Are shoe-free houses the way of the future?

A lot of people wonder how my mother keeps her cream carpet so incredibly spick and span. As well as the double doormats – one outside, one inside – and the vinyl carpet protector she keeps at the entranceway, her household is a strictly shoe-free zone.

Enter any Asian household with your shoes on and rest assured, the person who lives there will be scanning your sheathed feet, silently judging you. Why? Yes, it’s tradition, but the primary raison d’être has to do with cleanliness.

Think about it. You spend most of the day scraping your soles against grimy pavements and soggy bathroom tiles. Do you really want to drag those dirt, spit, pee, poop and gum particles into the sanctuary that is your cosy abode?

Science is here to back me up on this one. A study by the University of Arizona examined dozens of shoes and found an average of 421,000 units of bacteria hitchhiking on each one. Among the strains they came across? The notorious E. coli, known to cause violent diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, fever, vomiting and even urinary tract infections. Yes, faecal bacteria can be a pain in more places than one.

Then there are the toxins. An examination of floor dust inside peoples’ homes revealed that shoes are carriers of unhealthy herbicides and chemicals from the asphalt on roads. Another study reveals that 98 per cent of lead particles found in homes is tracked in from the outside. You don’t want that in your home, let alone on your furniture and in the mouths of any small people you happen to live with.

If cleanliness isn’t enough to convince you, then consider the comfort factor. At the end of a long day, there’s nothing better than liberating your toes from the shoe prisons that bind them. Orthopaedists encourage us to go barefoot as much as possible, with multiple studies showing that non-shoe-wearers have greater arch strength, mobility and flexibility, fewer deformities, and less back complaints.

But is this enough to justify the sheer awkwardness of informing houseguests of your policy? These discussions are often a case of never the twain shall meet, your position dictated by what you grew up with. A quick Google search reveals vocal bands of partygoers taking to forums affronted by a request to go barefoot. Some reservations are purely sartorial (“I get dressed with shoes. That is how I plan my outfit!”), while others raise questions around the homeowners’ own hygiene when they’re forced to prance socklessly around a foreign floor. “My shoes are here to keep me comfortable, cute and free of your foot fungus,” writes one. “Sure, I like a party. But I like not having ringworm even more,” writes another. Why, it’s as though the potential for a flirty game of footsies has never crossed these partygoers’ minds.

An invitation to go sans shoes takes careful orchestration. Posting a ‘helpful’ sign with instructions, however funny and decorative, is never polite. You could always do that thing of not-so-subtly motioning downwards with your eyes toward the pile of footwear in the hallway. But the best way, in our opinion anyway, is to provide a basket overflowing with slippers to welcome people as soon as they enter. (Another instance of Chinese grandmothers knowing best?)

It may pain your visitors to leave their expensive shoes in the shadow of a dark, unsupervised corner, but it’ll sure lessen the blow when they’re offered a clean pair of cosy “inside” shoes, with lining softer than Drake, to warm their naked steppers. Your downstairs neighbours will be most grateful, too. 

​