Please can you take your shoes off

AnnaLicious_2

This thread is brilliant, I have to make the time to read all these responses!!

My husband has OCD, so I can always say, 'oh you know what he's like' and the shoes come right off. My Mom was a straggler with this, but when she flies over she now brings slippers with her (that I bought her as I'm devious in trying to make things run smoothly).

Workmen are the worst. The guy that usually comes in is lovely and takes his shoes off. After the other ones we have to 'decontaminate' the house. But as they're doing handyman work, they need their shoes on, which I think is only reasonable. And to be honest, even then I'd have to decontaminate, which anyone familiar with OCD will understand.

I grew up on a farm with grubby old carpets and shoes were worn straight from the fields! My husband would have had a meltdown in my childhood home!!

1_step_closer

I've never thought about this before.............some of my friends are "shoes off", some aren't. Some family are, others aren't.

As for my house - the dogs haven't yet learnt to wipe their mucky paws (although I do have an old towel by the dog flap to catch the worst of the mud). Personally? my feet are manky (clean but manky) so I prefer to keep my socks on.

1 step closer

Plans_all_plans

flippin36 wrote: »

My auntie went from everyone must take their shoes off OUTSIDE the house (she didn't even want peoples shoes on her mat) to insisting we wear slippers when we visit, she has them lined up in the hallway. The thought of wearing slippers other than my own makes me heave tbh . I took my own once and she didn't like that because she didn't know where they had been.

I would think that someone who asked this of guests had mental health issues myself.

dibuzz

So those people who keep random guest slippers, how do you know what size? My feet are like barges but my friend wears a kids size 3 so we'd struggle with a pair of communal size 6's

purple.sarah

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

There was a thread in the 'house buying and selling' forum a while back from someone who had their house up for sale - and was insisting that anyone who came to view the house had to take their shoes off before being allowed to look round!

She was quite surprised when some potential viewers left without bothering to view.....

That wouldn't put me off buying a house from her because I would assume if she was fastidiuous about cleaning she would have kept it in good condition. It would put me off renting a house from her!

coolcait

jackieb wrote: »

What would someone do if they asked a guest to remove their shoes and that person had really honking feet? Would they ask them to put their shoes back on again. I remember one time my auntie slipped her shoes off in the back of the car and I thought I smelt a gas leak! :eek:

I was trying so hard to get to the end of the thread without posting , but you've made the point that has been running through my head since page one...

Some people's feet are just rank. Even if they are the nicest, cleanest, most hygiene conscious person in the entire world. Their feet haven't received the memo.

I went to my kids' school show last year, and was sitting beside a group of sixth year girls. Pleasant, polite girls, all dressed up (to go out somewhere after the show, I'm sure ).

During the interval, I started to think that something had crawled under the seats and died :eek:. I have never known a stench like it - and I have a sports mad OH and teenage son...;)

One of the girls had slipped off her killer heels. The olfactory combination of the effects of overheated fake tan, and bare feet in synthetic shoes, was a killer in itself .

Naturally, as a good Brit (and conscious that these girls probably knew my daughter, and vice versa - and that my daughter would never, ever, have spoken to me again if I had uttered my thoughts out loud... :rotfl:) I said nothing.

Just as I would probably say nothing if a guest in my house wandered around shoeless and stinking. What could I say if I had asked them - nay insisted to them - that they take their shoes off?

I don't wear shoes around my own home. I am happy to kick off my 'dressy' shoes if I visit a friend's house - with permission, or coercion, of course.

If I've got on my old boots, and have spent the day hiking around in them, then I would be embarrassed to take them off in public/in someone else's house.

However, I now know that when my friend says to me cheerfully "Oh, just take off your boots!" (because friends can be open with each other, and it's his/her house after all), I can reply, equally cheerfully (because friends can be open and honest with each other):

"Well, it's your house and your choice, and I'll respect your wishes of course. If you're worried about biohazards being transferred from my foot region onto your carpets/laminate/tiles/flooring of your choice, you're probably better off if I keep my boots on. Or leave. "

Etiquette-wise, how on earth would you deal with visiting a friend's shoe-free home, and finding that the entire family had created a foot-based miasma of noxious and anti-social odours?

I think I'd probably pretend that I didn't want to remove my own shoes, and leave... :A

luxor4t

OP, I agree with your thoughts, I'm about to start a "shoe free zone" home.

I'm about to buy my first new carpet for the "best" room in 15 years. In the past I've bought darkish patterned carpets as we have 3 kids. Now they've grown up I am delighted by the thought of choosing something paler.

Unfortunately DH thinks it is fine to wear his outdoor shoes everywhere - even the bedroom. He has large feet and chooses heavy shoes with ridged soles - ideal for collecting grit, gravel, dog muck etc etc. The worst was tar tracked through the hall, up the stairs & into the bedroom ... he blamed the kids even though the only shoes in the house with tar on them were his!

Uphill task or not, this time I am going to 'win'. We're redecorating to create a 'grown-up' room and I want a clean, attractive 'grown up' carpet to match.

Oddly enough, he removes his shoes when he visits his mother!

coolcait

Errata wrote: »

"Shoes off in my house please, and please pay no attention to the litter tray full of cat's leavings in the kitchen or the fact that the cat walks all over the worktops" :rotfl:

Actually, that triggered a memory!

I used to live abroad, and all of the houses were designed with a cupboard by the front door, where you left your outdoor coat and outdoor shoes - and changed into your own indoor shoes, which you had brought with you.

One time, when I was pregnant, we visited a family who we didn't know very well - friends of friends. They had a cat which wandered from its litter tray, along the kitchens worktops, and drank from the kitchen tap - by putting its mouth right over the tap :eek::eek:.

The soft drinks ran out early in the night - and I spent several hours pretending not to be thirsty, so that I didn't have to drink water_pale_.

They did have nice clean floors admittedly... (although I didn't do an Aggie-style germ test)

jackieb

coolcait wrote: »

I was trying so hard to get to the end of the thread without posting , but you've made the point that has been running through my head since page one...

Some people's feet are just rank. Even if they are the nicest, cleanest, most hygiene conscious person in the entire world. Their feet haven't received the memo.

I went to my kids' school show last year, and was sitting beside a group of sixth year girls. Pleasant, polite girls, all dressed up (to go out somewhere after the show, I'm sure ).

During the interval, I started to think that something had crawled under the seats and died :eek:. I have never known a stench like it - and I have a sports mad OH and teenage son...;)

One of the girls had slipped off her killer heels. The olfactory combination of the effects of overheated fake tan, and bare feet in synthetic shoes, was a killer in itself .

Naturally, as a good Brit (and conscious that these girls probably knew my daughter, and vice versa - and that my daughter would never, ever, have spoken to me again if I had uttered my thoughts out loud... :rotfl:) I said nothing.

Just as I would probably say nothing if a guest in my house wandered around shoeless and stinking. What could I say if I had asked them - nay insisted to them - that they take their shoes off?

I don't wear shoes around my own home. I am happy to kick off my 'dressy' shoes if I visit a friend's house - with permission, or coercion, of course.

If I've got on my old boots, and have spent the day hiking around in them, then I would be embarrassed to take them off in public/in someone else's house.

However, I now know that when my friend says to me cheerfully "Oh, just take off your boots!" (because friends can be open with each other, and it's his/her house after all), I can reply, equally cheerfully (because friends can be open and honest with each other):

"Well, it's your house and your choice, and I'll respect your wishes of course. If you're worried about biohazards being transferred from my foot region onto your carpets/laminate/tiles/flooring of your choice, you're probably better off if I keep my boots on. Or leave. "

Etiquette-wise, how on earth would you deal with visiting a friend's shoe-free home, and finding that the entire family had created a foot-based miasma of noxious and anti-social odours?

I think I'd probably pretend that I didn't want to remove my own shoes, and leave... :A

My boys always kick off their trainers as soon as they come in the door. I've never made them do it. Tell the truth, i'd rather they keep them on! The consquence is that my front porch reeks of stinky feet.

coolcait

jackieb wrote: »

My boys always kick off their trainers as soon as they come in the door. I've never made them do it. Tell the truth, i'd rather they keep them on! The consquence is that my front porch reeks of stinky feet.

I feel your pain, sister! I feel it.....

:rotfl::rotfl: