Do you ask visitors to remove shoes?

Person_one

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I think if people want you to take your shoes off at the door then they should give you some slippers to put on. I think this is common in Japan. I don't want to see anyone's manky/smelly old socks.

We didn't have this issue until white and pale beige carpets became so popular and people started getting altogether too bloody precious about it.

Yep, you could tread all sorts into our 80s swirly multi-coloured carpet and never know it was there.

Jinx

Ok- I admit it, I have minging feet and would hate to have to take my shoes/boots off to visit........ (am sure it cant just be me can it???) lol

Person_one

Jinx wrote: »

Ok- I admit it, I have minging feet and would hate to have to take my shoes/boots off to visit........ (am sure it cant just be me can it???) lol

Nope.

I have a friend missing three toes, it would be very awkward for him to be asked.

A relative has terribly swollen feet and always keeps them covered, they'd feel embarrassed the whole time they had their shoes off.

Shoes are clothing, its just not on to ask people to take their clothes off for you!

pollypenny

My feet are always cold - I would have to have slippers.

Surely it's unfriendly if not rude to ask people to take their shoes off if you don't provide alternative footwear. You'd have to have disposable ones, too.

chunkychocky

In a recent study, researchers at the University of Arizona found nine different species of bacteria on people's shoes. These types of bacteria can cause infections in our stomachs, eyes and lungs.

The study also found bacteria live longer on our shoes than in other places. As we walk, we constantly pick up new debris that feeds the growth of more bacteria.

The researchers tested to see if bacteria on shoes would transfer to the tile floors in a house. More than 90 percent of the time it did. Carpeting harbors bacteria even more.



"GMA's" test results were "dirtier than a toilet seat," said Jonathan Sexton, a research assistant at the University of Arizona's College of Public Health. "Toilet seats generally have 1,000 bacteria or less, and these are in the millions so there's a lot more bacteria here."

Children under age 2 are the most vulnerable to the germs we track into the house, because they play on the floor and put their hands in their mouths an average of 80 times an hour.

"That means that your child can possibly be exposed to every single bacteria that you picked up on your shoe [...] all the bacteria from the park, the store, everywhere you went that day," Sexton said.


Out of "GMA's" 10 tests, nine contained coliform, a type of bacteria that comes mostly from human and animal waste.

Scientists blame the floors of public restrooms and bird and dog droppings.

Article here.

balletshoes

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I think if people want you to take your shoes off at the door then they should give you some slippers to put on. I think this is common in Japan. I don't want to see anyone's manky/smelly old socks.

We didn't have this issue until white and pale beige carpets became so popular and people started getting altogether too bloody precious about it.

yep, i agree with this. When we first started living together my OH (his culture) always used to take his shoes off at the front door and leave them in the hall, where his slippers lived. I don't care one way or the other, so sometimes I'll walk through the house with my shoes on, sometimes I won't. My daughter takes her shoes off as soon as she gets in the door, and so her friends do the same (and she follows what she sees when she's at friends houses).

We don't wear outside shoes all evening though, I take mine off eventually (ie before curling up on the sofa).

If I know that you want me to take my shoes off when I come to your house, then I'll do that, but if I don't know, then I probably wouldn't think about it, and keep them on.

Person_one

chunkychocky wrote: »

Article here.

Only nine types of bacteria?

That's amazing! Do you have any idea how many are on your hands?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_flora

balletshoes

pollypenny wrote: »

My feet are always cold - I would have to have slippers.

Surely it's unfriendly if not rube to ask people to take their shoes off if you don't provide alternative footwear. You'd have to have disposable ones, too.

thats a good point - I wouldn't be impressed being asked to take my shoes off, having no socks on (I never wear socks/tights etc unless i'm wearing boots) and being offered a pair of used slippers to wear instead.

Bambam

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I think if people want you to take your shoes off at the door then they should give you some slippers to put on. I think this is common in Japan. I don't want to see anyone's manky/smelly old socks.

We didn't have this issue until white and pale beige carpets became so popular and people started getting altogether too bloody precious about it.

I don't have beige or pale carpet, it's a dark colour; what worries me is the hygiene aspect of wearing outdoor shoes indoors.

Appreciate your thoughts though

shellsuit

Shoes come off here in the hallway. They either go in the shoe cupboard there, or they go in the bedrooms in the bottom of the wardrobes (after sitting on the stair for 48 hours most likely lol)

Actually, so long as people don't have anything on the bottom of their shoes, I don't mind them coming in with them on, but what I can't stand are people who just waltz in (and this goes for my own Mother!) without wiping their feet, where there is a mat outside and a big long runner down the hall too.

That just screams "can't be bothered and don't care about your home".

It winds me up something wicked.