I recently did a poll on our IG stories about wearing shoes in the house, and I was honestly pretty surprised to learn how fiercely divided those are who do and do not wear shoes in the house.
I also learned that it’s a cultural thing. While many families in the U.S. wear shoes inside the home, many of our readers from other countries find it appalling.
I learned that many people continue with the habits they were raised with as children, whether it’s to take shoes off at the door or to freely wear them indoors as much as you please.
Anyway! I’ve been researching and there are some pretty compelling reasons to stop wearing shoes inside the home.
1. Not wearing shoes indoors makes rugs and carpets last longer.
It took my husband and I an EMBARRASSING number of years to realize this even though it’s pretty obvious. And to be totally transparent, just the sheer desire to make my expensive rugs last longer was the reason I started a “no shoes” rule in our home.
Now I can see there are even more important reasons, but I never think it’s a bad thing to try your best to take care of things you own.
If your rugs wear out relatively quickly due to foot traffic or if they get super dirty quickly, this can change your life! Since I love light colored and white rugs, it was important to me to learn ways to make them last longer and this was the obvious first step.
Depending on your lifestyle (aka where your shoes go every day), you might be tracking a lot of dirt (and other gross stuff) into your home, and your shoes grind into your rugs and carpets every time you walk by.
In addition, even if you only wear your shoes indoors (and they never got dirty), the soles can still prematurely wear out delicate rugs like cowhides and flat weaves.
Since we started taking our shoes at the door (almost always is our goal), our rugs are lasting much, much longer and they really do not need much cleaning other than regular vacuuming and the occasional spot cleaning.
In our previous homes, I wasted a lot by wearing shoes indoors and replacing cheap rugs when they got really dirty (because they weren’t high quality enough to clean). Now I’ve had the same totally white rug in our dining room for over three years and it still looks pretty close to brand new!
2. Shoes track in toxins.
I know some of you are rolling your eyes at me, but keep reading—this is the most important point. Our shoes walk through bird poop at the park, and things like spit (ew!), rotten food and gasoline, during just a regular walk down the street or running errands.
Most of it we can’t even see. But if you’ve ever had a brand new pair of shoes with white soles, you know that they can turn black in just one day of wear out in the world.
“E. coli was detected on 27% of the shoes, along with seven other kinds of bacteria, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can cause urinary tract infection, and Serratia ficaria, which can cause respiratory infections.” (source)
“A recent study out of the University of Houston found that 39 percent of shoe soles sampled were contaminated with the bacteria C. diff (Clostridium difficile), a public health threat that is now resistant to a number of antibiotics.” (source)
You can disinfect your floors with harsh chemicals, but why not just save 90% of that work and just take your shoes off at the door?
A certain amount of bacteria is good for us, but a lot of this is unnecessary and potentially dangerous, especially if you have little ones still crawling around and frequently eating food they drop on the floor.
Bottom line, when you wear your shoes into the home, you are bringing with you anything you stepped on that day, whether you realize it or not.
If you’re someone like me who has spent a lot of time and money trying to create a less toxic household, but you are still wearing shoes in your home regularly, this could be a major opportunity for you to fix a big part of the problem all at once. It’s so easy!
3. Not wearing shoes indoors makes your home stay cleaner longer.
Like most people, I hate to clean but I love the feeling of a clean home. Since becoming a mom, I am more aware than ever how limited my free time is.
I’m not complaining because I love my job and want to spend pretty much ALL my time with my kids when I am not working, but there’s not a lot left over, so I am all about simplifying anything I can.
Once I learned how much cleaner our floors stay without wearing shoes indoors, I was sold. We have WHITE grout in our kitchen and entryway. We have light wood floors and we have multiple white rugs (PLUS a dog, a two children and no time to clean).
For this reason, I am totally sold on not wearing shoes indoors. Less to clean is always good in my book!
I hope this article was helpful and not upsetting. I totally understand that it’s not always easy to establish new habits like this. At the very beginning, Jeremy was a little resistant (it’s tough when you weren’t raised with these habits), but now that we’re in the groove it’s quite a lot easier!
And teaching our kids to take their shoes off when we come inside has honestly been very easy, so I feel happy for them that when they grow up with this habit they will have a better chance of sticking with it.
I’ll say before I finish that while I have recently gravitated to the shoes-off lifestyle, I’m not a purist about it. Where I tend to draw the line (and I think a lot of people are with me on this) is that while I take my shoes off the door and remind my family to do so, I don’t feel comfortable asking guests to take their shoes off.
Just like with anything else I feel passionate about, I truly believe that making some positive changes is better than making none at all. So even if you know you cannot do something perfectly, I still believe it’s good to try to do it better.
Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your opinions and experiences in the comments. Small lifestyle changes like this are so interesting to me! xx. Elsie
Do you know of a cute sign you can put at the front door so people know to take shoes off? I can’t seem to find one that isn’t tacky
Thank you for this post! Shoes-off in our house was to preserve sanity on the CA coast (sand always ends up in bed) but once we moved to Hawaii for ten years it became religion. It is aggressively rude to wear your crusty shoes in someone’s home. When we traveled in Asia even the hotel staff practiced consideration. Now I only have to deal with the plumber and electrician’s boots. Oh, and my in-laws, who claim they “won’t be eating off the floor so who cares?”
Growing up we never removed our shoes and I only knew of one childhood friend who did, until I met my husband. His mother was very adamant about it. At first I found it strange, even annoying but then became used to it and eventually adapted it into our own home. Now looking back I find it odd we ever wore shoes in our house to begin with. Thinking about flipping my shoes on the sofa or dare is say bed. Ick! My husband and I have had shoe free homes for over 23 years. The only shoes allowed are our workout shoes which aren’t worn outside or house slippers. I’ve never had anyone argue. We also wash our pups feet after walks too! Plus I have white blended shag rugs, gotta keep those beauties clean.
As mentioned in a comment, no shoes in my house, and paw cleaning after doggy walks, and deeper cleaning of her paws before going to bed (and I wash my feet as well before going to bed, if it’s summer and i’m bare foot even if it’s just inside)
When there’s someone new coming home, i let them know in advance (like… ey, glad you are coming to my home on Friday, please keep in mind it’s a shoe free home)
I do have some friendly sleepers for people in case they get cold, or are uncomfortable wearing just socks. But that way, i avoid the awkward moment right at the door, as previously they realized they had to leave their shoes right at that moment, and sometimes was like…. well… awkward…
Thanks for your post !!!
Chers!!
We are a no shoes inside household and ask our guests to also remove their shoes. I think we started this about 20 years ago when we bought our first home. Keeps the house so much cleaner like you said!
No shoes in the house was pretty much the default in Switzerland where I was born and grew up, we even had a no outdoors shoes indoors policy in schools and we had to bring a pair of soft indoors slippers on the first day of school every year, we had a shoe racks and coat hangers with benches just outside the classroom door to swap shoes for slippers.
At home I walked barefoot or in socks most of the time, but I had a pair of indoor soft slippers too in case I felt cold or something.
I now live in India, where in most household there is a take out your shoes at the door, it’s pretty automatic for everyone to do it even as guests and some people even remove them just outside the door.
I actually never knew some people wore their outdoors shoes indoors until I made American friends who said that they do that and that it’s pretty common in a lot of household to just keep their shoes on. I find those cultural difference so interesting.
Ok I’m curious if anyone takes it a step further and wipe their pet’s paws after a walk before they step inside the house?
I do!!!!
I clean her paws after the walks, and clean her paws even deeper (with water diluted in vinegar) before going to bed!!!
Good reasons for not wearing shoes in the house for sure and I respect anybody who wants me to take my shoes off, but that’s something I could never do. I have a pair of flip flops that I leave indoors and I only wear in the house. It really grosses me out when not wearing shoes inside because I’m stepping on hair (mine/my cat/my husband) and whatever else may have fallen on the floors. I also watched a science video years ago about what’s living in our carpets and rugs, and trust me you don’t want to know lol but I’m not stepping on that stuff with my bare feet!
Growing up most of our family kept shoes on. Now, in my home, we take our shoes off. I have all kids take their shoes off (like our kids’ friends) but tell adults they don’t have to. Many do, but it feels very intimate if they aren’t a close friend/family. I take mine off but think some ages aren’t as comfortable. I work in Alumni Relations and a party host asked what we thought about asking people to take shoes off – we said no, you don’t know all this region’s alums and showing up in business attire shouldn’t be in stocking feet. We offered signage directing guests around to the deck and mostly held the party there.
I want to do no shoes inside, but my feet have terrible problems and I need to have supportive shoes on at all times unless I’m completely off my feet, like in bed.
I’m a retired nurse, in my work life I kept in a bin in my trunk to change my shoes before and and after work. But, it seems like so much trouble the rest of the time. I have to wear lace up shoes. A lot of cultures wear flip flop type shoes all the time, it’s no big deal to have a pile of “slippers” at the door, it’s not our custom. We just bought a huge house for the 2 of us and since it’s so big I made some noise about no shoes in the house. My husband’s solution was to buy robot vacuums.
My daughter lives in the PNW, her lawn is (beautifully green) mossy and damp, there are rabbits and deer with their poo in the yard, her 2 dogs are in and out doing their business, it makes me ill to think of it, so I don’t. Just take vitamin C.
We also do no shoes indoors. As a nurse and with three kids in school and a husband that works with the public we just worried about what germs we were dragging into our home. My kids will straight up tell guests to take off their shoes 😂 (we are working on that.) I on the other hand don’t ask guests to take their shoes off but I make sure to clean when they leave. Haha
I am from California and we have never taken our shoes off inside the house. I have also never known anyone who removes shoes or has asked me to remove my shoes.
While I do tend to go barefoot inside my during warm summer months–I wear my shoes in winter months. While I do believe it is cleaner to remove shoes, I would NEVER ask a guest to do so!
I got into the no shoes habit indoors in 2020 after we got new carpet for stairs & upstairs & new tiled kitchen the fact is firstly it’s more comfortable not wearing shoes indoors not to mention not bringing in dirt & germs so I have my crocs for inside during the winter & light flipflops or barefoot during the summer indoors.
Not all, or even most, Americans are in the habit to wearing their shoes in the home.
I’m from California, and my family always took our shoes off at home. It was considered rather disrespectful and a little strange not to take your shoes off and leave them on the porch before coming inside. I can’t think of any ethnic or cultural reason for this behavior. My mother worked in a hospital, so perhaps that’s what prompted this policy in our house — but I recall most of my friends having shoes-off homes, as well. While the cleanliness was obviously a plus to our parents, I think we kids mainly removed our shoes because it’s so much more comfortable to free your feet when you’re in the comfort of your own home.
In any case, this has certainly influenced my habits as an adult. I cannot stand to wear closed-toe shoes for a very long period of time — I nearly always in sandals or barefoot — and guests in my home are always expected to leave their shoes outside the front door.
In Asian homes, they never bring their shoes inside their homes. They have special indoor slippers. I’m half Japanese, half American. We practice the indoor slippers policy at home since my mom is too strict with it.
YUCK!!! No more shoes in the house for me and the family. Really appreciate the incredible insight.
Another Canadian here, but I have been living in the USA since 2001. I also didn’t know it was a thing to wear outside shoes inside of your house until I came here for College and all my American roommates kept their shoes on. Even when it was snowy outside, they would still tromp on into our apartment with their shoes dripping with water and salt and dirt. Half of us were Canadians and the other half Americans so it was a pretty heated topic of conversation (especially during the winter months). I always nicely ask guest to take their shoes off “if they don’t mind” and keep a bench and rug by my front door so that it is easy to do. Basically everyone who comes over is fine with it (except for my TX in-laws) and having a pile of shoes by the front door is just an every day part of my life. I do wish more houses were designed with this in mind and had better spaces to store shoes and coats by the front door. The one time I don’t make a big deal about taking off shoes is what we are having a party with adults and the weather is fine. But if it is snowy or raining the no shoes policy is strictly enforced.
I’m Swiss and shoes indoors is a no-no in Switzerland (and other countries in Europe). In fact growing up we were not even allowed to wear outdoor shoes in the classroom until middle school. This meant that ever back to school time, my mom would take us to buy a pair of indoor slippers to take to school on the first day. Those slippers will rest on the rack under the coat hook bench outside the classroom and kids hang their coat and switch shoes for indoor slippers before entering the classroom. The same habit is replicated at home, even apartment have a hallway before the living room to just store all the outdoor things.
Then I moved to India, and there people walk around barefoot inside the home, it never stroke me as weird at all, but some of my American friends said they had a hard time adjusting to that idea.
I almost always wear shoes in the house, even if they’re slippers/designated house shoes (though I wear my outside shoes inside more than I ought to). This is because I have a Husky mix who sheds a lot. Every now and then I try to wear socks or go barefoot and end up with a ton of fur stuck to the bottom of my socks/feet, eww. No matter how often I vacuum it’s still like this. Perhaps the solution for folks like me is to be more strict about keeping a designated pair or two of indoor shoes and never wearing them outside.