Shoes on or off in your house?

[toggleswitch]

I take my shoes off voluntarily if I know my host fairly well (or it's a formal gathering), unless my socks will end up functioning as mops. I do have friends who keep a filthy house where one needs to wash all of their clothes immediately upon return home and have a good hot shower. (And I do mean from a NORMAL visit!)

~I love to drive barefoot.
That is illegal in my state and considered to be a dangerous practice. You won't want to brake if a sliver of glass makes it into your foot.

I will also not be a passenger with a driver that has open-back shoes. It is extremely easy for the shoe to slip off and wedge itself under a pedal.

 

[DADoES]

Driving barefoot does NOT work for me.

Right now, shoes are off .. but I haven't yet been out of the house today.

I typically visually check my shoes, take them off if dirty ... or I sit on the patio and scrub them with an old towel and brush before coming in.

When visiting someone else, visually check, remove if needed. I'd never be offended if someone asks me to take my shoes off in their home.

A little grass or dry dirt is one thing, not particularly destructive, cleans easily. Gum, tar, or mud is entirely different.

 

[cehalstead]

dangerous practice....

My dear Toggles:

i have read many places that driving barefoot is actually safer than driving while wearing shoes. The reasoning is that your reflexes are better in barefeet. While many think that driving barefoot is illegal (and I am sure it is in many places), most state driving codes make no mention of shoes at all...neither requiring nor giving permission to do without.

ps....call me soon.....

 

[frigilux]

I was raised to remove shoes upon entering the house. We had white carpet in the hall and living room, so no shoes were allowed.

I still remove my shoes and put on moccasins when I get home.

 

[oldhouseman]

Wow

...what a wide range of response and household practice. I think this is interesting from a cultural standpoint. Region to region and social demographics. I can see some of the students that come into my office looking for a topic to research for a school research project taking this up.

White carpet...hhhmmm...what's that particular design thought about. Certainly a late 20th century convention. I would be interested to know where the roots of that idea came from. Clean looks of course but what inspired it?

Walking into my home is much like stepping back into time 200 years so the shoes are kept on. I have a great interest in modern home particulars such as this. Believe it or not this kind of information helps me in my work as a Cultural Historian. Thanks for all the great information.

 

[jmirawm]

a little relaxed here ......

in the house: boxers and ankle socks. It is kind of a pain when someone comes to the door and i have to rush to throw on pants and a shirt. I have been known to drive to the hardees drive thru early on a saturday or sunday morning barefoot.

 

[mayken4now]

OFF, brings dirt in my house, aint having it.

 

[joeekaitis]

Deerfoams slippers. They feel even better than bare feet, but we're not shoes-off obsessed about visitors.

 

[mattywashboy]

we have a rack just inside the front door for shoes to come OFF. Even tho we have mainly tile floors shoes still leave marks and scatter any dirt or grass, its just a lot easier to keep the place clean.

 

[dirtybuck]

Hmmm...

I usually run around the apartment barefoot a great deal of the time, but when I go out, it's basically ankle socks and sneakers. However, now that Spring is here and the weather is warming up, the flip-flops have been taken out of the bedroom closet.

 

[panthera]

Shoes/no Shoes

I asked two groups of students about this. One, first semester engineering, mostly still living at home. The other, last semester (they hope!) (but not as much as we do), engineering, nearly all living on their own. I'm trying to teach them how to communicate with non-engineers using English as the intermediary. If any of you live with engineers, you can guess how well I'm doing...not. Anyway,

Both groups answered exactly the same:
Guys living alone: Hell no.
Guys living with mama: But of course.
Guys living with girl friend: Yup. If I want any, you betcha (we don't do political correctness here, so men really do still talk like real men in the classroom. Women still roll their eyes, they just don't go screaming to the PC police).
Women: "What is the first thing you saw your mom do after a day at work?....Ok, ok, got the point. As I have often mentioned here before, I just can not walk straight in 4' heels.

I don't ask guests to take their shoes off who don't think to do so at the door - I wouldn't want them to feel uncomfortable in my home. By the same token, I am not offended if someone asks me to take them off at the door - it is, after all, their house. Can't imagine not ever going back somewhere again simply because someone asked. I would expect said host to provide hygenically fresh houseshoes in my size (13D/47).
Shoes aren't the issue here, regardless of reality, the "mentality" in Germany is still agricultural and the pig shit doesn't belong in the house.
We have five major food groups here in Bavaria: Cigarettes, Coffee, Beer, Salt and Pork. Everything else is negotiable. The daintiest Hausfrau, wearing her fluffiest pink boas and 6" spiked-heel house-slippers would rather spend the next weekend re-painting the living room walls than ask a guest not to smoke in his appartment. My allergy to cigarette smoke means no smoking at my house. That one has led to more than one friend's lover refusing to ever visit me again.
Cultures vary in their expressions, but never in their basic human characteristics.
There are only two types of people. The ones who wish you well the way you are and the ones who demand you be who they tell you you have to be.

 

[mattl]

Prefer shoes off but....

I won';t wear my "outside" shoes in the house and would prefer it if everyone followed suit, but I'm not going to ask my guests to do so. Some do it automatically others don't even give it a thought.

I really don't want shoes that walked all over sidewalks where people spit and dogs mess walking on my carpet.

 

[spankomatic]

Depends on tempurature.. If it's hot I like to go barefoot. If it's cold I wear shoes or slippers. Guests and friend can do what they are most comfortable doing in my house. I do have a door mat for wipeing off shoes.

I dislike when someone forces there "culture" on me when I enter there house. Shoes off rule because that is their life style. Sometimes they don't even have carpet. One house I went into the carpet was so bad you wanted to keep your shoes ON! Who knows what you will step in or on on someone elses house.

I choose to be flexible and reasonable in my house....

Jim

 

[launderess]

Shoes On My Highly Polished Woodblock?

I don't think so!

 

[polkanut]

Just ask Richard!

 

[stainfighter]

it's Thai custom...

and once we married I never gave it another thought...in 16 years have only had one person object (we provide indoor mocassins/slippers in several sizes for those that want/need them)

 

[oldhouseman]

My brothers wife

is a southern version of Mrs Bucket. She does not allow people to wear shoes in her house either. Her line is "Not on my polished yellow pine!" God almighty I can't stand that woman. Saturday is Confederate Memorial Day here in Georgia. I know she will be done up, big hair and all, for the ceremony at the confederate cemetery with the United Daughters of the Confederacy and a gathering afterward at her house. I feel sorry for those poor souls.

Heels Keven? No, say it ain't so...Don't they mark the floor?

 

[panthera]

No, they do not...

cause I can't walk two steps in them without falling flat on my face.
Except in bed, I am a total failure as a gay man. No sense of fashion, no need to be perfectly coiffed, not the slightest interest in all the Queenly things a gay man should care about.
I try to pass it off as being in butch drag, but folks see right through it.
The irony - the true irony of it all: My ultra-super-extremely-mucho-macho-heterosexual brother would fit perfectly into the clipped with a ruler, sharp as a razor creased, perfectly styled, always neat and tidy, interior-decorated within an inch of it's life house, ideal gay world. He can even dance and blow rings through the rings with his cigarettes...
So, sorry, was just teasing.
I don't have a problem with men who are effiminate, by the way...just so we don't get into that nasty bit of name calling again. One of my dearest, oldest friends here is 6'5", so even taller than I am, built like a brick out house and she is royalty right down to the boas. And lisp. And extended pinky when she sips her wine-spritzers.
I am happy if my socks match, much less my purse and shoes.
One thing I did think of after reading this thread - I don't wear synthetic anything and nobody complains about my feet stinking. Do you suppose those hideous nylon/polyester socks have something to do with the stink? I can surely understand why someone would feel embarrassed to take their shoes off knowing what an "air" they'd have.

 

[toggleswitch]

Lawdy Lawd Lawd I haven't had stillettos on in 20 years!

~No, they do not... because I can't walk two steps in them without falling flat on my face.

WHAT? CANT WALKS IN HEELS? GIVE BACK YOU MEMBERSHIP CARD! *LOL*

See now I thought they were madatory "training wheels" for the newly come-out 'mos. Perfect *COUGH* tools to hook over the ceiling/paddle fans in order to teach one how to point one's toes to the heavens!

 

[panthera]

Gosh, Steve,

I guess this is not the time to mention that I can throw a ball straight?
Na, guess not. Well, some of us got more of the fabulous gene than did others.
I love her singing that - "...are you ready heels? Start stomping!" Ertha is cat woman, no matter how much I like Halle Berry...
One of the things I enjoy about our club is that I can let my hair down and be myself here. Sure, the PC police get after you and me occasionally for enjoying life too much, but at least we got the gilded high-drama touch.