No Shoes Allowed: A Cultural Dilemma

I enjoy a new idea– both the thinking of and stealing. I would argue my *own* best idea to date has been elevator buttons being “un-pushable.” (Accidentally pushed the wrong floor? Unpush that baby!) The best idea I’ve stolen was from my Japanese friend Misa. When she welcomed me into her household, I was sold on the idea: The Shoe-less Utopian Household. 

American culture has carried off some pretty good ideas, and certainly many bad ones. On the whole, I tend to focus on the bad. School lunches! So bad. Work culture! Killing us all. On the flip side, I’ve been known to glorify foreign cultures, gleaning all their best ideas and trying to adopt them into my life. French families eating habits, for instance. We mostly eat breakfast and dinner “En Famille”– that is, sitting down leisurely and making the evening meal an event. I also latched onto the “hygge” philosophy of the Danes: the never-ending quest for coziness and comfort. The most controversial philosophy I’ve adopted in the last few years, oddly enough, is not allowing shoes in the house.

It began with just me and the kids, and eventually grew to include friends and all guests. I’ve always found carpet disgusting, and this was just an expansion on that idea. Take off your shoes– why not?  They’ve been all over the city– in my estimation, it has taken the cleanliness of my house from absolutely disgusting to just moderately gross. Let’s be real, a house with a sheepdog, two elementary aged children, and a cat will never be clean. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that my house will exist at some level of gross.

This new philosophy was met with a lot of resistance at first. The kids weren’t thrilled, and then my parents came to visit. They think about half the newfangled, crazy “hipster” stuff I do is silly, so just add this to that ever-growing list. (It was also not followed about 50 percent of their stay, but who’s counting?) 

There’s also the dicey etiquette of asking someone to do something they wouldn’t normally do. Or worse, asking them after they’ve walked all through the house. Best to just save it until the next time they visit.

Then there are friends of my kids who constantly forget. Or maybe conveniently forget. Also, they tend to have stinky, smelly sock feet. Have I really made a move for the better?

Or then there are times when I have a larger gathering of friends and it just seems too much of a hassle to have everyone remove their shoes. I usually just leave it alone.

Some of the less enthused crowd (my parents) have pointed out that the dog cannot “remove” her shoes. She is tracking in God knows what. Yes, I realize this. 

Still, it’s the idea. Now that it’s been planted in my brain that shoes in the house are gross, it’s never going back. And so I’ll try to keep it a manageable requirement, not obsessing if I need to run back to the kitchen for one last thing. Not buying wipes to clean the dog’s feet after every time she goes out. Offering house shoes for guests. And being open to the next idea that floats my way.