My children live on the floor. It doesn’t matter if we are in the living room, kitchen, or bedroom. My kids constantly stretching out on the floor to play, read, or watch tv. That has always bothered me and forced me to constantly say, “get up off that nasty floor!” mostly after they had already had their nightly baths and pj’s on. Technically the floors were never “nasty” because I try to stick to a reasonable cleaning routine . However, it still bothered me to see them all stretched out on the floors. The floors that now have the same germs from the shoes were worn into the pee-pee floors from public restrooms. I know that I can’t protect them from all germs, but we can live comfortably in our own home right?
My husband is a General Contractor and he goes into some really yucky places with his work boots. It always bothered me knowing that those germs were coming into our home via the bottom of his boots. I pointed out his daily dirt trails in our bedroom carpet and other places in our house. He stopped wearing them in our house. I made the suggestion for us to try going shoeless in the house for a weekend. This meant that we would only put on and remove our shoes at the door.
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It took some getting used to and of course, we forgot a few times. I did purchase a shoe tray for each door in our home. It helps to keep the doorway a little neater. We were familiar with removing our shoes on rainy days. Now it was just getting into the routine of doing it all the time. My son was the first to say that he loved the “no shoes” life in our home. That made me happy! After a few days of going shoeless in our home, it was time to clean the carpets. Now we would have a fresh start. I decided to add a basket by the door filled with socks and shoe covers for visitors. So far, I’ve only had a few eye rolls. It’s our home and we have a right to live how we want.
I was surprised to discover that a few people we know have the same “no shoe” rule in their homes. Some of their reasons for having a shoe-free home was because they wanted to keep their floors and carpets clean. Others had shoe free homes because of their immune system. I didn’t know that wearing shoes in our home could negatively affect our health or immune system. I always believed and kind of still do, that a few germs are necessary to build up a healthy immune system. However, I was not shocked when this clip from The Today Show revealed just how nasty our shoes are and supports our efforts for going shoe-free at home.
Shortly after we became a shoe-free home we were invited to a friends house. Surprisingly their home was also shoe-free. I’ll admit that it kind of reassured me that I am still a normal mom and wife with just a preference on how I want things in our home. I don’t care about cleaning. It’s actually therapeutic for me sometimes. I know that we have made the right choice for now. Going shoeless in your home may not be the right choice for you, but if you are considering it here are a few ways to get started today.
