Looking Back: At Shoes
I’m doing a little happy dance that this “controversial” story I’m quoted in went live yesterday. I had the amazing opportunity of sharing last winter’s blog post about being a shoes-off house with an Associated Press editor, who included me, my blog and our “mud room” in the story.
If you followed a link here… Hi! And welcome.
We’re still a shoes-off house and will remain so, no matter how rude some people think it is. Around the holidays visiting increases, and being asked to remove your shoes when you enter someone’s home shouldn’t be a surprise. All of my Millennial generations friends whose houses and apartments I’ve been to are shoes-off. It’s common, so when you come over, feel free to bring slippers or sport some crazy socks!
And if you’re “needing” the height of a heeled shoe, think about this: I am 4′ 11″ tall and have never once felt the need to compensate with shoes when visiting friends.
Please Take Off Your Shoes
There are two types of households (okay there are probably more but humor me please): Shoes-on and shoes-off.
The K-Couple has a shoes-off home. To some this is completely normal, to others it’s strange. I sometimes feel like a criminal for stopping people at the door when they visit and asking for them to remove their shoes. I feel that having a shoes-off home requires explanation sometimes for understanding. The fact that “it’s my house and I say so” doesn’t fly with many.
Before I explain our reasoning, please know this, if you operate a shoes-on home, I’m not judging you. I did not grow up in a shoes-off home, but was taught to stop at the entry way and inquire whether I should remove my shoes before walking into someone’s home.
So why are we a shoes-free household?
– Read the rest of the post, and the list, here.
PS: Shoes are outerwear!
Nice mention! Initially when we moved in (in March), we were a shoes-off house. Not really officially (except on the brand new carpet upstairs), but just because we wanted to keep things nice. Over the past eight months we’ve evolved into a shoes-acceptable house. We live on a farm and all of our flooring downstairs is hardwood or tile. With the amount of dust and dirt stirred up at the farm, it’s impossible to keep clean floors (and socks!) most of the season, whether or not shoes are worn inside. It also feels quite cruel to ask my fiance to unlace his boots, take them off, and spend the time lacing them up again each time he needs to stop in for the bathroom or if he’s coming in for a quick bite to eat (and see me!) between errands on long days. I’ve learned not to sweat it and sweep the floors regularly, and he does take the time to remove his boots when they’re covered in mud before coming in the house (wet and unable to sweep up was the line we compromised at). However, we understand and respect the desires for shoes-off, and always just assume anywhere we go is shoes-off unless the host tells us to leave our shoes on (even then sometimes we’d still prefer to take them off). And as a host, even though you may see us standing around in our crocs (mine initially started as house-shoes only), it’s nice to have guests who are respectful enough to ask or even just have the courtesy to take off their shoes before entering our home.
Hey, catching up on reading, and there you are in my local paper! Congrats on the mention!