How do you dress your feet at home, in general?
Additionally, what are your house footwear rules? What kind of floors do you have? Are there different rules for different floorings? Are the rules applied to guests?
During fall/winter, I wear socks. If I’m walking about the house I also have bedroom shoes on, as our trailer is quite drafty and my feet get cold a lot. Spring and summer I’m either barefoot or wearing sandals/flip flops, though I’ll probably pick up a pair of crocs this year.
Our only rule about shoes in the house is if you pull them off, put them in the bin by the door so they aren’t scattered everywhere. A necessity when there’s 6 people (4 adults/2 kids) in a 2 bedroom trailer.
The rule doesn’t apply to guests unless they’re staying overnight. We have carpet in all the rooms except the kitchen, where it is linoleum tiles that was put down on top of more linoleum.
At my house, it’s all hardwood floors throughout so it’s a totally-no-rules, free-for-all. Personally I like to walk about the house in socks.
My parents’ OTOH is a whole different story. The hallway from the front door, into the kitchen, the hall bathroom, the laundry room, the kitchen, and the breakfast area are all linoleum tiling, and everywhere else is carpeted. Shoes come off immediately upon entering the house and slippers are worn on all non-carpeted areas. Only socks or barefeet (preferably socks) are allowed on the carpets. If you do not have your own slippers, slippers will be provided.
Unless you’re a guest, then none of these rules apply to you. However, if you have shifted from occasional guest to virtual or actual family member, e.g. my girlfriend, the rules then fully apply to you.
If I’m getting up in the morning and puttering around the house, I’ll be in bare feet in warmer weather, and socks or slippers in the colder weather. If I’ve been out and come in the house, I’ll usually leave my shoes on until I have a reason to take them off. My kids are generally in bare feet year 'round.
I hate wearing anything on my feet, so I am almost always barefoot at home. Doesn’t matter the weather, my feet are nekkid.
TheKid wears fuzzy slippers around when it’s chilly in here.
I do prefer it if guests remove their shoes, but I don’t demand it. If they don’t take them off, I tend to keep the gathering in the kitchen. The only person who I was fine with not ever taking his shoes off was my dad, who was disabled and wore special shoes.
It depends on the weather. In the winter, I usually wear socks, or socks and slippers if it’s particularly cold. In the summer, I’m usually barefoot. If we have ‘guests’ (not counting close family or friends) I’ll actually put on shoes of some sort, which often means a nice pair of flip-flops in warmer weather.
We have all wood laminate (Pergo) flooring. Guests are welcome to wear whatever they want.
I have no rules about shoes in my house. Everyone is free to be shod, barefoot or clad in giant bunny slippers as the mood strikes or the occasion warrants. I preferred slippers, Isotoners to be exact, most of my life until Crocs came along. Well, make that several years after Crocs came along and I could stand the sight of them. Now I wear them fairly exclusively in the house, though sometimes I go out in them. I have several pairs, depending on need and conditions:
- Croc sandals for summer
- Standard Croc, especially if I’ve been out all day and need to stand to cook
- Winter wooly Croc, for winter, ditto on the standing.
So I picked “other” because Crocs are my standard in-home footwear. Sometimes I leave my shoes on, but rarely.
I am gimpy when barefoot, so I always wear hard-soled slippers or saldals that are reserved for weearing around the house (so they are clean). We have hardwood floors, with some area rugs.
No rules for guests, but if their footwear is muddy or snowy, they tend to leave their shoes/boots at the door anyway.
Barefoot, or maybe socks if it’s cold. Hardwood floors.
I don’t care what guests do, but I get a little uncomfortable if they put their shod tootsies on my coffee table. And I hated it when a guest tracked mud all over my floor.
Oh, it’s time for the annual footwear in the house survey again?
This again? OK.
As soon as I’m dressed, the shoes stay on. I’m most comfortable that way. I might kick them off if I’m settled in for a DVD, but that’s about it. I’m usually doing something, walking around, working on the house, cooking, something and it’s much better for me to have shoes on.
It really bugs me to have to take my shoes off in a stranger’s house, and frankly, I find it rude to ask of a guest. Guests are told they can leave their shoes on if they prefer in my house.
We live in a very snowy climate (though it’s clean snow, not the crud you find in the city). And we have hardwood/pergo and carpet and tile.
Barefoot in the summer, socks in spring, and slipper socks in fall and winter. If I’m really cold, then its socks with slipper socks over top. The barefoot in summer annoys my husband, who is socks year round. He just doesn’t appreciate how my entire body temperature is solely regulated through my feet. Doesn’t matter what biology says, if my feet aren’t comfy, I’m not.
Edit: as I type this, I am in a cold freaking office, with my coat draped over my legs and feet and a space heater nearby (though not running).
Barefoot, or with socks. I also prefer if guests will take their shoes off, but as I don’t have guests very often (deliberately) the few times they come over, I don’t really care.
We have almost all hardwood floors and we have dogs, so guests are a free-for-all unless their feet are caked with mud. For minor dirt/ water/ paw prints, we keep swiffers by the doors; the front door opens into a tiled entryway and the back door opens into the kitchen from the deck, so cleanup isn’t a big deal. I do think if we had wall-to-wall carpet we’d be more concerned about shoes in the house, but that won’t be happening unless we end up having to move for some reason. I hate carpet.
I’m barefoot 99% of the time I’m home, while my husband wears socks.
I don’t have any rules for anyone…
But for me, I wear shoes through out the house. Once I get home, I change to slippers or flip flops. I can’t stand walking around in bare feet.
Yup.
Shoes off as soon as we come into the house. I wear slip on sandals in the house because of my flat feet (they have some arch support). Guests all take their shoes off when coming in; we do the same at other people’s houses.
We actually have wall-to-wall laminate floors now, so I’m not as hardcore about taking my wet, muddy shoes off as I used to be. Besides, I’m the one cleaning these floors anyway. 
Slippers. Mostly hardwoods, with tile in the kitchen. I’d go barefoot a lot more, especially in the summer, but the cats track litter everywhere. (We don’t have a spare bathtub to put it into.) With both of us working full time … well, me and the Other Shoe, not the cats, lazy bastards … and Mr. Shoe’s job being so physically demanding, neither of us has the time/energy to keep up with sweeping as often as we should.
Speaking of, I need a new pair of slippers. Maybe I can find some on sale this weekend …
Shoeless, Japanese style (as much as we can without the handy shoe-changing entry way). My partner is Japanese, and it has become normal for me. Socks much of the time, or barefoot if the weather is warm.
Japanese guests/friends will naturally take off their shoes, and we have guest slippers for them. Otherwise, we’re not hard-nosed about it and don’t ask anyone to take off their shoes if they wouldn’t normally do that.
We have hardwood floors mostly, some carpet downstairs.
Roddy
If I go around in socks or barefoot for too long, my feet start to hurt so I usually wear a pair of nice, cushy slippers.
Slippers generally; my kitchen, dining area and bathroom have some kind of tiles that really suck the heat out if you step on them barefooted.