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I’ve always known people that took their shoes off at the door upon arriving at home.  To be honest, I always thought that those people were a little weird and maybe a bit obsessive compulsive!  Well, now here I am, with a house of my own to take care of, and guess what.  We take our shoes off at the door upon arriving at home!  Are we weird?  Do we have obsessive compulsive tendencies?  I don’t think so!  We just like to be comfortable and keep our floors clean!  Let me share with you  four reasons why I don’t wear my shoes in the house.

1.  It keeps invisible germs, pesticides, and chemicals off of your floors.

Think about what lives on the ground where you walk when you’re out and about. Ever been to a public restroom?  Do you want those germs on that floor tracked into your house?  I know I don’t.  Even when your just walking at a park or somewhere else outside, there is chemical and pesticide residue everywhere that stays on your shoes.  If you leave your shoes on when you get home these chemicals will be tracked all over your house. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am NOT afraid of dirt or getting dirty.  I love to go outside barefoot and feel the dirt between my toes!  There’s tons of good stuff in the dirt, but I don’t want to bring the bad stuff (chemicals) into my house!  And trust me, even though you can’t see the nasty germs from the bathroom and the yucky residue from the chemicals, they are there.

2.  It keeps grass and dirt from being tracked in the house.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly like to clean any more than is necessary!  Once we started taking our shoes off at the door, there was a noticeable difference in the amount of time I had to spend sweeping and mopping our floors.  This is true in the summer and winter seasons.  In the summer, it’s grass and dirt.  In the winter, it’s mud and slush.  But whatever it is that’s being tracked in by dirty shoes, taking them off at the door will keep your floors clean and shiny a lot longer!

3.  It’s better for your feet and for your balance.

When you are barefoot, you are less likely to trip and fall.  Your feet provide your brain with feedback.  Laurel of Leaves wrote a great article about going barefoot here.  I would like to pull a quote of hers that I really liked. “When you think about it, it actually makes sense to go barefoot. Those funny looking appendages at the end of our legs are shaped like that for a reason. We have toes to aid in our balance and our sensory perception of the ground beneath our feet.”  The whole blog post is really worth reading, and I would encourage you to check it out.  She has some great pictures comparing the feet of people who live barefoot and those who live in shoes. Very interesting!

4.  It’s just more comfortable!

To be completely honest, I used to think that I was more comfortable in shoes than I was barefoot.  But since I have made a conscious effort to NOT wear shoes at home, I have learned that I am actually more comfortable when I don’t have any shoes on.  I mean a lot more comfortable!  It really just feels so free and so natural to walk around with nothing on my feet.  This may sound weird, but the muscles in my feet actually got sore the first week that I started going barefoot!  My feet are now stronger, and I can tell that my foot muscles are more developed now than they were when I wore shoes all the time.  Huh!  Who knew you’re feet could get their own little workout just from walking around barefoot!

These are the reasons that our family no longer wears our shoes in the house.  What about you?  Do you wear your shoes in the house?  Have you always taken your shoes off at the door?  What about the comfort aspect?  Are you more comfortable with or without shoes on?  I’m so curious what everyone else’s opinion is on this!

This post is a part of Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist.