Take Off Your Shoes: Minimize Dirt and Pesticides in Your Home
(Page 2 of 3)
January/February 2004
By Deena Wade
Tragically, the pragmatic reasons for limiting footwear to the outdoors aren’t always as benign as muddy footprints. In places such as Herculaneum, Missouri—contaminated from a lead smelter—and King and Pierce Counties in Washington State—where lead and arsenic were found in soil—parents teach children to leave their shoes outside in an effort to reduce lead poisoning. In a recent warning about lead exposure, the Environmental Protection Agency specifically recommends that shoes remain outside the house. According to a report called the Door Mat Study, lead-contaminated soil from the outside causes almost all the lead dust inside homes, and it notes that wiping shoes on a mat and removing them at the door cuts lead dust by 60 percent. The study explains that limiting the amount of dust and track-in may also help reduce exposure to lawn and garden pesticides, wood smoke and industrial toxins, mutagens, dust mites, and allergens.
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Feet on the ground
There’s yet another compelling reason that some Japanese have cited for removing their shoes before entering their homes: to relax. Slipping out of shoes and into soft slippers serves as a simple but mindful ritual to let go of the outside world as you cross the threshold of home. It may seem insignificant, but the repetition of simple practices such as these can help you slow down and become more connected to your body and the environment. Leaving your shoes at the door can signal the psyche that you’re entering sacred space. It can be a reminder that you’re transitioning from business to family, from commerce to quiet.
Nutritionist and pranic healer Laurie Bloom emphasizes removing your shoes to help create an energy of sanctity in your living space. A home is not a museum, but it is—or could be—a sanctuary, a healthy place where you can invite yourself and your guests to unwind, relax, and wriggle their toes.
Waiting for the shoe to drop
Despite all the sound reasons to go shoeless indoors, it’s still controversial in our culture. If you’re going to be a shoes-off host, you may have to make some thoughtful decisions concerning your guests. When my eighty-five-year-old friend Alice comes to visit, I don’t ask her to remove her shoes because she needs them to walk comfortably. If a guest overlooks or ignores the sign outside my door, I don’t say anything unless it’s snowing or raining. If they ask about their shoes, I encourage them but don’t insist. In fact, every once in awhile, I myself forget the rule. For shoes-on occasions, I’ve found that placing doormats on both sides of the entryway reduces track-in. You can also use a washable carpet runner in the front hallway.
If you’re going to insist on the no-shoes policy, be prepared for some visitors to disagree. People who aren’t used to taking off their shoes in public feel genuinely awkward, as though you were asking them to partially undress. Others feel their shoes are an essential part of their fashion aesthetic and would feel compromised to remove them. Still others are afraid of stubbing their toes. And many people, especially women, tend to get cold feet easily from poor circulation. So do your best to make it easy for guests. Consider providing a shoe storage bench in your entryway and maybe some attractive, clean slippers or fresh socks for their bare feet.