Why You Should Take Off Your Shoes When Entering Your Home

Taking your shoes off when entering a house has scientifically proven benefits.

It may sound awkward to take off your shoes every time you enter a private household , but it has advantages that not only make life easier for the housewife and protect the light-colored carpeting.

Get used to it for your own home and offer it when you enter the apartments or houses of others!

Taking off shoes is a tradition

In Asian cultures, it is more than normal to always take off your shoes before entering any interior .

There are basically shoe racks in the entrance areas, in which visitors usually even find slippers, flip-flops or other foot coverings to make it easy for visitors to take off their own shoes.

Not only in Asia, but also in many countries in Eastern Europe and Russia, it is customary never to enter the house with shoes that have been worn outdoors. Anyone traveling to such countries should definitely respect this and be prepared for it.

Either with consideration or with your own suitable “slippers” of any kind. However, it is even better to adopt this culture for your own four walls. We’ll explain why.

Show respect

The poorer the country, the simpler the household, the prouder the residents of the cleanliness of their own four walls.

If you only own one shirt, make sure to keep this shirt in the best possible and clean condition. So you always look neat and “wealthy” on the outside.

Especially in regions of the world where there is poverty, the population has no understanding for the dirty T-shirt. The dirty pants of tourists, travelers and so-called “travelers” who make a disrespectful appearance in the host country with such a sight.

The same is true when entering an interior with street shoes, with which the interior is soiled and thereby disrespect is expressed.

The housewife tries to keep everything clean and the guest destroys her hard work by carrying the dirt into the house with his shoes.

Out of respect for the housewife, the hosts and also the locals in the host country of a trip, you should always take off your shoes. Even if this is denied on request.

hygiene

You know yourself how much dirt, grime and pathogens there is on the street. Dog droppings, dust, mud, and other dirt and noxious substances build up on and underneath your shoes.

The more profiled the shoe sole, the larger the surface of the shoe and the greater the amount of dirt that adheres to it.

With every step over the carpet or floor of an interior space, the bacteria, dust and dirt from the street are distributed in the interior space.

Children who play on the floor pick up these pathogens. Objects that are placed on the floor and then on a table, distribute them further. Until they are actually literally on the plate in the end.

Bacteria in your own four walls

A 2008 study at the University of Arizona found that after just two weeks of regular use, a pair of new street shoes had an average of 420,000 bacteria on the surface, 96% of which were faecal bacteria.

These bacteria in particular are responsible for gastrointestinal diseases and by no means belong in our household! 27% of these faecal bacteria belonged to the genus Escherischa Coli, the intestinal bacteria of mammals and humans alike.

The remaining bacteria on street shoes are diverse and vary depending on how the shoes are used.

The study found bacteria that cause inflammation of open wounds, viruses of respiratory diseases, causative agents of meningitis, pneumonia and other serious diseases.

Normally, contact with such pathogens is not a cause for concern, but it is unhygienic and dangerous for people with a weakened immune system. It therefore makes sense to minimize the occurrence of such germs in your own home – by taking off your street shoes!

Routine and prophylaxis

It makes sense to let the removal of your street shoes become a routine before entering an apartment or house.

Just as it should be logical to wash your hands before eating and after using the toilet, so should it be logical not to carry street dirt into the house.

Get used to this not only in your home, but also with friends and relatives. Explain why you are doing this and why it is important to you that visitors to your home take off their shoes before they walk into your kitchen or living room.

Ultimately, it’s not just you who benefit, everyone really benefits!