Question for "no shoes" households

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I won’t lie, I find it weird when people ask adults to remove their shoes at a party. I will do it (without being asked if i know their preference) but it seems very anal. Especially when said people have a dog.

Totally agree with this.

[Anonymous]

We are shoes off house and easter european. In places without many owning cars, you wear your outdoor shoes especially in winter and bring your fancy shoes (clean soles) and change into them when you arrive. I bring heels to my parents house for fancy dinners as do others and keep a pair of slippers there for everyday. That said. Now with most people droving, i doubt anyone walks their dog in fancy heels so id be ok with that and i wouldn't ask a grownup to take the shoes off (most take the hint of a shoes cabinet at the door)

[Anonymous]

Nuts cuckoo people to force people to take off their shoes.

Nobody does this in Florida, because everyone is wearing sandals and we don't want to walk around barefoot in a stranger's house.

[Anonymous]

This SO weird to me. Grew up wearing shoes in house and so did everyone else I knew - in DC area, nice neighborhood.
Even today I see no shoes as unusual. When I go to Manhattan, it seems everyone is no shoes - which they typically ascribe to dog poop issues on city side walks.
Another factor: I rarely wear socks and don't like idea of bare feet on cold floors.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I allow people to wear their shoes, but like PPs, I've had my wood floors destroyed by high heels.

My mom had vinyl floors punctured by a friend's high heel in the 80s. She was devastated, we could not afford new floors. We lived with that puncture for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This SO weird to me. Grew up wearing shoes in house and so did everyone else I knew - in DC area, nice neighborhood.
Even today I see no shoes as unusual. When I go to Manhattan, it seems everyone is no shoes - which they typically ascribe to dog poop issues on city side walks.
Another factor: I rarely wear socks and don't like idea of bare feet on cold floors.

See, your experience is weird to me. I grew up in the midwest and have lived in the DC area for 20 years and in both instances, more people had shoeless homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're a shoes-off family. When we host we don't make guests take their shoes off. We used to do massive summer parties and no shoes were taken off.
It's funny though, when my DD first had high school friends come over, they must have asked her if they should take their shoes off, and I guess she said yes. So now when they visit, it's a habit, they greet us parents while simultaneously taking their shoes off and leaving them by the front door. I get a kick in seeing 10 pairs of shoes in all these sizes lined up in the foyer.
I do know one family that is middle eastern and are very strict about it. They hosted a corporate dinner, 10 guests, we were asked to take our shoes off. Thank god I had gotten a pedicure that week. One work friend was mortified bc she wasn't prepared and had worn sandals to work and didn't have socks to cover her unpedicured feet. If you're going to do shoes off give adequate notice so guests can be comfortable.

Or you could just be prepared for both possibilities, which is the smarter thing to do as a guest in someone's home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t host formal events in my house bc I’m that grossed out by shoes everywhere. I once did host many years ago and some woman had a nail coming out of her heel on an old shoe that left dings in every plank of hardwood that she stepped on. I was renting then but would be pretty pissed of that happened on my floors. Only informal gatherings for me and shoes off!

You saw the nail coming out of her shoe and didn't say anything? That's weird.

Of course I said something once I saw dings in the floor after she walked and then she removed her shoes. Damage was already done at that point. Unfortunately, I wasn’t inspecting the soles of shoes upon arrival.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This SO weird to me. Grew up wearing shoes in house and so did everyone else I knew - in DC area, nice neighborhood.
Even today I see no shoes as unusual. When I go to Manhattan, it seems everyone is no shoes - which they typically ascribe to dog poop issues on city side walks.
Another factor: I rarely wear socks and don't like idea of bare feet on cold floors.

I'm with you! I can't believe it took 2 or 3 pages to get to someone who lets people wear shoes in their house. I can't think of a single friend of mine who asks people to take their shoes off. I live in DC for what it's worth--and have relatives in NYC and they don't either. I seem to be an outlier in a huge world of no-shoes on the house people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In most cultures where shoes are taken off at home, for fancier gatherings people either bring a pair separate, clean soled shoe to wear and change into that at the entrance, and/or guests are provided slippers or fancier indoor shoes to change into. My family had multiple pairs of bedazzled slippers to be worn by guests when I was growing up. Fun times.

This is how we do it in Canada. People bring indoor shoes to events and leave outdoor shoes at the door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nuts cuckoo people to force people to take off their shoes.

Nobody does this in Florida, because everyone is wearing sandals and we don't want to walk around barefoot in a stranger's house.

Funny you say this. I actually started with a shoes off household when I moved to Florida, because the place i moved into had very light tan brand new carpeting and I wanted to keep it nice. I've since moved out of Florida but have kept up the no-shoes practice.

[Anonymous]

I welcome my guests as they are and don't ask them to take off any items of clothing. They could wear their raincoat the whole time if they wanted to.

[Anonymous]

I've lived all over Maryland. I never knew anyone who had a no shoes house.

Hunting boots would be left in the garage but street shoes worn inside.

It seems really gross to walk around barefoot in someone's house. Athletes foot anyone?

[Anonymous]

I suspect shoe free cultures are those in which humans are defecating and urinating outside and there is a lot of poverty and hovels.

[Anonymous]

We are a no shoes household both by culture and by location. In manhattan, I have yet to encounter a household where people routinely wear shoes indoors. We live in tribeca and there are rats, dog feces, human feces, etc all over the street. I’ve been in probably 100 homes in tribeca, uws, ues, west village, soho, etc and once or twice we were told we could leave our shoes on if we wanted to, but most of the other guests, including the host, had theirs off. Many homes have a basket of slippers for guests. Also, when other kids come over for play dates, I notice that they automatically take off their shoes without being asked, so I assume they do the same at home.