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Do you take off your shoes?

Do you take off your shoes before entering a house?

  • Yes! I like my house clean

    Votes: 131 82.4%

  • No, I like it dirty

    Votes: 4 2.5%

  • I do it sometimes.

    Votes: 19 11.9%

  • Only when I go to sleep

    Votes: 5 3.1%
  • Total voters
    159
I am originally from the Midwest in the USA and we always wore our shoes in the house. Noone back then ever thought to take them off and my Mom was always complaining about dirty floors and raising hell with my brothers and sisters and me for traipsing dirt everywhere.

Here I always take them off and after visiting back home a couple years back I see my family has adapted the habit as well. Keeps things cleaner.

Funny thing about all of this though is that since I have been living here barefoot for all these years my shoe size has increased alot. I have fairly large feet, back then about 31 cm and since it is hard to find shoes here I bought a couple extra pair when I was back home.

Perfect no problems right.....boo boo....try the shoes on here and find them to be way too tight. Get my feet sized again and lo and behold I now have a size 32.5cm. DAMN Now I really have problems finding shoes.

It seems that walking around barefoot all the time or wearing zori has flattened my feet out.
 
KirinMan said:
Get my feet sized again and lo and behold I now have a size 32.5cm. DAMN Now I really have problems finding shoes.
It seems that walking around barefoot all the time or wearing zori has flattened my feet out.
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Ha,Ha... You have the same sized feet as me. The only place I found shoes was at one of those retail outlets. I just go in there and say "show all the shoes in size 14 and 15" and they will usually bring me about 2 or three pairs. No choosing over here! LOL I usually ask relatives to send me a particular shoe that I want.
 
I'm Japanese-American, so I've inherited the custom.

Though when I'm in a hurry and I forgot something from my room, I'm not taking my shoes off because it's simply not worth it time-wise.

It's summer now though, so I'm mainly in sandals. I always take those off; it only takes about 1 second to take them off or put them on.
 
One thing about taking off your shoes though, is sometimes, when you come home from a loooong day and you take them off, your feet smell pretty ripe. If you have smelly feet, taking your shoes off at someone elses' place may be an issue.
 
I don't pay attention to it much. I don't take them right off, but I don't keep them on. I don't think they are comfortable enough to wear around the house. So if I go to Japan I don't think I will have a hard time adopting that custom.
 
yes, of course i do. here in Finland we always took of our shoes when we go inside, so it feels werid to me to not do so. ^^
 
howabe said:
I do usually, out of habit...
But if I'm at someone else's house, I won't take them off straight away, as I don't think it;s very polite to juts take off your shoes and chuck them on the floor when it's not your house...
Click to expand...


Agree'd

By the way guise, where is the "I don't take my shoes off" option in the poll?
All I see is a rude "no, I like it dirty" answer. o 3 o


I take my shoes off when I get home and know I'm not going out anymore. But I take them off when I get to my room. Or sometimes in the living room.
If I know I'm leaving again, I don't take them off. But then again, I might take them off and put them back on again. . .

I hate walking with my barefeet/with socks on. So I always have some chanclas laying around the house that only I can use. I'll get on the *** of whoever wears them.

One thing I do belive (and probably most of you) is when people are wearing shoes and get their feet and or step on your furniture or somebody elses. This is very typical on spoiled children/teens and a lot of adults. When you are in a house other than yours, it is most common to not do anything you do at your own. The nerve! >:U

Does anybody know the average height of a j-home ceiling?
 
howabe said:
But if I'm at someone else's house, I won't take them off straight away, as I don't think it;s very polite to juts take off your shoes and chuck them on the floor when it's not your house...
Click to expand...

Funny.
Here it would be mind bogglingly rude not to leave them at the enterance straightaway!

I have never been to a place where people didn't take their shoes off and I have only heard urban legends of some strange people somewhere who didn't.

It is also something that I constantly wonder while watching american movies. People coming in, sitting or lying on a sofa (or a bed!) while wearig shoes!
My mum always gets pissed just by watching it!

I once asked an american about it and he just said that "well.. It's a shoe-culture."
Get that!

Frankly, I can't even imagine a person who wouldn't rip off the head of somebody who came in the house and stepped on the carpets wearing shoes!

Well.. I once delivered a washing machine to a place where I wouldn't have taken off my shoes even if they'd paid me to but that was because I was afraid of all that could stick up from below all the dirt.. That was some junky hole! Couldn't wait to get away from there..
[/rant]
 
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Yeah I do, its rather diry not to I think. Here in England they usually dont take the them off, but I dont feel comfortable vising anyone and having my shoes on. Since I am Swedish I am used to not have shoes on indoor, it is very rude to do that there.
 
I of course always take off my shoes when I enter a house here in Japan. When I visit other countries, which is not often, I basically go on a house by house basis.

In America it really does depend on the house. I took my shoes off at a friend's house once and he was really offended by that. My parents used to think it was silly until they tried it and noticed how much easier it was to clean when you don't wear shoes around the house.
 
Mikawa Ossan said:
In America it really does depend on the house. I took my shoes off at a friend's house once and he was really offended by that.
Click to expand...

Why was he offended? ☝
If you don't mind me asking!
 
When I was living in the Netherlands, I never took of my shoes in the house. Thinking about it now, I think it was pretty dirty.

Here in Japan I always take of my shoes, even though I sometimes walk on my toes if I forget something before I go out and I already have my shoes on... (don't tell the lady ... ).
 
alantin said:
Why was he offended? ☝
If you don't mind me asking!
Click to expand...
Why? Well this is just a guess, but I think that in America a lot of people don't take off their shoes much, so there is this idea that feet are unclean and smelly. So taking off your shoes and revealing your dirty and smelly feet is rude. That's all that I can think of, though.
 
Okay.
I have never thought it that way!
 
I have always taken my shoes off indoors, i hate wearing shoes all the time and its not healthy for your feet to be always covered either- not wearing shoes in the house keeps the floor so much cleaner too ^_^ .
 
Heh, the last time I commented on this same topic was a lllooonnngg time ago. Since then I've moved to UK and lived here for a couple of years. What has enourmously irritated me for the whole time being here is, that the people here wear their dirty smudgy shoes just about everywhere! Especially rude when they won't bother taking their shoes off even when they enter mine&my fiancees room, even when sitting on the bed etc.. and guess who's always doing the cleaning.. :/ Well, I'm moving back to Finland soon again, so looking forward to having my house, my rules
 
In my own home I always take off my shoes but it is for comfort reasons.

Nor would I object to going outside barefooted (or at least I didn't used to, but then I stepped on a slug)

At someone else's house it is different though. Sometimes they may request (looking after the carpets e.t.c.) but if they do not ask then I would feel incrediably uncomfortable to ask to remove or remove my own shoes.

It seems rude somehow.

When I have my own place I ask people to remove their shoes but I abhor bear feet
 
I would never let anyone in my apartment with their shoes on !

and I would never go into somebodies home with shoes on.

But of course I keep my shoes on at work, at winter I have other shoes indoors at work !
 
If you are in Japan or inside a house where a Japanese family is living in, just do it. It isn't a question of healthiness but a question of culture.

As well as Japanese people living in my country instead of bowing they shake hands.
 
I always take off my shoe when I go inside my home. They are always muddy or something...My house is already enough of a wreck...don't need to make it worse.
 
I thnk the poll question is biased because of the way the questions are composed.

Many westerners do not remove thier shoes, but they do not do so to keep their houses dirty.
 
i do it sometimes..
after i cleaned up my room,,i will enter without shoes... else,,i'll keep my sandals on..
 
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