taking your shoes off when you go to someone's house.

ttaskmaster said:
It's always been a Japanese thing to us, never a British thing. I never knew taking shoes off for indoors until perhaps the late 90s at the earliest.
We never did anything of the sort when we were growing up and it's only once the UK started importing things like foreign furniture retailers that people seemed to do this shoe thing. Slippers were for Grandad and for giving to kids at Christmas when they've already got enough itchy jumpers.
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This is pretty much what I grew up with - some of the things in this thread are completely alien to me especially in terms of it being manners :s (and I was "properly" brought up in terms of basic good manners in general). TBH I've always kind of automatically followed the host's example without really thinking about it and if there isn't a cue to what they do/prefer kept my shoes on unless they make a point about it without thinking about it whatsoever.

(I was however brought up to always wipe footwear off thoroughly on the mat before entering or remove if it was raining/muddy).

wozza2k said:
Those who do wear shoes around the house, when do you decide to take them off and put them back on again?
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Shower/bath or bed is the only time I take them off really.
 
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Always taken shoes off in my house and my parents where boen in the 40s.


Why would you want crap from the street in your carpets?
 
Not offended but I do find it very annoying. Obviously if they are dirty then no problem but for no reason is pointless.

Likewise I never ask anyone to take their shoes off in my house unless they tell me they are dirty. Just common sense.

wozza2k said:
but if you were to keep them on when do you decide to take them off?
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I wear trainers every day and only take them off when I go to bed.
 
I automatically take my shoes off when I go to someone else's home. With the exception of some mates who have untrained dogs that pee everywhere.
 
Rroff said:
This is pretty much what I grew up with - some of the things in this thread are completely alien to me especially in terms of it being manners :s (and I was "properly" brought up in terms of basic good manners in general). TBH I've always kind of automatically followed the host's example without really thinking about it and if there isn't a cue to what they do/prefer kept my shoes on unless they make a point about it without thinking about it whatsoever.

(I was however brought up to always wipe footwear off thoroughly on the mat before entering or remove if it was raining/muddy).



Shower/bath or bed is the only time I take them off really.
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Firstly, your feet must hate you :p Mine can't wait to be out of their shoes. Esp horrid formal work shoes, which are just sweaty and awful.

But my parents are both from different backgrounds - father the son of a Polish immigrant raised on a farm; mother from a military family - and both always insisted on shoes off. Both born in the 1940s.

So the idea that this is a recent thing is not necessarily true either.
 
If i go into someones house i haven't been in before, if they don't ask, i offer. However family members who i've always taken them off for, or always left them on, obviously there's no need to ask each time :)
 
FoxEye said:
Firstly, your feet must hate you :p Mine can't wait to be out of their shoes. Esp horrid formal work shoes, which are just sweaty and awful.

But my parents are both from different backgrounds - father the son of a Polish immigrant raised on a farm; mother from a military family - and both always insisted on shoes off. Both born in the 1940s.

So the idea that this is a recent thing is not necessarily true either.
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I mostly wear these http://www.merrell.com/UK/en_GB/spr...nt&dwvar_16449M_color=J39149#q=sprint&start=1 they are incredibly comfortable with good breathability - I spend as little time in formal footwear as possible.
 
Er, no? But then i'd normally ask, or automatically take them off before they have a chance to ask me to.
 
No, but id have taken them off automatically before it got to that point anyway.

I knew very few people growing up that kept their shoes on when going into other peoples houses.
 
I have studied bacteria/infection and it is very important not to wear outside shoes around your home - don't let anyone else do it either. Bringing in dirt into your home from pavements/garden is dreadful and it will cause infection.

And use alcohol hand wash before eating out you filthy animals.

Try to use disposable paper cups when possible e.g. a coffee at Starbugs.

Some people don't like taking their shoes off but tough, they tend to be the blighters that don't respect the fabric of your home and they are not civilised.
 
I ask at the door if I should take them off when I'm going into someones house.

I would also ask someone coming into my front room, my floors are laminate so wipe clean but I wouldn't want shoes on my rug, I don't walk on it with shoes on either.

I was once at a B&B in the Isle of Skye and they had us take our shoes off at the door, that was weird. They also didn't have locks on the room doors and expected you to be out of the house in the day, it was like being a kid and staying at a mates house or something.
 
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