Connect with us

Health

Why Take off Your Shoes Before Entering a House?

Published

on

Taking your shoes off when you are visiting someone else’s home is not only polite, it is respectful. There are many reasons why homeowners may want you to take your shoes off at their door, especially if they have a new home or children under the age of two. Removing your shoes also can make you more comfortable while visiting with your acquaintances and has psychological advantages. Let us look at these reasons in turn.

It’s about Respect

Being respectful in someone else’s home is the number one rule when you were a child, and this rule still exists as an adult. People do not want your dirt marks and grass stains from your shoes on their floors. Even if people have hardwood or tile floors, stones get caught in the cracks of your shoes and can cause scratch marks all over their floor, especially if you are wearing high heels. Wooden and marble floors are sometimes more expensive than carpet and could become very costly after years of being walked on my shoes.

Have you ever heard the saying “take your shoes off and stay awhile”? Taking your shoes off before entering the house makes you and your hosts that you are visiting with feel more comfortable. This creates a less formal atmosphere, your hosts won’t feel like you are trying to leave as soon as you get there and you won’t feel rushed to leave.

It Keeps Your Home Clean

As the dirt gets rubbed into the carpet this causes dust particles and makes the carpet a breeding ground for dust mites. The residue that dust mites leave behind can mix with the dust in the carpet fibers and in the air which may cause allergies and asthma. There are more insects in one square mile than there are people on earth, think of how many bugs you have stepped on just going from your car to the door of the house! If you wear shoes on the carpet, each year about 3 pounds of soil will accumulate in and under the carpet.

Wearing shoes on carpet does not only make the carpet dirty and releases germs into the house; it wears out the carpeting faster. It has been proven that families that wear shoes in their house replace their carpet twice as much as a family that doesn’t wear shoes in their house. The dirt on the bottom of the shoes that had just been outside causing the carpet to get all matted up and causes the fibers to become weak. Cleaning the carpets all the time is not easy work and the soap also breaks down carpet fibers making the carpet more brittle.

Many new home-owners spend quite a bit of money on their carpet and tile to make their houses look the way they want them to. Carpet padding is also expensive, sometimes more expensive than the carpeting itself. As the dirt from the dirty shoes goes across it, it causes the padding to get wet and dirty, which causes “entrance matting” and the carpet will not be as desirable as it was when it was bought. Taking your shoes off at the door keeps 70 percent of the dirt from outside from getting on to the carpet and spreading. Wearing your shoes outside in the grass and gravel and then coming inside and walking on the carpet not only makes the carpet dirty, but it puts toxins and germs on the carpet. Shoes also pick up all types of chemicals, pesticides, and animal feces that you are not aware of.

It Keeps Germs out of the Home

Children under two years of age are more prone to get sick from the pesticides and chemicals that are rubbed into the carpet from the shoes on to the carpet because bacteria can live up to four weeks on carpet. Bed bugs can live in wooden floorboards and on carpet fibers, although they are small, they move and reproduce very fast. Shoes can also spread fleas from one place to another; fleas like the warm dry carpet and the eggs survive better in damper carpeting. Fleas can bite both humans and animals and the house may become infested fairly quickly.

Concluding Thoughts

It has been proven that, psychologically, taking your shoes off relieves stress and helps put you in the frame of mind that you are keeping your troubles outside of your home. Physically your feet will smell less if you do not wear your shoes all day which is a great advantage of taking them off, who wants smelly feet?

If you want happy health and clean house, you should take your shoes off at the door. Removing shoes makes everyone more comfortable and helps people relax. Your children will be less likely to get sick all of the time, and you will have a clean home if you take your shoes off at the door. If you have children, teaching them to respect other people’s property at an early age by taking your shoes off will help when they need to make their own decisions. There are many advantages and no disadvantages, so the only reason to keep your shoes on is laziness and lack of respect for your home and that of others.