Do you ask guests to take their shoes off in your house?

In many countries around the world, removing shoes before entering homes is the norm.

In most of Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, shoes are never worn inside the house and it can be seen as a sign of disrespect for guests to enter a home without leaving them at the door.

In the UK there has been a gradual shift and many more of us are now asking guests to remove their shoes compared with 30 to 40 years ago.

While this is less of a cultural thing in the UK it is most probably more likely to be a practical request to prevent visitors from tracking mud or dirt onto floors and rugs.

Removing your shoes inside can also help keep invisible germs away too.

We posed the shoes versus non-shoes question to our team at Silversurfers and here are some of the responses we got:

“I work hard to keep my home tidy and free of germs, why would I want someone to traipse about in their dirty shoes and ruin all my hard work!”

“Having kids and dogs means that my house isn’t exactly tidy or extremely clean. We don’t wash the dogs’ paws each time they come into the house so I don’t expect anyone to have to take their shoes off.”

“We’ve always had the ‘shoes off at the door’ rule. It works well for us and I expect guests to do the same, although we once had someone in to fix our internet and left a trail of sweaty footprints across our tiled floor, which made me want to gag!”

“My house is a lived-in, family home and not a stage set. I’m happy for guests to keep their shoes on.”

What are the rules in your home? Is it shoes on or shoes off?