I’m another no-shoe person. I can’t stand having to wear things on my feet, so I only wear shoes when I absolutely have to. Shoes are the last thing I put on in the morning and the first thing I take off when I come home. It’s much more comfortable, plain and simple.
I also don’t see how this habit is pretentious. People all over the world only wear shoes when outdoors, then leave their shoes before going inside so they don’t bring in all the dirt, mud, grime, etc from outside. I don’t want to have to scrub my floors every couple of nights and spend all my days vacuuming the house.
I once had a brand new pair of sneakers stolen in Osan S. Korea. Not only did you have to take your shoes off before going inside the shoes stayed outside.
Here in New Orleans you would be looked at as being excessively high, if you tried to take your shoes off before entering someone’s home.
Eh, I have to scrub and vaccuum frequently because of all the pet hair anyway, so if one of my guests feels more comfortable wearing shoes inside my house, he is certainly free to do so. Making one’s guests comfortable is the whole point of hospitality, after all.
Besides, the way I grew up, running around barefoot or in your socks was something you did strictly at home (or places you were welcome to make yourself at home) unless otherwise directed. Taking your shoes in someone else’s home uninvited indicated a)a fairly high level of intimacy with your host, and b) an intention to stay a fairly long time (“take your shoes off and stay a spell” anyone?) To do this in the home of anyone but family and very close friends was considered presumptuous and rather rude, almost like going to the kitchen and rummaging in someone’s fridge.
Shoeless in Sweden. Took me a while to get used to it (Ireland seems to be predominantly shoes-on) and wear respecitible socks when visiting friends. Shoes-on-indoors is only usually done at formal dinners in peoples homes, and not always even then. When I lived in Ireland I used to lie stretched out on the carpet and watch TV or read a book. BLEERRGHH, can’t even bear the thought of how gross that is now
Wow - you Americans are strange. I never wear shoes in the house, and i would consider it rude not to remove my shoes when entering another persons house. The inside of houses are generally regarded as clean (or supposed to be anyway!) while the outside is dirty. Wearing shoes outside, then inside just transfers dirt into the house.
Ruby: How is taking your shoes off pretentious? I honestly fail to see how you could think that.
Of course, now i’ve called you Merkins strange for wearing shoes some fellow Brit is going to come along say he/she does the same and wouldn’t dream of doing othewise… Sigh…
In Northern Europe (Sweden, Norway and (I believe) Finland at least) it used
to be considered rude not to take your shoes off. It’s the equivalent of
saying ‘This looks like a pigsty, I’d better not get any of that on my
socks’. At least among ‘commoners’. Looking higher up on the social ladder at
people who would have had multiple servants, it was considered ‘childish’ to
take your shoes off. (I have in my possession a book on manners with a quote
saying that ‘this idea of taking the shoes off belongs to kindergarten, and
should be left there’.)
Today it is considered much more intimate if you take your shoes off. If
you’re invited to a finner party with ten others, you’re (normally) expected
to leave the shoes on (or even better, bring another pair of clean shoes to
wear indoors!), but if you jut pop in for a cup of coffee it would seem
rude not to take them off.
So much for northern Europe, things are different in Western/Central/Southern
Europe. In France, for example, it would be rather rare to take your shoes off
in someone else’s home, unless off course it’s raining and your shoes are
muddy. Personally I take them off whenever I can, and sometimes get a few
weird looks, but most people accept it as only a slight eccentricity.
The first time I ever visited someone’s house after moving to Texas, I took my shoes off when I came into the house. People gave me really strange looks. Eventually, I learned to keep my shoes on when visiting people, but it still felt really strange. I don’t think anyone I know here in Finland keeps their shoes on while in the house.
I’d much rather not have my feet marinate in their own juices all day. Shoes off, wash feet, go barefoot. Ahhhh…
My husband is Japanese, we live Japanese style. He is in the military (big boots, lots of laces and gaiters!) so has been known, having forgotten something, to crawl into the house on his knees with his feet in the air to get it. After ten years of marriage it still reduces me to laughter/impatience when I see this performance.
To him though, shoes in the house is filthy and disgusting, period. He goes mad at our toddler when he steps up out of the entrance into the house with his shoes on.
Others have posted about the ways in my country, and they’re spot on. I however, having lived in Spain and the US, tend to wear shoes or birkenstocks indoors. The exception being when it’s really snowy or sloshy outside. This means I actually have to tell people to keep their shoes on, when entering my apt, unless it’s the odd day when I’ve vacumed.
In the American Midwest, the only times I’ve seen people expected to take their shoes off inside, the house had very pale carpeting and the owners provided guest slippers. At my house, we have mulberry trees that will drop berries all over the walk and lawn, and to avoid marking up our tan carpet, people just scuff their shoe-soles well on our doormats before entering. Typically, simply removing your shoes is seen as being overly familiar if not done by good friends there for a casual visit - feet (even still enclosed in socks) are seen as smelly, and socks might have holes in them. In winter or muddy weather, removing boots or shoes is common.
My husband and I do remove our own shoes when we get home, but put them on when company comes over unless they’re close friends/relatives. I’ve broken a couple toes running around the house without shoes on, so sometimes I will leave them on.
I wear shoes because lots of things hide in carpets. Like straight pins, broken items, “icky stuff”, etc. This is especially true if the house you are visiting has pets, or far worse, children. I’ve personally had a straight pin in my foot, as well as stepped in a wet area to be told “oh, the dog was sick over there, be careful.” :rolleyes:
Since I have carpeting everywhere except the kitchen and the bathroom, the rule in my place is: shoes off at the door, kitchen slippers in the kitchen, bathroom slippers in the bathroom. And that’s a rule I got from my parents. Mom wouldn’t let us wear shoes indoors ever. She didn’t like mopping up mud inside; therefore, she stopped it at its source.
Here we go again. I’m 33, have been reading the SD books since 1987, am the resident geek around here, and I had NO idea that anyone besides “Far East” residents ever did the leave-the-shoes-at-the-door thing. What is with the rest of the world? It’s like they do things differently! Stop it!
I also had no idea that so many people took their shoes off when entering the house. I thought it was just the Japanese. But, yes, where I live, it would be considered weird to take your shoes off when entering someone else’s home.
After reading everyone’s posts, though, and seeing how many people said they are more comfortable barefoot or in slippers, I’m wondering… doesn’t anybody else have problems with their feet? I used to go shoeless when I was younger, but now I wear orthotics and Asics day and night in order to take care of my feet and also because I’ve found it helps keep my back from getting sore. I am more comfortable with these shoes and orthotics on than anything else.
