nicinchic wrote:Just what I need is someone walking around the hardwood floors or stairs and slipping in their socks.

Last winter, Boy was charging down hardwood stairs in stocking feet and took a nasty spill; wearing socks on wood floors is a definite safety hazard (we've since carpeted those stairs and encouraged boy to wear protective footgear, with traction).

It seems dogshit is a big issue here, so might it not be a good idea to outfit our dogs -- who produce and regularly step in the stuff -- with little booties for indoors so that they won't track harmful grunge into the house. Naked dog feet seem, to me, to pose a much greater threat to health than shod human feet.

nicinchic wrote:Just what I need is someone walking around the hardwood floors or stairs and slipping in their socks.

For the record, in five years of living in a place with hardwood floors (that had been refinished & polished just before I bought the place), never once did I have a guest slip. No minor little "whoops, almost lost my footing there", certainly no "I slipped and fell because you made me take my shoes off, call an ambulance and my attorney".

I know quite a few people with hardwood floors, and have never slipped at any of their places while wearing just socks (and I remove my shoes automatically unless I see that the hosts are wearing their shoes, which is a rare occurrence), and have not heard of any of them accidentally injuring their guests or experiencing legal troubles from sock-on-wood slip-and-falls either.

In other words, my personal experiences have me feeling that this whole "asking people to remove their shoes is a safety & liability issue" thing is a very unlikely hypothetical scenario. By the same token, I could say that having furniture that's not completely spherical is irresponsible and dangerous - clumsy guests could trip & fall, land on a pointy-cornered coffee table, and cause themselves severe injury and the homeowner legal liability.

David Hammond wrote:Last winter, Boy was charging down hardwood stairs in stocking feet and took a nasty spill; wearing socks on wood floors is a definite safety hazard (we've since carpeted those stairs and encouraged boy to wear protective footgear, with traction).

One could say that the issue was not just socks on wooden stairs, but also running down stairs. Even running down carpeted stairs increases the odds of tripping and falling and is an extremely unsafe thing to do.

David Hammond wrote:It seems dogshit is a big issue here, so might it not be a good idea to outfit our dogs -- who produce and regularly step in the stuff -- with little booties for indoors so that they won't track harmful grunge into the house. Naked dog feet seem, to me, to pose a much greater threat to health than shod human feet.

Dogshit, yes...but at least dogshit comes out of carpet and wipes right off of hard flooring. Gum, on the other hand, is a more persistent beast.

However, I guess dogshit has the added psychological factor of making it so that I feel gross ever going barefoot in my own house again, because all I'll be able to ever think of is that my clean, bare feet are possibly touching dogshit residue.

Well, my sister-in-law-went socks only down the stairs and dropped a wine bottle she was taking downstairs and now I have a nice dent in my floor the shape of an arc of the bottle. She thankfully, was OK.

love the natural traction of bare feet.

You know who I'd like to tell "take your damn shoes off" to? Plumbers, painters, landscapers, contractors, and the like. They get more crud on their shoes than you can believe, and they never clean up after themselves. They always leave caked mud and dirty footprints everywhere!

Otherwise when I have guests over, it's a do-as-you-please policy, unless maybe they come in on a slushy, snowy day in boots with mile-high treads; I don't want to clean that shit up!

Against my better judgment to not tread on this thread
In the spirit of attempting to provide solutions:*

Indoor

from http://www.esdapparel.com/,14,-Disposab ... vers.html; google image search result for "shoe cover"
outdoor

from http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/ ... gers.html; google image search result for "vibram five fingers
see also this article: barefoot running:...

*If ye seek problems, perhaps you can persuade Hammond to start a thread

sazerac wrote:
from http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/ ... gers.html; google image search result for "vibram five fingers
see also this article: barefoot running:...

*If ye seek problems, perhaps you can persuade Hammond to start a thread

Oh man, those are the shoes for me! I just called Erewhon on North and they have them in my size. Thanks, sazerac.

jimswside wrote:shoot, I go with the flow, if folks want me to not wear shoes at their house its all good. if folks want to wear shoes in my house its all good.

I'm with you. Personally, I grew up in a Polish-American household and lived in Eastern Europe for a number of years, so I've been raised on not wearing shoes when inside somebody's house. In fact, it feels weird to me to be wearing shoes in my own house, unless I'm going in and out of the backyard, and even then I quite often take off my shoes in the stairwell.

When I enter a relative stranger's home (and in my line of work this happens very often), I almost always take off my shoes. If I notice everyone else is wearing shoes and the floors are hardwood, then I might not. But, the vast majority of the time, I take them off.

When guests visit my home, they could do as they please. Shoes, no shoes, whatever.

I would say that if you enter someone's house and they have finished floors (carpet, hardwood, stone, etc) you should take your shoes off or at least have the courtesy to ask. If the house you're visiting has dirt floors, you probably don't have to take your shoes off.

As someone who has hardwood floors, I don't ask for people to take their shoes off when we have a party, unless they are really dirty (rain, snow, sleet, mud, etc) but our area rugs have still been ruined by this. It's an unfortunate by-product of hosting parties - floors will get dirty, things will spill and dishes/glasses will break. You don't know your guest's tendencies so just expect things for the worse and be careful who you give a glass glass or breakable dish or allow into certain rooms of your home.

Unfortunately, I like to sit on my own floor and play with our toddler who likes to crawl on our floor so I'd rather have the floors clean than having dirt tracked through the house by street shoes so I tend to take my shoes off.

Sometimes I think of Robert Morse's character on Mad Men, Bertram Cooper; who requests that every person who enters his office takes their shoes off so as to not ruin his carpet. In the second to the last episode last year, his sister visited and didn't take her shoes off and he responded with something like, "Dammit Alice, I don't ask much of you" to which she responds, "these stockings cost more than your carpeting."

tyrus wrote: If the house you're visiting has dirt floors, you probably don't have to take your shoes off.

glad my hovel has dirt floors so I never have to ask.

tyrus wrote:As someone who has hardwood floors, I don't ask for people to take their shoes off when we have a party, unless they are really dirty (rain, snow, sleet, mud, etc) but our area rugs have still been ruined by this. It's an unfortunate by-product of hosting parties - floors will get dirty, things will spill and dishes/glasses will break.

I used to roll up rugs & stick them under the bed in the guest bedroom before parties for this very reason. I figured if I was having 20-30 people over, shoes would stay on, drinks would be spilled, grime would be tracked all over, and I wouldn't have to sweat it, because I'd just get out the mop & bucket the next morning and have the place back in barefoot-friendly condition in no time.

We leave our shoes at the door and wear slippers or barefeet around our condo. I prefer guests do as well, but won't push it unless they've just come in from wet or snowy conditions. (I made the mistake one year of not saying anything and watched the slush drip off someone's boots onto my rug.) In fact, I find it disconcerting if someone has come in from the rain and snow and they don't offer to take off their shoes.

When I go to other people's homes, especially when it's cool/cold, I bring slippers or "indoor" shoes and leave my shoes at the door. I do this because I don't want rocks/dirt/mud/water/etc. from my shoes to get on the floors or carpets. Because shoes that have been worn outside will have rocks/dirt/mud/water/etc. on them, as much as you might think you wiped them off.

We can do like many old folks and get plastic runners, but place them side by side all over the house.

Hate to ruin people's lunches, but did you know that swabs taken on public transportation have found traces of feces? So when your guests come off the El their bum is covered in hobo poo, which will end up on the couch. So keeping shoes on shouldn't pose too much more of a threat. The answer is to get several long-haired cats. The shedded fur will act as a barrier between your carpet/floors/furniture and filthy shoes/clothes.

I'm joking of course. I'm incredibly tired and I just had some coffee, so I'm giddy.

This is an interesting post, because I agree with points on both sides. I feel naked with my shoes off in other people's houses, but I wouldn't want gunk tracked in, either. I suddenly have the urge to, for the first time ever, get the carpets steam-cleaned.

Pie Lady wrote:Hate to ruin people's lunches, but did you know that swabs taken on public transportation have found traces of feces? So when your guests come off the El their bum is covered in hobo poo, which will end up on the couch.

There's an easy fix for that (cf. "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo").

I saw this awful movie yet can't recall what you're referring to. Please describe in detail!

Hey, mandatory shoe-free households:

What about this?

gleam wrote:Hey, mandatory shoe-free households:

What about this?

That's a really cool idea...I could see that being handy for real estate agents to take to open houses or showings.

When I am so lucky as to be invited to other people's homes, I take my shoes off when I'm asked to. I also cover my head and wear a longish dress with sleeves when visiting certain households. I eat and drink what I'm served if at all possible, and try to be unobtrusive when it's not. I put up with cigarette smoke, slobbery dogs, shedding cats and undisciplined children. I play dumb games, watch dull TV shows and listen to amateur musical efforts. I admire ugly home decor and homely kids and try to converse pleasantly with bores. My inability to cope with smoke means that until recent times, I often spent a lot of time at parties in hallways or the out of doors; a sensitivity to a few ingredients means I need to ask questions and avoid certain foods; and I'm not very good at socializing. Yet despite it all, I usually have a good time.

My life is not so crowded with generous folks who, just for the pleasure of my company, invite me to share their special occasions that I can afford to be critical. So I accept my friends' invitations gratefully when I can, decline with sincere regrets when I cannot, and attend with determination to enjoy myself, adopting a "when in Rome" attitude to uncomfortable household customs, the idiosyncrasies of other guests and unskilled hosts whose food and drink choices are not to my taste. I only wish I had more occasions for doing so.

For what it's worth, 9 Chickweed Lane has been doing a shoes-off theme this week.

http://comics.com/9_chickweed_lane/2009-08-14/

Cheers, Jen