I wear soft-soled shoes or slippers, or flip flops in summer. DH runs the gamut, barefoot, socks or shoes. Boots with treads come off at the door, and during the winter I leave a doormat inside the front door to put them on.

We have hardwood floors (pine upstairs, oak downstairs), tile in the front hall and in bathrooms, linoleum in the kitchen and stone pavers in the tv room.

We are in downstate NY (Long Island), zone 7.

I grew up in So Cal and in those days it was acceptable to go barefoot everywhere...especially for kids....grocery store, mall, etc...and we pretty much did in the summer. I only remember wearing shoes to school and church.

I kick shoes off the minute I walk in the door and only wear clog/mule type shoes and sandals. Just don't like my feet confined. I live on the east coast now so do have to wear socks most of the year.

Energy, Monroe here though not a native Monroan. Hi, Chilibeans. Nice to see you as well. I think I have read a post of yours before about your backyard. Super outdoor area by the way. Not to continue the hi-jack, but yes the weather is amazing today. I will be at a baseball game and then a graduation party very soon!

Chicagoans, that is definitely not a regional thing with the sock removal. My oldest and his friends did that too when they were small. We would always find the socks all over the backyard. Now that I think about it, I guess they were overly trained about not having sock feet outside!

Socks. Sockitty sock sock socks. Love them. Oak and maple with wool Orientals. Maine. Cold. Did I mention socks?

Florida. Hardwood, tile, carpet.

Like sas95, my babytoes take a beating when barefoot so I usually wearing something on my feet.

I have never been to a house and have been asked to remove my shoes. When visiting Hawaii, I knew the custom and did remove my shoes without being asked.

ML

flip flops and slippers over here.

Throughout most of the day I am at work with shoes on. Once I come home, I get comfy and change to slippers or wool socks in the winter and sandals in the spring and summer.

Our floors are all hardwood except for the sunroom, which is carpeted.

We are in Massachusetts.

Fridays are casual dress down days at work. Today I wore a pair of Born sandals, which I bought for a recent vacation to Florida. My pedi is holding up nicely and I LOVE the freedom of sandals. It's like unleashing my inner beast after a long winter in Uggs!

Nova Scotia, hardwood, heated floors. I'm usually barefoot. If I am doing a lot of work around the house I put sneakers on for the arch support. My husband usually has shoes off, socks on. Guests usually ask if they want to leave shoes on: the habit here is generally shoes off probably because our weather is such crud most of the time. I've been considering a slipper basket at the front door. I'm pretty easy going so I have watched many a pair of heels stamp their way across my floors for parties. Ladies just don't want to part with those heels.

On Saturday a friend brought his two year old to my grown up night party with a hard, dirty, extremely loud plastic lawn mower (outdoor toy) that the kid proceeded to race all around the house on my newly refinished floors....I felt a little less sanguine about that.

When I go to others' houses I always try to remember to wear socks. I think some people get grossed out by other people's bare feet and sometimes I feel like your bare feet could leave little foot prints if you get sweaty or whatever. But I don't mind other people being in bare feet here.

Miami, Florida. I almost always have flip flops on in the house. Then again I almost always have flip flops on OUTSIDE the house too :). Other than the office, nobody down here wears much of anything else.

NC, mostly wide plank hardwood and some tile (baths and mudroom.)
I always take my shoes off in the mudroom and put on socks. I am a little OCD, and the thought of street shoes, with all the God-knows-what on the bottom tracked on my clean floors just skeeves me out! Dh and the kids take off shoes, too. Of course guests can do whatever makes them most comfortable...I don't mention the shoe thing to them at all. Most of my children's friends automatically take their shoes off at the door.

MA here, with hardwood and tiled kitchen and bath. Shoes off immediately at the door, with comfy socks, slippers or barefeet depending on the temp...unless going into the basement, then it's hard soled shoes. Guests thankfully generally remove shoes too.

I'm a northern girl--shoes come off at the door, all the time. I have music students--many of them--and if I let all of them track in the dirst from the street, my floors would be filthy all the time. I keep a basket of slippers in a zillion sizes and replace them with some frequency so they and their parents have something to put on. I use the door to my kitchen with a brick floor much of the time. Rest of the house is mostly hardwood. Sort of off topic, one of my great pet peeves is when people sit on your upholstered furniture with coats on--even when they come in from the rain--and even when they have been encouraged to use the coat hooks--or padded hangers.

My house has a mix of the original 100-year-old wide pine boards, vinyl in the kitchen and bath, and at some point someone upgraded the living and dining rooms to hardwood.

I used to go barefoot at home, for no reason other than I like going barefoot. But some recent foot issues have required that my feet get more support.

So, after work, I change from work shoes to sandals or a pair of canvas slip-ons in the summer and boiled wool clogs in the winter. On weekends, when I'm running in and out on errands and down to the dirt-floor basement for laundry and such, I put on running shoes in the morning and don't take them off until the day's chores are done.

Tile and hardwood upstairs, carpet in the basement, Baltimore area.

I have 'house shoes' that I never wear outside (Sketchers GoWalks), my husband has house slippers, and my kids are barefoot (indoors and out this time of year) or in socks. We don't ask guests to take their shoes off, but they usually ask, or just do it by habit.

Maybe it's because I'm a stay at home mom, but I feel slothful if I go barefoot in the house all day...like wearing my house shoes is part of my "getting dressed for work" routine. :)

I wear my slip-on Merrells in the house during cool weather. I also wear them outside at times and take them off when I come in. Somehow they magically become clean and I put them back on to wear around the house again. Go figure. I don't like wearing socks without shoes or slippers in the house because the wood floors and stairs can be slippery.

However, a foot inside a sock is a great method for dusting the baseboards!

In warm weather I wear sandals or go barefoot, which reminds me that I need a pedicure.

I live near Philadelphia and my kitchen floor is tile, the rest of the house is hardwood with wool orientals and wall-to-wall in the den.

Barefoot all the time, gulf coast Tx with tile and area rugs. My perceived internal temp is WAY too high for me to handle things on my feet at home.

It's interesting how many people relate to this post. Pal's story re his parents was great. What we wear depends so much on our location and our health and comfort. Love to walk on the radiant-heat tile barefoot when the heats on. Otherwise want the warmth of socks in chilly Seattle area. Love my soft alpaca ones. All tile and hardwood w/area rugs downstairs.

Due to foot issues I need to wear shoes w/ an insert or I have problems. I can get by for a little while going barefoot or wearing Uggs slippers if I'm just lounging around between couch and kitchen, but if I'm doing anything or I'm up for an extended period I need to wear real shoes. We have wood floor and some berber carpet. I do love the feel of going bare foot when it's warm.

We wear slippers in the house. My slippers are more like soft shoes with good support. I cannot go barefoot, hurts my feet if I'm on them all day. We have benches by both doors to sit on to remove shoes. Friends that come often even bring their own slippers to wear. We have wood floor everywhere except in our bedroom.

Several yrs ago, I had a carpet cleaning guy tell me we should not routinely go barefoot on carpet as the oil in our feet will discolor the carpet over time. Anyone else ever heard that?

Joyce, we had new carpet put in our guest room and my daughter's room, both the salesman and the installer said the same thing. I'm not too worried about it because these rooms see minimal use since my daughter is away at school and only home on holidays, but I would be more concerned about it if I had carpet in the common areas.

We live in SW Floridaâ¦.barefeet for me, Crocs for my DH. We have tile throughout, except for the bedrooms.

Joyce,our carpet fitter advised us not to go bare foot on the carpets. We wear slippers and have a nice bench by the door and our slippers are kept underneath. We also keep a small laundry basket there so family can put their socks in there after a long day.
I would rather have kids run around bare foot than in sweaty socks, generally though they wear their slippers. Regular visitors bring their slippers.

Mostly either barefoot or socks, depending on weather, but I am in SoCal, so barefoot most of the time.

Mixture of carpet in bedrooms and living room, laminate in most of the rest of the house and vinyl (soon to be tile) in bathrooms, and tile in entry.

I have wood floors and travertine floors. I live in CA. I go barefoot (but not at night, might be a scorpion) or wear socks if my feet are cold. Which I keep swearing I am going to stop doing, since I keep getting holes in them!

At home after work, the first thing I do is kick off my shoes. I have all tile and laminate in the bedrooms. If I do leave my socks on they don't last long. I am in Southern California.

I had once gone on a craigslist purchase and the woman had a pair of flip flops right outside her door. Those were for outside and then she left those outside when she came into her house. She may have even slipped on another pair when she was in her house. So she had her clean ones inside and her dirty bottomed one outside. Made sense once I thought about it.

Chicago burb

Hardwood throughout with area rugs

Sisal in Family Room
Wool in Dining Room
Shag in Living Room
Synthetic in Hallway
Travertine in basement

Winter/Fall/Early Spring - Uggs

Flip flops in summer

However, when I'm on my feet a lot in the kitchen I wear my Danskos. When I'm cleaning the house, I wear a good supportive sneaker.

Our two teenage boys do not wear shoes in the house.

To mirror almost exactly what Tibbrix said!

Socks winter
Sandals or barefoot summer
Wide pine floors - some area rugs (One must always beware of nails that pop in 300++ year old floors)
Live in Northeast- North of Boston

Boots! We live on a farm and you don't go off the porch without boots. Too much rusty wire and other debris still come up, when it rains. And gloves (always) when digging in the garden.

As for inside...socks. We have carpet and vinyl floors, but it's too cold most of the time to go barefoot and in the summer, everyone is tracking in too much to go barefoot. Between gardens, horses, pasture, etc....socks are best :)

I wear padded ballet slippers because of the hardwood and tile, and it helps me walk faster than wearing slip-on houseshoes.

The rest of the family wears just about everything. No restrictions here.

Always barefoot in the house and anywhere else if I can : )
We have hardwood mostly, carpet, travertine tile in the master bath. ~Georgia girl.

Shoes in the morning, all around the hosue and out the door, but as soon as we're home and into comfy clothes, socks! Actually, he even takes those off as the evening wears on and then leave them everywhere. Teenage boy! We take off shoes as we walk in the door, but for no good reason other than we want to. Carpet everywhere but kitchen and bathroom.

Chiming in here. I am always barefoot in the house - simply because that's more comfortable to me than having anything on my feet. Even as a child I would not wear slippers. Hate them.

Guests coming to my house can do whatever they want. If it's rainy or messy outside, they typically take off their shoes just out of common sense.

When I go to someone else's house, I normally ask if they'd like me to remove my shoes. So far nobody has said yes; they always say "only if you want". And ⦠if it's a casual visit, I do, because that's how I'm comfortable.

socks in most of the house slippers in the our bedroom because of the cold hard laminate flooring in there. Almost everyroom in this 100 year old house has diff. flooring, only the laminate is cold and hard. We don,t have tile anywhere.

Socks usually for me, no shoes because I'm more comfortable without 'em!

I have to wear them for work otherwise my shoes and socks come off the minute I hit the door. We have wood floors but that's not why. I'm just very uncomfortable when my feet can't breath and when I wear socks but no shoes, I get too warm. If I'm out in the summer, it's flip flops or sandals. If I'm out in the winter it's slippers (out back with the dog) or boots for work (but my feet protest wearing them the entire time I have them on).

During the day, knee-highs and dress shoes. At home, usually bare feet. Our floors are all hardwood, and we live in a mild climate (San Francisco). If it's cold out (two or three months of the year, it gets down to the mid-50s, which is cold for here), I'll wear socks inside. We are not a "no shoes" family, I just love the feel of bare feet on wood.

Southern California here. I have concrete floors. I am barefoot all summer, but wear slippers when it gets chilly out.

Barefoot. Always. Drives my sweetie nuts cuz I never have shoes on, even outside for chores. We have hardwood, a little tile. Central CA and loving the current heat instead of fog!

Bare feet or shoes only worn inside (North Carolina) - Dansko or Merrell type shoes. Hardwood and tile floors with some rugs. Socks are a little to slippery on the hardwoods. No shoes allowed on the furniture. Bugs me when I see people doing that on TV.

We live in the lower midwest. Barefoot most of the time in the house, sometimes when I'm out on the porch or in the yard, too. I've never been able to stand slippers.

Floors are hardwood and tile, one room has carpet.

My mom was barefoot in the house the whole time I was growing up. I don't think I saw my dad barefoot, ever. Now my mom wears slippers and in my mind slippers say "old".( I know that's nuts.)

New England, all wood except for marble floor in bath (heated for winter). Shoes off at the door, always, for comfort and to not drag gross stuff into my home. I'm barefoot, wearing socks, or in the winter LOL 'old people slippers' - thanks a lot, maggiepatty! : )

I know what you mean about old people's slippers....now that I'm old....

But, I've always had a yen for nice slippers. I wait until Gumps puts that classic shearling black suede or moire closed slipper-- with the gold embroidery on the front--on sale and buy a few pair. Also anything velvet. They get destroyed pretty quickly because I end up cooking in them and, towards the end of their lives, running out to the mailbox, which certainly defeats the purpose of having a house shoe. But, in any case, I think they're kind of chic.

Socks most of the time, sometimes barefoot. Mostly carpet in my house except for tile in the kitchen/dining area and bathroom.

I live in NYC, which is part of why shoes come off at the door for me. I don't want any of the stuff in our streets here coming through my house, plus I like to relax and be comfortable after work and I feel better without shoes.

I've read that bare feet can stain carpets so we wear slippers. If my feet are cold I wear socks with the slippers. It's a very sexy look.....

I do not personally know a single person who goes barefoot in the house, except in the bathroom while taking a bath. Feet need to be protected from floors, unless they are carpet, and I do not know anyone who has carpet in their living room. I guess I do not know very many people - I probably need to get out more.

Geez Lars, I think you DO need to get out more <g> When I was younger, barefoot. Our house was mostly carpet. I know, it's better to wear at least socks because feet do tend to add oils to the carpet and that attracts dirt. But being hot natured all my life, socks were a no-go. Older now and I'm paying for going barefoot all the time. And our house is now mostly hard surface (tile and wood. Carpeted den and bedrooms). So now it's shoes. Should be ALL the time but occasionally I'll get stupid and walk around half a day barefoot :o I'm in Texas. Cold tile feels good on hot feet!

ps...the shoes I wear in the house are for house only. My mother actually uses a Lysol wipe to wipe the bottoms of her shoes when she comes in from outside.

All wood floors except in bathrooms. We do not wear any shoes or socks inside. I live just SE of Austin, Tx. We also ask everyone who comes over to remove their shoes. I read an article a while back about how filthy our shoes really are. Think about everywhere I shoes go. I think it is so much healthier to remove your shoes before spreading all of the germs that are on your shoes. Just a thought.

Yes, shoes are dirty, but we wear them inside because we have foot and ankle issues that make life a heck of a lot more comfortable with proper support and cushioning. The whole family has loose ligaments. Well-made shoes are a blessing inside and out.

Me: socks and house shoes (slip on sneakers I wear pretty much only in the house, but will wear out to the mailbox)

The Other residents of the house: socks

Guests: whatever they want. I would never dream of telling people how to dress in my house (just be dressed lol!)

Wood, wood with an area rug, slate, and ceramic (ugh) tile on main floor, carpet and cement floor in basement, carpet and tiled bathrooms upstairs.

Midwest, all four seasons sometimes in one day!