I don't get offended at all when people ask me to leave my shoes at the door, but I do feel extremely embarrassed, uncomfortable and panicky if it happens to take place when I have a pair of smelly shoes on!!

I agree that the American culture is not as clean as other cultures.

It is shocking to me the number of people in this country who do not wash hands after using restroom and then proceed to touch the doors, etc. Yuck.

It's a way of thinking in other countries. Take good care of our stuff. Be clean.

Here it is about, replacing it when it get ruined. No worries.

No shoes in the house is the right way to go. Our floors stay very clean do to this policy.

I would pick up some of those disposal slippers and say to guests:

"Would you mind taking off your shoes? We have some extra slippers if you would like one."

You can get them on amazon.

We live in Boston and most everyone I know takes their shoes off in the winter so as not to track snow, sand, salt, etc into the house.

I bought a nice shoe trough and placed it by our mudroom door.. People get the idea.

I grew up being scolded for walking bare feet in the house...
mostly because we walked bare feet outside too =P

anyway...

I love the no show policy and I always ask the host if I should take off my shoes.

My house is NO SHOE too and I don'[t mind reminding my friends and guests.

It makes sense to me to not wear shoes in the house. They were not permitted in the baby room at my daughter's daycare because for obvious reasons they didn't want dirty shoes on the floor where the babies crawled and played.

I haven't read all the responses, but we don't wear shoes in the house. We are not Asian and not German (although we did live in Germany for a while and it became customary to us - in fact, they manufacture special "house shoes" and they were required at my daughter's kindergarten.....)

When I go to someone's house and they either a) have shoes lined up inside the door or b) are not wearing shoes themselves, I take off my shoes. If I'm just stopping in for a moment I usually leave mine on if neither a) or b) is true.

When people come to our house, they usually see that a) we have shoes lined up inside the door and b) we are not wearing shoes and they will frequently take off their shoes. That said, some people do not, and I do not ask them to unless it's really wet or snowy or something.

My parents never take off their shoes in my house but it would also be very difficult for them as they would need to come in and sit down to take them off anyway.

My sister and her kids also never take their shoes off. This kind of bugs me because they are certainly able to and the kids climb all over my furniture with their shoes on but I would never tell her she had to take them off and they don't in their house.

Anonymous wrote:OMG! My in laws hate my no shoes policy! Everyone else seems fine with it. LOL!

I try to ask at someone's house if it's a "no shoes" house, to be considerate.

I do the same. I have a hard time wearing shoes in any house, because I grew up in no shoe house and my family has the same rule. The only "person" dragging dirt into our house is our dog!

Try the wipe test. Wipe the bottom of a shoe with a damp paper towel. This is what you leave behind in your house.

To answer the point about a formal party, when we lived in Sweden we wore our outside shoes to the party and then changed into our heels/inside party shoes once we arrived. Esp. in a place with snow in the winter there is no way you can walk to a party (or work, for that matter) in nice dress shoes. For daily work, most businessmen and women wore regular shoes to get to work, then put on their fancy/work shoes. No one thought twice about it.

OMG! My in laws hate my no shoes policy! Everyone else seems fine with it. LOL!

I try to ask at someone's house if it's a "no shoes" house, to be considerate.

I dont have a no shoe policy but do have a friend that does and in the summer - I hate walking barefoot in her house - my feet are always cold and I dont have socks on at all times. I have resorted to bringing house slippers to her house bc I dont like being barefoot. I would recommend a basket of socks or house slippers for those that dont like looking at feet. In some cultures feet are offensive - especially stinky ones!

Anonymous wrote:I just ask nicely for them to remove there shoes and my reason is I have a 1 year old playing on the floor

really I dont care if your offended... I do keep a few pair of socks by the door (new cheap ones) for guests to use

that's such a great idea! if you keep the tags on it in a neat little basket, they'll know it's clean. love it!!!

love the sign ideas as well.

i have a no shoes policy. i usually ask people to take of their shoes. it doesn't seem like anyone is offended. also i have 2 babies who are twins. they were premature, so i also ask people to sanitize their hands in the winter months before handling the babies. people do get offended with the sanitizing. but at the end of the day, i'm a good friend and person and if that's the only issue they have with me, they seem to let it go. i have one "friend" who was offended and she's never called me since. honestly, she wasn't that great of a friend anyways. nothing is perfect, but if that is the only annoyance -- not a big one. people should get over it. hope that helps. good luck!

When I was in Hawaii - I saw these pretty signs on a cermaic tile that said - Mahalo for taking your shoes off. Some of them were funny and cute.

I agree that guest, friends, family and workers should remove shoes. We have been stressed out for years when new people come to our home. I work in a hospital. I can't begin to tell you what I walk on with my shoes. Blood, urine, feces, vomit, you name it...........I've walked on it. There is nothing that would make me track that stuff into my home. My carpet would be full of infection and disease, not to mention everything else I pick up on my shoes when I'm not at work (Oil, dirt, spit, pet urine and so on.............)

I purchase medical, surgical booties for people to slip over their shoes. You can buy them from Home Depot or any medical supply store. They are disposable and a small price to pay for. I also have a beautiful custom made sign hanging on my front door that says "please remove you shoes here". It's hanging right above the door bell, so you can't miss it. Still, people pretend to not see it and try to enter without respecting our house rule. Then I say, Oh I'm sorry.........do you mind wearing booties over your shoes. Usually they will, but for some, that is more embarrasing to them then taking shoes off. So, they will then just slip the shoes off. For some people, it's like asking them to take their pants off. What on earth is the big deal????

The worst thing is when you have someone working on your home. You ask them to wear the booties, then they either do or they remove their shoes. Then, they actually walk back out to their car a million times in their socks or the booties you gave them to slip over the shoes. I'm sorry.............where is the common sense here???? Obviously, they are now tracking dirt back into our home.

This is a big issue with our family. All of my family and extended family remove their shoes............so we just don't get it when people don't. Why live in a dirty, germ infested environment? TAKE THE TWO SECONDS TO KINDLY REMOVE YOUR SHOES. BE SMART AND REMOVE YOUR SHOES IN YOUR OWN HOME.