Why do some people wear shoes indoors?

This probably seems totally backwards to you, but here goes: When I get home, pretty much the very first thing I do is kick off my shoes. Much more comfortable. When I go to someone else's house, I wouldn't even consider taking my shoes off, unless I was requested/invited to do so. Too informal.

It's funny here in Canada: We never wear shoes in our own homes, but if we have company over, we're too polite to ask them to take their shoes off. They will offer to do it, but we will insist that, "No, it's fine, really," even though it So. Totally. Isn't. Note to visiting Yanks: "Keep your shoes on," is Canadian for, "Take those fucking things off now."

Let me see if I've got this right. The question is: why do some people wear shoes in their own homes? * Japanese: Yes, why? * Canadian: I can't imagine. * Californian: Why not? * Australian: Boots are a pain to remove and put back on all the time. * New Englander: Because inside the shoes... are FEET!

Americans are more worried about being deathly ashamed of their possibly stinky feet than of tracking dust into the house. This would explain the small and intimate = barefoot vs. large/formal = everyone in shoes all over the house. Northern American and Canadian floors are colder to the unshod foot because the weather is worse; thus many people take off wet/snowy/muddy outdoor shoes and then put on indoor shoes/slippers to keep the feet comfy. I think there's something to the idea that there is a different conception of what is "dirty" - I think many in North America would agree that dust and soil is "clean" and human bodies are "dirty". I would rather Uncle Albert dumped the contents of a potted plant on the floor every time he entered my home than have to encounter his nasty untrimmed toenails, bunions, etc. and the accompanying stench of his nasty old paws. One is much "dirtier" to me than the other.

Exactly. Why just yesterday evening, I stomped a shark in the laundry.

This is an excellent question. I'm surprised at some of the answers; I had thought that shoes-off-in-the-house was a rule in Japan and other oriental places, and had not realized that for example in Sweden it was a given, as well (per uandt). I think this calls for a global cultural study. My own data point: in rural, agrarian Holland, one wore wooden shoes outside the house. My grandfather, who retired from the farm in 1959, never, ever, wore anything else outside the house. Naturally, you didn't wear them in the house; you left them by the kitchen door. He wore thin leather slippers inside the wooden shoes, over thick hand-knit woolen socks, so in the house he went around either in the socks or in the slippers. I observed the same thing at the farms of my uncles, into the 1960s. I suspect that the no-shoes-in-the-house thing comes from the fact that until early in the 20th century, worldwide including in the West, 95 percent of the population were engaged in farming, and you didn't want to track the barnyard into the house. And if you weren't farming, you were fishing, or cutting lumber, or something similarly messy, and one way or the other, outside was just stinky muck. And so, in some cultures, including, according to answers here, in pockets of the US, Canada, and other places, no-shoes-in-the-house evolved from a practical thing into a matter of etiquette. Meanwhile, in the world's cities, where the other 5 percent lived, shoes were standard, indoors and out. Pepys, writing in the 1600s, never mentions taking his shoes off when entering a house. Nor is there a Shakespearian allusion to the practice. So, in non-agrarian areas, one left one's shoes on. (At least, in Western cultures. In Japan and other Eastern cultures, perhaps because there were sacred aspects to agriculture, and where shoes-off was the rule in every temple, shoes-off apparently won the day.) As the population shifted from country to city, city customs were adopted, and shoes-off ruled. That's my theory, anyway. Additional data points: http://gagajin.blogspot.com/2007/09/on-shoes-culture-customs-and-stinky.html. [Via the above link:] http://shoesoffatthedoorplease.blogspot.com/

My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles...basically everyone I grew up around in those two generations, kept their shoes on at home - putting their shoes on was just part of the morning ritual like brushing their teeth. Me and the other children went about barefoot at all times unless we were actually taking a trip in the car to somewhere. As a child, I just assumed it was an adult/child thing - grownups had to wear shoes. Now that I am an adult and have noticed none of my contemporaries (or myself) wearing shoes at home, I've adjusted that view, in favor of a couple of possible reasons: 1. Both of my parents come from pretty conservative families (in the American south), and they both indulge in a sort of puritanical formality which, among other things like being unable to enjoy dirty jokes (even in their own home) or displays of emotion (even in their own home) also extends to personal appearance - they would never appear in public with no shoes and they are therefore uncomfortable with the informality of being in their own home with no shoes. 2. When my grandparents were hitting middle age and my parents growing up, both families were moving into the very stereotypical American middle class, from being, before, poor farming families/we don't wear shoes because we only have one pair and don't want to mess them up-type thing. The whole passel of them settled down in ranch houses and decided there were certain standards of behavior which had to be kept up in this new situation - the furniture was treated with reverence (no feet on, no cup rings) soaps and towels which were meant purely for display were bought, and all the adults were completely dressed (hair and makeup, all tucked in ... and shoes and socks or stockings) at all times. (And if they came in with dirt on your shoes, they just cleaned their shoes.) There are probably whole hosts of reasons why other people keep their shoes on at home, but that's what I've observed for my own family.

I am so late to this thread. Nobody is probably reading it anymore, and what I'm going to write doesn't really answer the question, but here goes... As mentioned many times above, the Japanese take their shoes off "because it is the custom." So when did this custom begin? According to http://www.actiblog.com/yukio/22257 blog which talks about the influence of architecture on various topics (in Japanese, sorry) the custom apparently began sometime during the Heian period (From about 794 to 1185. Broad, I know) when tatami mats made from straw began to be used in homes of the aristocracy. One theory is that rice straw (inawara) used to make the mats was considered sacred so the custom of taking off shoes began when these mats became common. (Somebody mentioned above that slippers aren't worn in tatami rooms, and the reason isn't because the slippers wear the mats down, but because it's impolite to do so.) Also, until Japan opened up to the Western world in the late Edo period, people basically lived on the floor. People slept on the floor in foldable futon mattresses (many still do) in the same space that they used to eat their meals served on individual trays with legs (not tables), seated on the floor. And Japan didn't have paved roads until fairly recently (as in, even after railroads were built. Around the late 1800s or so? There are practical reasons for this related to Japan's topography, which I won't get into here) so we're talking dirt and dust everywhere, right outside the doors made of wood and paper. Also, "shoes" didn't become common until, again, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration, so people wore zori or geta, which are sandals, over socks or bare feet. It made much more sense to take them off and wash off your feet before you went inside any building. If anybody's interested, there's a film by Japanese filmmaker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Mizoguchi called Shin Heike Monogatari http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048610/, which is a period film set in the late 12th century about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Heike clan. I mention this film because 1) it's a great film and 2) it will give you a striking view of just how much dust the people had to put up with back then. Obviously the movie is fictional, but the details of the film makes you feel like you've traveled through time. There's a scene where the elderly manservant brings the young protagonist a pail of water to wash his feet off with, which is the kind of detail that makes this film really believable. Phew. All that, and I haven't answered your question at all. But you see, we Japanese have endured hundreds and hundreds of years of DUST so you bet we take them shoes OFF in our homes! And according to the architecture blog I linked to above, even Commodore Perry and the surge of Westernization couldn't change our ways, the custom was so ingrained! BTW, my girlfriend tells me that growing up in a small town in northern Sweden, they had to take their shoes off at school, at least in primary school. pravit, in many Japanese schools (up to high school), kids still take off their "outdoor shoes" and wear "indoor shoes" (called uwabaki) in school buildings, too.

Oh, just thought of something to reinforce the difficulty idea. I was in the airport and the guy in front of me had to take his shoes off to go through the scanner. It took two other people to help him get them off. The conversation went something like this. TSA: "Sir you have to take off your boots." Traveler: "Do you have a boot hawk?" TSA: "....No" Traveler: "Well, I can't get these off by myself with out one" TSA: "We'll help" The guy sat down and literally had a TSA person pull off each boot. Remember Cowboy boots don't have laces, straps or buckles. They aren't the easiest thing to get off if you're not a limber person. I figure that culturally the south west USA has a long history of that. Oh, and if you did take them off you had to check for spiders, snakes, and scorpions before you put them back on.