes off when they are part of the deal? People look ridiculous sitting around in sox, or even slippers in company.

No carpets chez moi, so no problem with shoes! Floor is steam-cleaned weekly.

We haven’t always done this either, the doormat was used to wipe our feet. It’s probably the last 10 years or so since we removed shoes at the door and wouldn’t dream of not doing so now. It’s not just mud to worry about ..

I have never taken my shoes off to enter the house, but then I do have indoor shoes and walking shoes. Two of my offspring remove their shoes but the middle one never does.

We had to remove shoes in the porch of my brother's house when he was married. I used to joke and say that my feet were dirtier than the underneath of the shoes---it didn't go down well
They divorced some years ago. His ex was the most awful snob and he'd been brainwashed. His partner now of many years is the complete opposite I remember telling brother when he comes to my place, he wipes his feet on the way out,hahahaha.

Interesting. I don’t know anyone else here who does it but we do tend to have pretty dry weather and not much mud so maybe that is a factor. We have a doormat which I use but no one else does! Sigh. All our downstairs areas are polished boards and rugs but the bedrooms upstairs are all carpeted. The stairs are carpeted and I was going to get rid of that carpet until I fell down a couple of years back and decided the carpet made for a softer fall!

I couldn’t imagine walking on anybody’s floor with outdoor shoes, just think of all that bacteria ?. All our family and friends are the same as us so fortunately so I’ve never needed to ask.

We all do it I take slippers when I visit family it's just normal to us ,ac,and grandchildren.