apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

not all that relevant, but anyway: once i was helping my former landlady show another unit in our apartment building to some prospective tenants, and when i took them to the unit and knocked on the door, the current tenants let us in and immediately told us all to remove our shoes before stepping any further inside. this would have been fine, but their apartment was the most incredible pigsty and you could kind of tell that they never mopped or vacuumed because they would have had to pick up all their crap strewn everywhere first, so we were all sort of walking on the tiniest parts of our feet we could manage, tiptoeing through this gross apartment. ugh - you would think if the point was to keep the place clean, they would have at least kept the place clean! blehh.

we are trying to transition to about 90% shoes-off, but it's tough! also, the above anecdote is in no way meant as a knock on shoes-off households. only that one.

It is a bit tough at first, but the transition is totally worth it.

With 2 big dogs, people are the least offender of trafficked dirt in my home even with dirty shoes. Daily vacuuming is the only solution.

akostalas - a similar story from a friend of mine. He was temporarily staying with another friend who had a strict "no shoe" policy coupled with a dog he didn't care for that had serious potty training issues. When he would welcome people into the home he would say with sarcasm, "Please take off your shoes, but feel free to (bleep) wherever you want."

It's true that Hong Kong doesn't have many storage closets . We'd have to be very creative with our storage solutions.

I never remember having a problem with shoes inside the apartment/flat. My family and I just walk in and out. We have the sweep and clean the floor often, but it was not so bad. Even if it rained outside, by the time we got in front of our door (after taking the elevator to the 18th floor), our shoes were not wet anymore.
I did have friends and families who preferred to have our shoes off. I'd take it off outside the door (on the doormat) and we'd step in the house without shoes! Viola! Clean inside! We'd bring in our shoes and just simply put them (neatly) on the inside-shoe-mat.

Hum... Come to think of it... I don't remember where I stored my shoes? I'm pretty sure I had a lot!!!
Oh, I remember now. We had a pretty deep and short bookshelf and we stored our shoes (the ones we didn't wear anymore in boxes) and hid all of those behind a "curtain" (a nice fabric draped over the "shoeshelf").
Yeah. That's what my family did.

Now, living in the states, our shoes are everywhere, even though we have a big closet right there by the door....

I always take my shoes off when I come home. Lucky for me my coat closet by the front door has been turned into my shoe closet!

when we lived in Japan, we really started to appreciate the whole shoe-off thing. Now, I love it and always look for the right shoe storage at the front door... have yet to find it.

that's gonna be my new catch phrase, LilyC. :D

When my parents bought their new house, they switched to a shoes-off policy. Then I married an Asian guy, so the habit just stuck.

There is a solution to LilyC and Acostala's problem... a lot of the older Chinese-American families we visited would keep a variety of slippers and house shoes to offer guests (one kept them in a trunk, which was nice because it doubled as a space to sit while you took off your shoes.) Obviously the cleanliness of the shoes becomes an issue instead of the cleanliness of the floor.

My MIL keeps most of her shoes on a rack in the garage (she puts them on before getting into the car). At our place, we tried lining them up by the door, and I put my excess into the closit rack - in theory. In practice, I generally have three or four pairs of shoes in a big pile by the end of the week. I don't have space for a cute console like Liz's; maybe I could convert the bottom shelf of the bookshelf by the door for that use. (Fewer books? Oh no!) Anyway you've got me thinking.

PS. glad to hear we now have some Asian correspondents ... always happy to hear any international perspective.

I have always known people to remove their shoes in any home. But, I think it's a Canadian thing. It's just cleaner and much more comfy.

Yeah, I'd second what revolution said... I'm in Toronto, and most people I know have you remove your shoes when you come in... it's fairly unusual that I visit someone who lets you wear the shoes inside.

I'm in a fairly small downtown condo, so I actually had a similar cabinet made for shoes. I got this end table heavily customized to function as a good shoe cabinet. Looks great next to the door as you come in.

in most parts of asia, removing ones shoes before entering a home is the norm. walking in with your grimy shoes is considered impolite! even if i had to run in just to get a bag, i would kick off my shoes first.
i'm now living in europe but would still rather leave my shoes near the door. imagine all the dirt getting into the carpets otherwise!