Why don't more Americans take their shoes off indoors?
 

My family has always had the habit of taking our shoes off indoors and wearing sandals inside the house. It seems logical that you want to keep dirt from the sidewalk, dog shit and who knows what else off your floors.

I've noticed very few of Americans do this, however. Why is that?

Because we just buy new carpet / floors when it's dirty. lol

a cultural thing i guess.

Thats a good question from a common sense point of view like you said. But it's just a cultural thing that has not caught on yet in north america. Hell, we have politicians who think the president should never bow to anyone even though it's a standard greeting for billions of people. Ignorance is bliss for some people.

More like a lack of culture thing, I got house shoes.

They don't like being told what to do.

yeah we all have our regular shoes, and then houseshoes

Most of them is too fat to untie their shoelaces.

us canadians take our shoes off in the house. not sure why americans don't. its just cleaner in my opinion. now if you have house shoes, sure but personally i don't like wearing shoes all the time.

It's shoes off in Asia. We leave shoes at the door. Many of the locals will even leave them outside.

I have a nice lady clean my floors every week.

I got hardwood floors, easy to clean.

i never got that either...to each their own

Haha ! :1orglaugh

not sure about you but that is not a canadian thing at all...

news to me that americans don't do this though

you must have been to some shitty apartment complex (maybe the really old one)
the good ones have everything.

what country were you in?

Our outdoors is cleaner then yours!

than .

My old building was like that, and we'd have the windows open in a Montreal winter.

Americans are filthy animals.

I see just the opposite. When I lived in the States with my family, we always took off our shoes in the house. When I moved here to the UK, everyone seems to keep their shoes on all the time, pretty much up until they go to bed.

The find the lack of bidets even more disturbing ...

Does your house smell like feet? :upsidedow

Wait they do? Mr. Rogers always changed his shoes when he came in the house. I have house sandals but usually just keep socks on and I'm good.

I take my shoes off in the office when I'm sitting down too, keeps the stink factor down. But I guess once your feet already stink, keep the shoes on.

house shoes or slippers indoors

No, why would it?

People who I generally associate myself with know how to maintain proper personal hygiene.

At least our toilets don't have a platform to catch our shit.

Guess I should have limited my comment to America only. But really the whole concept is not caught on to the extent it has in other parts of the world. I don't know anyone who has a shoe closet near their front door except in asia. I dont know restaurants in the USA where you remove your shoes and wear provided house slippers to eat in. Maybe in asian-town areas of big cities. Definitely not very widespread though.

Personally, it's rare that I put shoes on except in the foyer of my home. Usually, like right now, it's just socks and slippers.

I grew up in Hawaii where we always took our shoes off. Habit I still have. Plus I have white carpets.

It's been drilling my mind since I was a kid !!!!

I vote: dirty socks :P

seems rude and dirty to be stomping around the house in muddy boots and shoes.

but cultural differences i guess?

just a thing of being lazy i guess and not appreciating what we have :1orglaugh

we don't wear shoes in the house. we live in the country but have white wool carpets...

the mrs. even posted a "please remove shoes" sign on the door :1orglaugh

Must only be certain parts of the US. For example how could anyone pull that off in the winter? Your house would be trashed. My ocd is flaring just thinking about the mess. Here in Canada everyone takes them off unless they are filthy pigs.

dats also tru.

Weird... that's been a strict rule in my family for generations...

Cold feet, smelly feet, dirty socks, cold floors, using "guest slippers", imposing cultural values on visitors over basic cleaning that should be done anyhow, footmats... I mean, there are a ton of reasons that I find it weird other people do that at stranger's houses...

I can totally understand why people wouldn't. Besides, do you eat off your floor or lay on it or something?

i cant afford shoes... :(