I don’t know about you, but as far as the shoes in the house debate is concerned, it pains me to see footwear even one inch beyond the doorframe. Having come from a household where bringing shoes inside is taboo, perhaps I’m a bit biased. However, I do believe my stance still has its merits, and for several reasons.
First, let’s remember the purpose of shoes/homes in a practical sense. Though different footwear styles and usage habits have evolved extensively throughout history, their general function has remained more or less the same: to protect your feet from the perils of stepping on the ground. What surface do your feet need protection from when walking around indoors? The carpet, perhaps? Or the smooth tiles on the floor of your bathroom? On top of that, houses are generally built to shelter you from the elements, so why must the elements come inside with you?
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, bringing shoes indoors also tracks in dirt, pathogens, and hazardous chemicals. Besides making your floors dirty, you’re likely exposing yourself and those around you to lead, pesticides, toxins occurring naturally in asphalt (yes, the material used for paving roads), and other cancer-causing substances that are more common than you probably think. Researchers found that 80% of shoe soles in an arbitrary sample tested positive for fecal bacteria such as E. coli and C. diff; another study showed that over 90% of germs from your shoes transfer to your floors.
Furthermore, cleanliness in general brings with it a host of psychological benefits beyond just physical health, as clutter on the outside tends to make you feel cluttered on the inside—so when your workspace is a mess of coffee stains and candy wrappers and eraser shavings, you’re unconsciously redirecting a fraction of your attention toward the mess and away from the task at hand. Essentially, the clutter is occupying space in your brain. Relating this to shoes in the house, having dirty floors simply makes it harder for you to focus; just the thought of bringing E. coli into my bedroom is enough to make me itch.
Onto the next item on the list: comfort. For some, wearing shoes is actually more comfortable than not, and for others, it’s still a necessary part of life to accommodate certain physical conditions. But for me, the liberation of entering a clean space and freeing myself from the confines of my shoes is a nonnegotiable at the end of a long day; it evokes a feeling like none other in the world.
Lastly, this stance on shoes isn’t just for germaphobes; it’s also a question of courtesy long integrated into the households of countless cultures around the world. Most famously in Asian, Middle Eastern, Nordic, Eastern European, and Canadian countries, bringing shoes indoors is a serious sign of disrespect and sometimes even representative of spiritual impurity.
Ultimately, this is a controversial and relatively trivial topic, and I fully respect everyone’s personal opinions on where shoes do and/or don’t belong. In my view, you should take your shoes off—in the name of practicality, cleanliness, mindset, comfort, and cultural sensitivity, please take your shoes off. But there are so many other viewpoints and their reasons beyond my own. So, going back to the original question, do shoes really have a place in your home? That answer is totally up to you; just please ask before you enter others’ homes with shoes still on your feet.