<p>We have beautiful hardwood floors throughout our home. I let the dogs walk on them, so I’m not about to ban shoes on them, lol.</p>
<p>Ditto!</p>
<p>*As another person noted, I’d be met with frosty indignance if I imposed that rule on my Grandma. She wears skid proof shoes for a reason: she has double knee replacements, fears falls, and would feel very vulnerable walking around my house in her socks. *</p>
<p>Yes, I think there are many people who might have concerns about this - those who need orthotics, or those of us who save mismatched socks for when we will be wearing boots. :)</p>
<p>I thought I answered OP when I said that I don’t consider dress boots any different from wearing a regular shoe. I have never heard of any policy or custom that treats boots differently from shoes - unless you’re talking about muck type boots.</p>
<p>In an igloo, you probably also keep coats and mittens whatever else you can on although they say it’s quite cozy inside. I have never been in one but we did build a fake igloo when my kid was little, with snow.</p>
<p>We always take off our shoes in the house, not to save the floors (which are not in great shape at all), but because we like to walk barefoot in the house. This causes some guests to take off their shoes–and we have to tell them that they don’t have to. Recently, a guest left his shoes on, and then later went and took them off because nobody else was wearing shoes. I have noticed that almost all the teenagers immediately take off their shoes, so maybe this has become a broader custom among the younger set.</p>
<p>In NYC I think you want people to take off their shoes before they enter your house, for the most part. It’s not because my home is pristine, because it’s not. It’s more about the germs and filth on the streets.</p>
<p>I take off my shoes while in the office–and at home. I wear nice socks. I thank “Mad Men” (returning in March I think) for making this seem more OK. I usually put my shoes on to go downstairs to Starbucks.</p>
<p>I rarely wear shoes at home. I wear lots of fluffy socks and, since I have hardwood floors, I also have some with the grippy thingies on the bottom. In winter, I usually have on my fluffy slippers that have the aromatic, microwaveable inserts.</p>
<p>I like to walk barefoot at home. H loves to wear his Ugg slippers. He LOL’d them at first when I bought them for him (“Wow, I feel like a teenager - I’m wearing Uggs!”) but now claims that his feet feel “nekkid” without them. Cats walk with their claws in or out depending on the situation. :)</p>
That sure wasn’t the custom when I lived in NYC, and the bottom of peoples’ shoes are going to be less than immaculate and full of germs no matter where they live. But since I don’t eat off my floors and I wash/vacuum when they need it, I just don’t get what’s so terrible about walking on floors with shoes on. Even when I had babies who played on the floor, I didn’t consider this a big deal–they need to be exposed to germs to develop their immune systems. (I still remember how one day while I was carefully sterilizing a pacifier, I realized that S, who I had strategically placed on a quilt near my feet, had wriggled to the edge and was busily licking the floor.) I am equally puzzled by products that assure the inside of your toilet will be germ free, but that’s an issue for another thread.</p>
<p>I don’t wear shoes at home and neither does anyone else in my family. But I also go around the house in clothes I would not wear out in public or in other people’s homes – Gap Body comfy stuff. That’s part of being at home in your own home – dressing down. I have one friend who asks people to remove their shoes when they enter and she provides socks if they want them. When she first started doing that I was taken aback. I had never ever been in someone’s home where I was asked to take my shoes off. It’s a bit more baffling as she has dogs who go in and out all the time which would seem to track more dirt than shoes. However, I’ve noticed in recent years that my kids’ friends always, always remove their shoes when entering my home without asking. It seems to be the custom in their generation. When I was growing up, I never went to a social event at a home where people’s shoes were off. It would have seemed as odd as if the women took off their blouses. Wearing shoes was part of being dressed and it would have been a complete faux-pas to remove one’s shoes at someone’s home. Times have changed.</p>
<p>Exactly. My SIL, who I adore, had white carpet and insisted that people remove their shoes so as not to dirty it. That is truly one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard of. I wanted to ask her if when she bought the carpet she was under the impression that her family and friends could hover.</p>
<p>Got me some great Frye boots for Christmas…those puppies are staying on my feet because it’s just to hard and undignified to remove them with an audience present. :p</p>
<p>Only two of all my kid’s friends ever took their shoes off in my house - one is from a very large family of kids and had obviously been trained that way by his mom. The other is a boy from an Asian background. They are both out if college now, but they still take off their shoes! On wood floors I much prefer shoes to barefoot - barefoot can leave all kind of sticky footprints that are hard to remove, even with my Bona mop.</p>
<p>Many posts ago someone commented on winter for fashion boots being warm enough- around here if it is warm enough for those the snow would melt, therefore it would be warm enough for regular shoes. </p>
<p>Of course those who need shoes keep them on in houses where people take them off. Floors are for sitting on and playing on- nicer to have less street/outdoor dirt. Also more comfortable without shoes. Now it’s slipper season for warmth. Summer it’s barefoot in the house. When you are invited to someone’s home it is usually a casual time and a privelege to see their private side- strangers usually don’t get much past the front door. Parties would be different.</p>
<p>ds’ friends, high school class of '03,all took off their shoes at our house (their frequent hangout) and left at front door. our teen room was opposite side and upstairs from our master bedroom so dh and I knew when everyone had gone home by the shoes left at the door. We never asked for this - they just did it.</p>
<p>^^Haha. That’s exactly how we know who is home at our house-we check the shoe line-up. I feel like some posters chastized those of us who prefer shoes be off. “I value my friends more than my carpets…” I’m most definitely not a clean freak, but neither do I like mud and dirt strewn all over my carpets.</p>
<p>Someone asked if my visitors were coming to the back or front door. Friends, mostly back. However, I own a CPA firm with two offices, one in my home. At the home office, approx. 90% of my clients either take off their shoes upon entering or ask if they should. Granted, tax season = snow and mud season here. In my circumstance, and after reading these posts, I’d guess it’s because I’m in an ag, rural area. No well trained farmer in his right mind wears his boots into the house.</p>
<p>I’d have loved to see the replies differentiated by culture and city/suburb/rural area.</p>
<p>Here in mid-Atlantic suburbia, I worry more about my friends spilling red wine on the carpet than I do about them tracking dirt into my house. No one around here asks adults to remove their shoes.</p>
<p>I am a freak. I used to make my kids change their clothes if they have been playing at a playground - after they have sled down a slide, rolled around the ground, I didn’t want them to lie on the couch or bed with their dirty clothes.</p>
<p>Here is another pet peeve of mine…I will not sit or lie on a hotel bed unless I have taken off the bedspread.</p>