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. Want to hear them?
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 moving to our current home and beginning to take off 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 Nova 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 two dogs, a toddler 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 Nova to take her shoes off when we come inside has honestly been very easy, so I feel happy for her that she’ll grow up with this habit and 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.
I will say though, after researching for this article, I will probably do a big floor cleaning after every party we host from now on. That could help cut down the grossness quite a bit, even though I’ll probably never be one of those people who stands by the door and asks people to remove their shoes.
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
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.
I don’t *require* guests to remove their shoes by any means (I’d be uncomfortable asking them to do so!), but I do find that leaving our shoes by the door is a subtle reminder. Most people take their shoes off without being asked!
I added a large shoe rack in our garage and I really love it! No shoes in the house AT ALL! Not even for storage! I’ve also noticed that when guests come over and see us not wearing shoes they naturally do the same but I agree that it’s hard to asks guests! Love the idea of offering slippers!
I love the originality of this post! Definitely a cultural thing. I am moroccan and wearing outside shoes in a home is quite weird to me. Although I became more strict about it when I had a kid. I have slippers for guests right at the entrance. I live in Italy where it’s not a reflex for everybody but most people are just happy to make themselves comfortable. You can see it this way, you offer your guests a more comfortable experience! If I have workers at home and I know it’s gonna be a mess anyway I don’t say anything about the shoes and just do a good cleaning after. Xx
We are strict about not wearing shoes in the house for all of the same reasons. Seriously it’s just gross. We take them off right inside the garage entry way and carry them in. Each family member is allowed to keep one pair of shoes by the back door on a rack for convenience of running out to get the mail or tossing dirty diapers away. The rest are kept in our closets. It’s a good habit. Plus with little one crawling on the floors, it just makes sense.
I have always been a barefoot kinda girl – the less I wear shoes the better for me. When my kids were little, we started leaving all shoes at the door to save our floors and cut down on cleaning. (My brother in law made his kids put their shoes on when getting dressed and wear them in the house and I struggled mightily with this when they were visiting cause it’s hard to break others habits even with your own house rules) We still don’t wear shoes in our house but my mom does – but at 90 years old I can’t change her – and that pesky brother in law still does too. 🙂
I HATE shoes in the house. I’m trying to introduce my family into not doing it, but it seems weird to them. I don’t know why. Having a shoe rack is a great idea. What do you do with all of your shoes though (shoes that you don’t wear often) as in storing, especially if you have a small place?
Midwesterner here. We’re a shoes off family. It’s really to prevent tracking in mud and salt from the inclement weather that’s always changing. Road salt is terrible for floors!
We keep shoe organizers by the doors to keep everything tidy, I really like the IKEA ones.
As for our dogs, if it’s wet outside paws get wiped when they come in. I have a hook with a towel on the shoe organizer. We even have a command to get them to stay and wait, “Paws!”
When it comes to guests, if we’re having a party I don’t ask. For just a friend or two hanging out, I’ll ask them to take their shoes off.
i wear slippers in the winter, and flops in the summer. i hate being barefoot, and being in socks is a hazard on my wood floors.
so i don’t really wear my outside shoes inside very often, but it’s not a rule.
the thing is, i am VEHEMENTLY opposed to asking guests to take off shoes in your house in this country. since it’s not a widely accepted cultural thing here, it just seems unimaginably rude to do.
i don’t like when other people ask me to, though i will do it. but i don’t like being barefoot at all, and especially not in front of other people. i think it’s too informal with people i don’t know well, and i like the safety of having shoes on my feet for things like stubbed toes or someone stepping on me.
so i would never ask anyone else to do so.
and as far as cleanliness goes…eh. i grew up on a farm, and while we had coveralls and barn shoes, it was impossible not to bring a little manure in with you occasionally.
likewise, i have dogs. one of my dogs regularly pees on his own paw and leg. we also go walking around our city, and our city’s big park, and a little dog paw wipe doesn’t do much to clean their feet.
i love my house, and i love the things in my house. but my safety and comfort, and the safety and comfort of any guests i have, is more important than any of those things. i wish that other people felt the same way when i visited their houses, but they don’t.
I understand the reasoning behind taking your shoes off. I work in the nastiest of environments.. A hospital. So I immediately change out of scrubs and shoes. But I always think about what else I’m bringing home. From the seats, booths, benches I’ve sat on.. Doctor’s office, restaurant, movie theatre, my own car.. What I’m bringing home with me just on my clothes. What I come in contact with due to my purse. And my cell phone.. Gross. I clean it religiously, about like my hands that feel like sandpaper because I’m so paranoid about not washing my hands, even with gloves, about what I come in contact with at work. But
Honestly, I am always shocked when I hear that Americans wear shoes in the house because in Canada it isn’t a thing. When I worked in Japan they were about to insist I take my shoes off and were relieved when I was already doing it. Growing up, I just assumed every country took off their shoes and wore bare feet, sock feet or house slippers when they came inside!
Lovely atricle. Here in Germany slippers or “house shoes” are worn indoors. I would never wear my (dirty) outdoors shoes inside. And it is also totally normal to ask your guest to take their shoes off, most people do it without asking anyway. I always have slippers for them though, so they don’t have to walk around in their socks or barefoot. I don’t think it would be rude if you ask your friends to take their shoes off – less cleaning after a party 😉
Thank you!!! I could have written this but I’m going to send it to my husband. He has been hard to train.;) I’m with you on the guests and parties too-just can’t go there.
You know, I guess I never put much thought into this! I have wood floors and a few rugs, and I do tend to walk through my house, to my bedroom, before taking my shoes off. And then I immediately put on flip-flops. I am almost always wearing flops in the house, but I tend to assume no shoes in other peoples houses without even really thinking about it, and just always take them off.