[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
I don’t have carpet. But, most people here seem to vacuum theirs regularly, so, no, they’re not especially filthy.
Dog poop?? How would one step in dog poop and not know it? 
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Well, I’m just thinking about little kids running in and out of the house and around the neighborhood all summer long.
[QUOTE=kayT]
I wipe my feet at the door.
Honestly, my carpets are not filthy.
Check your shoes right now and see if they are really filthy. If so you live in a dirtier place than I do I guess, because mine are not.
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My shoes are not visibly filthy.
But they do have a… I’ll call it a “dusting of dirt/filth” or a “veil of dustiness”.
So sure, I can walk around my house in my shoes once and no big deal. It’s undetectable.
But in my mind wearing your shoes in the house over and over again strikes me as something along the lines of applying 500 very-thin coats of “outside” to the interior of your home.
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
Well, I’m just thinking about little kids running in and out of the house and around the neighborhood all summer long.
[/QUOTE]
Ah. Little kids are trained to wipe their feet, or take their shoes off if they are too muddy. I’ve even rinsed my boy’s entire body off with the water hose before allowing him in before. 
I think living environment may have something to do with it. For example, here is the driveway of my house and here is the front. Most stuff that gets tracked in is grass or dust. And that’s easily swept up.
[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
I don’t have carpet. But, most people here seem to vacuum theirs regularly, so, no, they’re not especially filthy.
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My carpets are nasty. I can not get them clean despite vacuuming and steam cleaning with regularity. This is from the house’s previous occupants.
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth]
My carpets are nasty. I can not get them clean despite vacuuming and steam cleaning with regularity. This is from the house’s previous occupants.
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I’m not going shoe-less on them, then !
The chore of keeping carpets clean is something I gave up in my youth. All my floors are either vinyl or stained concrete.
[QUOTE=delphica]
See, this is interesting to me, because growing up in Buffalo, in the winter people wore boots and carried shoes, so that if you were going to a party, you wore your boots and brought your fancy shoes, and then put on your fancy shoes and wore them in the house. So I always saw this a little different than the Canadian thing, because it would be unusual for me to not be wearing shoes in someone else’s home – I would simply be wearing clean, dry shoes because I changed out of my boots in the foyer.
To present the opposite perspective, the first time I visited my grandmother-in-law in rural Oklahoma, one morning I was not wearing any shoes in the house. When she saw this, she said “Oh honey, you should put on some shoes JUST IN CASE A SNAKE OR A SCORPION GETS IN THE HOUSE.” I seriously almost fainted on the spot. I hadn’t previously realized this was a remote possibility in the 21st century, much less a normal possibility. I think I might have slept with my shoes on that night.
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Yea, I’ve seen that for parties, where someone would dress up, but I’ve never seen someone who was just coming over to hang out bring a spare pair of shoes.
:dubious: Little kids don’t do that here in America.
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth]
My carpets are nasty. I can not get them clean despite vacuuming and steam cleaning with regularity. This is from the house’s previous occupants.
[/QUOTE]
Carpets are natural hoarders of filth, even in no-shoes-ever places. I once had the enlightening experience of removing just such a carpet, one we’d steam-cleaned twice a year for maybe three years (and it was new to start with)… what I found underneath was enough to convince me to never have carpet in my home again! (shudder)
We’re now a shoes-optional household, though of course if anyone steps in anything icky, those shoes are quarantined until restored to pre-ick condition. I’d like to reinstitute shoes-off in the place we’re about to move to, but I don’t know if I can retrain mr.emilyforce to go along with it.
The three couples we most often socialize with all keep no-shoes houses. All grad students. One couple from Romania, one from India, and one from New England.
My parents keep a surprisingly spotless mostly shoes-on household. My mom likes to slip her shoes off sometimes, though when I was growing up, if she did so at the dinner table I gave her a hard time about it: I could always tell within a minute or two that she’d done so, even if she did it on the sly under the table, as her feet stank. “MOOOOOOM! Put your SHOES back on!” She had some kind of evil long-term fungal thing going on. I would pity anyone who invited her over to a shoes-always-off house.
So you could say I’m shoe-ambivalent.
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
For people who wear their shoes in the house, I’m wondering:
Are your carpets filthy?
Do you ever find dog poop mashed into the carpet in your bedroom?
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No, they aren’t filthy at all. There is some dirt in high traffic areas, but I assume that is true for every house.
And we don’t go around stepping in dog crap. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t know if you stepped in something. If I go look at the bottom of all of my pairs of shoes, there isn’t one that is caked in mud, poo, or anything else. I just don’t step in nasty stuff, I guess. Around here, we use this thing called a sidewalk, and it stays fairly clean. We also have a doormat that people wipe their feet on before coming in. And if, for some reason, we did have dirty filthy shoes on, we would take them off outside, but I don’t even remember the last time I needed to do that.
If people took their shoes off upon entering my house, unless they were a good friend, I’d be uncomfortable with that.
And here’s another thing, for some of us who like to keep our shoes on, it’s a warmth thing. In the winter my feet are cold almost all of the time, but if I keep my leather shoes on they stay warm. That means if I had to take them off at your house I’d have to sit there all evening with freezing cold feet. No thanks.
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
But in my mind wearing your shoes in the house over and over again strikes me as something along the lines of applying 500 very-thin coats of “outside” to the interior of your home.
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I suppose so but I want to know why so many people live in a white carpeted sterile environment and I have never encountered it much. I guess the “Bubble Boy” penomenon is more of a trend than a one-off story.
As I said, I live in a Colonial house and it is way too pristine to my liking. Both my MIL and wife clean way too much (2 times a week for thorough cleaning and vacuuming) of the entire house plus tidying and superficial cleaning every day. The following is no joke: I have two young daughters I am very concerned for their safety and health because of this. I have no allergies because I grew up in a rural environment where we open the front door and the front door so that our dogs, cats, and others could run straight through. My wife has asthma and other allergies because I believe her mother was psycho about cleaning.
The research isn’t fully in on this but it the preponderance of evidence is. Having a house that is overly clean affects the health of children and I will not put up with it. Every time a vacuum cleaner comes on in my already clean house, I see it as a threat to my daughters and something that cannot be tolerated. I am not saying that anyone has to live with dishes stacked in the sink but an almost fully carpeted house or apartment (tacky and disgusting as hell already) is jeopardizing the health of those who live in it.
[QUOTE=Indygrrl]
No, they aren’t filthy at all. There is some dirt in high traffic areas, but I assume that is true for every house.
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Well, it’s not in my house. I have high traffic areas but they aren’t dirty. All the dirt is left on the shoes at the door.
[QUOTE=Indygrrl]
And we don’t go around stepping in dog crap. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t know if you stepped in something.
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Generally speaking, very true. However, ONCE IN A WHILE, something might sneak past you. And then, Yay, poop in the carpet!
Maybe I’m just too uptight.
[QUOTE=Indygrrl]
If people took their shoes off upon entering my house, unless they were a good friend, I’d be uncomfortable with that.
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Wow, that’s amazing. I’m the opposite.
If someone walked around my house with their shoes on I would think, “Holy shit, are you high? Take your f**king shoes off, what’s wrong with you?”
I would be insulted.
Once, I kicked my brother out of my house for refusing to remove his shoes.
Another time, the police were over asking questions about the neighbors and I asked them to remove their shoes! They didn’t, citing a “readiness to react” issue, which is ok by me in hindsight.
[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
Ah. Little kids are trained to wipe their feet, or take their shoes off if they are too muddy. I’ve even rinsed my boy’s entire body off with the water hose before allowing him in before.
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Fer sure. And damn, but that’s fun.
heh
I remember the last go-around with this.
As I reported last time, my kids are trained to take their shoes off when they come in the house, the husband kinda/sorta, and we do not ask guests to take their shoes off. Some do, some don’t.
However, the one change is that my bunions are now worse so I keep a pair of flip-flops by both doors. When I enter the house, the shoes come off and the flip flips go on.
If my floors are dirty, I feel dirty. But I can’t be a fanatic about it.
[QUOTE=Caprese]
…my bunions are now worse so I keep a pair of flip-flops by both doors…
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[hijack] Psst! Caprese! You said the magic word! Any advice? [/hijack]
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
Well, it’s not in my house. I have high traffic areas but they aren’t dirty. All the dirt is left on the shoes at the door.
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Wow, so not one speck of dirt anywhere on your carpet? I am shocked that anyone could manage that, shoes or not. My house is not a museum and I don’t treat it like one. I have a husband, a child, two stepchildren, two cats, and a dog. To expect that it’s going to stay perfect is unreasonable. Is it absolutely sparkling clean? No. But it’s far from a pigsty. I still vaccuum and clean and even get the carpets cleaned a couple times a year. I’m not going to lose sleep over a few germs on the carpet.
Even if they didn’t know that was your rule? Do you have a sign at the door telling them to take 'em off? Obviously different people have different ways of doing things. I don’t think someone who kept their shoes on would be intentionally trying to insult you. And if you asked me why I kept mine on I’d tell you it’s because I don’t want my feet to get cold. Is that unreasonable?
I can’t fathom putting my carpets above family and friends. It is possible that he had a reason for not wanting to take them off, such as any of the reasons listed in this thread. At any rate, I can’t see making an issue of it.
The floors in our house are lino, apart from the third bedroom (which is a storage room) and a rug in the lounge room.
I take my shoes off as soon as I’m in the door. Unless it’s cold, socks follow in short order because I get wicked sweaty feet, and tinea itches like a bitch when your feet are hot. This is not for any reasons of cleanliness, I just hate wearing shoes and will have them off whenever I can.
Hubby will put his shoes on as soon as he’s out of the shower and dressed in the morning. He will keep them on until he goes to bed, unless he wants his shoes off to do something like play with the EyeToy or our Dance mat for the PS2. Even then he will keep his socks on until he goes to bed. He hates having bare feet.
Personally I don’t give a rat’s ass if one wants to keep one’s shoes on or off in our house. Having lino floors, even if you do track something heinous into the house, it can be wiped/mopped up with no problems. Because we rent, if the place was carpeted I may feel differently, because any carpet stains/damage would come out of our rental bond.
The way I was brought up, you only take your shoes off in someone’s house if you’re very familiar with them (family, close friends) or if the host asks/indicates in some fashion that shoes aren’t to be worn in the house (pile of other guest’s shoes by the door, etc).
I’m sure that once in a while our dogs step in their own poop and bring in back in doors. That comes with owning dogs.
For myself, my Wife and our dogs it is much more important to us for them to be able to do their business when they need to rather then have them locked indoors all day.
Our carpets aren’t filthy (our Dyson takes care of that, but that’s a debate for another thread). And I know how carpets collect and trap dirt. I’ve removed and replaced enough of it in my life to know that.
Speaking of dirt…… 
About all I would track into my house from the short walk from my car up the wood steps across the deck into the house is a bit of muddy sand. Filth? I don’t call that filth.
Sure, I’ll take off my shoes if they are muddy, but a little dust from a gravel driveway? A smudge of wet sand on the toe? Bah.
Kick it off, wipe your feet on the entry way carpet as you come in and that’s fine.
Hell, it’s snowing here now. The drive is mostly clear but I would not go behind the house without snow-shoes. I don’t have the time to worry about every bit of gravel or drop of snow that comes into the house. Not worth it. It’s just carpet.
In this crowd (thread) how many of us are campers? Not with trailers or motor homes, but tents and cooking over the fire and wash your pots in the stream campers. Backpackers.
Who is two?
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
<snip>Another time, the police were over asking questions about the neighbors and I asked them to remove their shoes! They didn’t, citing a “readiness to react” issue, which is ok by me in hindsight.
[/QUOTE]
Being Western Canadians (I assume), they probably had to have taking their shoes off in situations like this trained out of them. 
[QUOTE=Indygrrl]
And here’s another thing, for some of us who like to keep our shoes on, it’s a warmth thing. In the winter my feet are cold almost all of the time, but if I keep my leather shoes on they stay warm. That means if I had to take them off at your house I’d have to sit there all evening with freezing cold feet. No thanks.
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I’m the opposite. My feet area always hot. I sometimes soak them in cold water just to cool off. They don’t get sweaty, in fact they’re abnormally dry (I have to put lotion on them regularly or they’ll crack) but they get hot. If I keep shoes on my feet it’s like walking around with little ovens on, and it’s extremely uncomfortable–it makes me hot all over to have hot feet. If someone was uncomfortable with me taking my shoes off at their house, I doubt I’d really ever spend time there, because it would be so uncomfortable for me.
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
I grew up in a rural environment where we open the front door and the front door so that our dogs, cats, and others could run straight through.
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COOL! You have a Mobeus house!!!
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
COOL! You have a Mobeus house!!!
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I meant open the front door and the back door so that the dogs and cats could run straight through but they did often just run around the counter and run back out the same way.
