A Life In Review

I’m going to tell you a secret… I actually care very much whether or not people take their shoes off in my house. In my days of people pleasing, I pretended that it didn’t bother me, but boy would it leave me frustrated. Still though, I thought I was alone in this. I truly didn’t realize how big of a debate this was, but once I started asking around I quickly found out what an emotional topic shoes in the house is.

People feel very strongly about one side or the other. There are articles in some of the top newspapers just about this topic, so the question I had, was why? Why do we each feel so differently about it? Is there even a right answer here? I took to my Instagram stories to ask my followers about it earlier this year and I’m ready to share the results with you.

Poll results from @lizziemichalak story polls:

Of the people who said that they wear shoes in the house, about half of them said that it’s either because 1) their partner won’t take their shoes off/disagrees with no shoes in the house OR 2) they don’t want to upset anyone by asking guest to take their shoes off. That was really interesting to me. There were also some people who just didn’t care period, and others who took to my DM’s with really strong opinions. Overall this was such a great conversation.

So let’s break down some of the reasons people gave for wearing or not wearing shoes:

Why We Wear Shoes:

• shoes can prevent accidents in the home (slippery surfaces especially)
• shoes can help reduce foot pain
• shoes help those with sensory issues
• Don’t want to make guests feel uncomfortable
• It saves time when you’re going in and out of the house to just keep shoes on.

Why We Don’t Wear Shoes:

• walking barefoot can help strengthen the muscles and ligaments in your feet.
• it’s a sign of disrespect in certain cultures
• It’s our home, we want to protect the floors
• prevent outside dirt and germs from coming inside
• Shoes create extra unnecessary messes in the home

So which side are you on? Does this debate evoke an emotional reaction in you? Comments are open because this topic is so interesting to me.