This is Japan. No shoes allowed indoors.
I once went to a political fundraiser at someone’s new mansion with polished wood floors. The owner required that everyone wear disposable shoe protectors, which are like hair nets for shoes. It looked so asinine, I just took my shoes off instead.
No shoes in our house, although we’re not zealots about it. We have mostly hardwood and tile floors, except for the bedrooms and a couple of area rugs.
Dnooman, why does how other people and cultures behave bother you so? Your arguments for why shoes off is wrong are not the most sound.
I hate shoes and kick them off where ever I can. But I don’t make rules about it. If you prefer shoes when you come to my house, wear them.
Of course, I am not a tidy man to begin with and so there isn’t too much you could do that would piss me off in my house. I mean, deliberately breaking something, sure. But even if you dropped pizza or hot wings on my carpet (yes NFL buddies, I’m looking at you) I don’t care too much.
Is gonna suck when I try to sell the place though.
Not to worry. I shall inform the good people of Thailand of the wrong-headedness of their ways. 
I’ve noticed this to be a largely American thing.
Watching American TV shows as a kid, I always thought that the actors wearing shoes in the house was just one of those things that they were doing because it was really a TV studio.
I noticed many years later that a lot of Americans tend to wear shoes in the house. That’s just weird to me.
I’m Canadian with a very British upbringing and shoes in the house was not allowed at all at home.
I grew up in the Washington D.C. area and never encountered a house with a shoes-off policy. Never even encountered the concept other than as a curious tidbit about life in Japan. I now live in Kansas City and have run into maybe 2 or 3 shoes-off houses. In my experience, keeping shoes on is far and away the norm. Taking them off is a peculiar affectation.
Has no one ever heard of using a doormat and a runner inside the entrance? Seems to me virtually all the dirt and such that shoes-off aficionados are concerned about would be addressed by these.
Not just Thailand, I’m fairly sure that this is the case in Korea and Japan. Most likely in other Asian countries as well. Not sure about China and India. It’s going to take some major ad buys to get these ignorant folk up to snuff on how disgusting and trivial they’ve been.
As stated a few months ago in a similar thread, I was raised to believe that the wearing of shoes was a sure sign of civilization; one removes one’s shoes only after asking. I do not feel comfortable removing my shoes when I enter someone else’s home; for that reason, I almost never visit two of my wife’s siblings, who apparently prize their expensive carpets far more than my company. When I do visit, I take along a pair of slippers to wear inside.
For reasons I do not understand, they insist on removing their shoes when they visit my house, despite the fact that I’ve told them time and again that (1) I don’t want them running around in their stocking feet in my house and (2) I don’t want their damn shoes cluttering up the entry to my home. I do get a certain amount of revenge, however; we live out in the country and haven’t yet eradicated the “goathead” stickers that are native to the area, so the thorns are constantly being tracked into the house. It’s one reason we don’t have new carpet yet. When my shoeless in-laws traipse through the house, they are almost guaranteed to step on a goathead thorn. I advise them the best way to avoid this is to keep their shoes on.
The Japanese shoe thing threw me for a loop when I was in a restaurant. I took my shoes off upon entering the place and someone took them. Outside of the room that we were eating were these shoes for public use. I had no idea. Being a little tipsy I just went to the bathroom in my socks. I walked out of the bathroom to find everyone laughing at me. Once my ex-wife told me why they were laughing, I felt a little stupid, but not much. I had no idea… and we were in a private room, so I couldn’t observe anyone using these public shoes.
The shoes-off thing I think is fairly new, kinda like “no smoking” houses. I remember when I was a kid, my mom had lots of friends and we were always going to someone’s house. Never once did anyone take off their shoes and you were free to smoke anyone’s home. It seems that the “shoes off”, “no smoking” policies in homes are almost automatics these days (mine in such), at least I usually try to take shoes off in acquaintance’s and friend’s homes before they even ask.
Sorry for the slight derailment with the non-smoking policy, but usually where you find a no-shoe policy, and non-smoking policy exists as well.
I think, if you really researched it, you’d find that the difference in carpet life span is negligible, but I’m basing that on an assumption. I assume that people who think about trying to reduce wear on their carpets do so because they buy very good carpet. The irony is that very good carpet sustains wear much better than cheap carpet, so you can march a battalion across the stuff and it won’t hurt it. Also, the better the carpet, the more resistent to dirt and staining it is.
I’m not saying there aren’t prefectly good reasons for people removing their shoes in your house. But if carpet longevity is the reason, it’s a pretty iffy reason. Besides, eventually you’re going to run into an asshole in-law like me who’ll not be a bit shy about saying, as he kicks off his shoes, “Pretty damn proud of your expensive carpet, ain’t ya’?”
This is pretty much my feelings as well. I hate shoes too. My sandels or shoes come off the minute I come in the door and remain off even when I sit out on the deck. I only wear socks indoors if it really really cold.
The BF keeps his shoes on all the time.
With nine cats and three dogs if I started worrying about the carpet I would drive myself insane.
I don’t care if company wear their shoes or take them off. Whatever is comfortable for them is fine by me.
Our carpet is the carpet that was installed in the house already when we moved in. I have no idea how expensive it was, but just by looking at it, I suspect the answer is “not very.”
So if I did have an asshole in-law like you, and still invited such a person to my house despite his assholishness, and he put on a little display like that, I’d have two reactions: 1) “What the hell are you talking about? Nobody asked you to take your shoes off” and 2) “Uh, have you LOOKED at the carpet? Expensive? Proud? Whuh?”
Believe it or not, even people who don’t have expensive home decor still like to take care of their stuff and keep it nice.
There must be some cultural bias to this. In any of the northern european countries up here you are expected to take your shoes off when indoors. If the floor is cold, you put on slippers or woolen socks. But shoes? :eek: Infidels!
I will wear my shoes until I’m sure I’m settled in for the night, then I may kick them off. I’m more comfortable walking/standing in shoes than without them. That’s why we wear them, right?
I feel it’s a bit presumptuous for visitors to take off their shoes, and tell them there is absolutely no need. My carpets survive just fine thank you very much. I mean really, did you bring you PJ’s too?
I wonder if it’s a City/Country thing? I live in the Mountains. Lots and lots of snow and a gravel driveway.
And yes, this is one of the most oddly contentious subjects on the SDMB.
My parents’ house was shoes off; his parents’ house was shoes on; our apartment we go shoeless, guests can choose although shoes off is preferred. Our reasons:
- More comfortable
- Less dirt on the floors
- Less noise transferred to the apartment below us
I kick mine off as soon as I come in, and most guests do too. I don’t have a strict policy, but I’m happy to see people remove them. The exception is some of my friends in workboots they’ve had on all day; while the mud bugs me, stinky feet would bug me more.
And I don’t tell my father anything about his shoes; he was indoctrinated sixty-plus years ago and I know he can’t change.
We don’t take our shoes off merely because we entered our homes, nor would we think of asking other people to do so.
We also don’t take our shoes off when we enter the office, yet many of the reasons given for doing so in the home would apply there, one would think.
I am the same way. The shoes come off the minute I get home and the same for my children. I think it is more about a comfort thing than about keeping the house clean though.
My daughter has a couple of friends that are siblings and they automatically take off their shoes the moment they come into the house and leave them by the front door. After playing outside all day, it is nice that they were taught to do that.
I will say I might consider it odd for a guest to automatically remove their shoes when they enter my home. I don’t care either way though.