vitauta
Executive Chef
from now on, andy, we will irritate you only when it is absolutely necessary....
Who believes/follows the 5 second rule?
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Timothy
Head Chef
from now on, andy, we will irritate you only when it is absolutely necessary....
You never miss a chance, do you?
Yes, I take off my shoes every time I enter the house. So does every other member of my family and every other person I know. No one wears their shoes in their house around here. That would be considered very rude. There have been rare occasions when my DH would forget something and run in and out with his shoes on, but he gets the gears when he does. I have shoe racks at each door, a deacon's bench to sit on to take off or put on your shoes and big doormats. I've recently had a LOT of workmen (furnace) through my house and they brought special booties to slip on over their workboots so they wouldn't have to take them off and put them on again every time they needed to go in and out. However, they were meticulous about booties on inside and off before they went out. Shoes in the house is a BIG faux pas around here.
Hope I haven't offended you folks who wear your shoes indoors, but that has never been part of my experience. I suspect it has something to do with the climates we live in. I'm certainly not going to traipse through my kitchen or any part of my house wearing my Sorels. Nope.
Hope I haven't offended you folks who wear your shoes indoors, but that has never been part of my experience. I suspect it has something to do with the climates we live in. I'm certainly not going to traipse through my kitchen or any part of my house wearing my Sorels. Nope.
Timothy
Head Chef
Just curious, Alix, if you had to make 5 trips to carry in supplies from the car, you would remove your shoes each time you re-entered the house and put your slippers on? Most people I know would just get the job done and then do a light mopping of the tracked area.
roadfix
Chef Extraordinaire
In school, every time we had an assembly or pep rally in the gymnasium we all had to remove our shoes so as not to mar the gym floor with our soles. With 300 hundred students with their shoes removed confined in the small gymnasium the place used to stink like crazy.
I hated that. But I had a friend who loved smelly feet. Kinky.
I hated that. But I had a friend who loved smelly feet. Kinky.
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Why would I need to make 5 trips INTO the house? I have a large mat at each door. I bring all the groceries into the house and set them on the floor, making as many trips as needed, then I remove my shoes (I don't wear slippers, socks or bare feet are sufficient) and put things away. Why would I needlessly track dirt or snow into my house? Living in Florida perhaps it would be different, but here, if I walked through my house 5 times to put things away that would not be a SMALL mess. As I said Timothy, walking through someone's house with your shoes on is a major faux pas here. Clearly your culture is different.
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roadfix
Chef Extraordinaire
As far as making multiple trips into the house after shopping at Costco, I usually unload everything in the attached garage first, then make multiple runs from the garage to the kitchen with no shoes, just indoor slippers. But I know how inconvenient that can be, having to remove and put on shoes while making those multiple trips. Slippers (for outdoors) can be used in those instances.
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Silversage
Head Chef
I live in Florida and I've solved the problem in a different way. I take my shoes off when I get home, and make multiple trips to the car in my bare feet. Then I never worry about dirty shoes in my house.
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
I've always thought of the "5 second rule" as a joke, or maybe an excuse that the person is going to eat it anyway so "ha ha, 5 second rule."
It's silly to think that there's some set time that grime and germs from the floor take to infect food. If the food is on the floor it has already gotten some of the stuff on the food surface. If it can't be washed (e.g. raw vegetables) then the only choices are either discard it or eat it germs and all.
I mostly prefer socks or bare feet in my house but I wear my shoes in and out and I presume whatever I stepped in at the street, market or any other place is on the bottom of my shoes. (How about public restrooms?) And even if I took off my shoes inside the house without fail, what about my dog? Take his feet off? Wash them every time he's been outside?
Sometimes you have little choice. In my many years of camping I remember twice dropping my steak on the ground. Each time it fell in the dirt next to or under the campground table, both times I was many hours round trip from a market, both times it was either eat it or go without meat. One time I had dropped my steak before cooking it (it was raw). The other time I had dropped it between grill and plate. I'm saddened to say that I know from personal experience that if you're going to drop your steak in the dirt and then eat it, do it before you cook it. Washing works better on a raw steak than on a cooked steak. It's easier to get grit out of a raw steak and you can imagine that the heat from the fire sterilizes it.
I'm a germophobe. Almost nobody cleans vegetables better than me. I would never eat anything that fell on the floor or on the ground except as in my camping story above. (And I must have learned something because it happened only twice in many, many years.)
There's no 5 second rule. If it lands on the floor it's already dirty, may have germs, and your only choice is to eat it or not.
I don't want to see food that fell on the floor on my plate! (Wait, that's a different topic!!!)
It's silly to think that there's some set time that grime and germs from the floor take to infect food. If the food is on the floor it has already gotten some of the stuff on the food surface. If it can't be washed (e.g. raw vegetables) then the only choices are either discard it or eat it germs and all.
I mostly prefer socks or bare feet in my house but I wear my shoes in and out and I presume whatever I stepped in at the street, market or any other place is on the bottom of my shoes. (How about public restrooms?) And even if I took off my shoes inside the house without fail, what about my dog? Take his feet off? Wash them every time he's been outside?
Sometimes you have little choice. In my many years of camping I remember twice dropping my steak on the ground. Each time it fell in the dirt next to or under the campground table, both times I was many hours round trip from a market, both times it was either eat it or go without meat. One time I had dropped my steak before cooking it (it was raw). The other time I had dropped it between grill and plate. I'm saddened to say that I know from personal experience that if you're going to drop your steak in the dirt and then eat it, do it before you cook it. Washing works better on a raw steak than on a cooked steak. It's easier to get grit out of a raw steak and you can imagine that the heat from the fire sterilizes it.
I'm a germophobe. Almost nobody cleans vegetables better than me. I would never eat anything that fell on the floor or on the ground except as in my camping story above. (And I must have learned something because it happened only twice in many, many years.)
There's no 5 second rule. If it lands on the floor it's already dirty, may have germs, and your only choice is to eat it or not.
I don't want to see food that fell on the floor on my plate! (Wait, that's a different topic!!!)
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
Clearly, the moral of your story is, "Don't go camping." 
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
Andy, the rule is be careful when you're cooking and camping, particularly when you have few food choices restricted to what you brought along, and very particularly if you're camping many hours away from stores. (Usually the case for me.) In these circumstances the 5 second rule is superfluous. Your choice can sometimes become eat it even if it fell on the ground no matter how long there. The new rule becomes pick it up and wash it off as quickly as possible, then eat it.
My mom used to have a saying: "Every person must eat a pound of dirt before they die." I think one way or another that's true.
Anyway I'm currently burned out on camping, for reasons too lengthy and off topic to go into here. Maybe I'll go again some day, maybe not, or maybe I'll visit the same beautiful places and then stay at a hotel and eat in the dining room. And I'll hope they don't have some version of the 5 second rule in the kitchen.
My mom used to have a saying: "Every person must eat a pound of dirt before they die." I think one way or another that's true.
Anyway I'm currently burned out on camping, for reasons too lengthy and off topic to go into here. Maybe I'll go again some day, maybe not, or maybe I'll visit the same beautiful places and then stay at a hotel and eat in the dining room. And I'll hope they don't have some version of the 5 second rule in the kitchen.
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Timothy
Head Chef
Pretty much in Florida, as a guest, you're expected to wipe your shoes off very well, on a supplied door mat. Then, unless the home owner requests you to remove your shoes, you go on in.
If it's really nasty out with our usual summertime rains, you supply multiple door mats. One for wet feet, then another to finish wiping them until they're dry. If your shoes are a total mess, then removing your shoes is a consideration to the home owner.
buckytom
Chef Extraordinaire
we take our shoes off every time we come into the house. we both keep a pair of slip on shoes to change into (mine are moccasins) for the multiple trips in and out so they can easily be put on/taken off for each trip.
problem solved, anus relaxed.
problem solved, anus relaxed.
vitauta
Executive Chef
in all my homes and all my friend's homes throughout the years, it would have been rude (and offensive) to take off one's shoes in the house--barring some type of medical excuse, or a special situation involving painful or swollen feet, perhaps. no one would think of walking around your house in sweaty socks or bare feet, nor park their (often) smelly sneakers or boots in a designated place upon entering your home. maybe if you and your guests always socialized in your stocking feet, you would also be prompted to use more care and deodorizing of your feet and footwear.
there are also considerations of dirty and holey socks, getting runs in expensive hose, foot diseases, ugly exposed feet, some people's foot fetishes, etc.....
just as some people's feet are dirty and/or sweaty, some people's floors and carpets are filthy and covered with pet hair, and worse. aren't there places you simply wouldn't want to walk around in unclad feet?
i realize i'm really rambling and disorganized in this post, and that's because i'm only beginning to give this matter any kind of serious thought for the first time.
i'm really not sure what my thinking will be once i've read and listened to the opinions of some of the folks out there who would ban or discourage the wearing of shoes in their homes....
again please forgive my incoherent writing in this post--i just don't want to rewrite the whole thing, and there may actually be a valid thought or two contained somewhere in here....
there are also considerations of dirty and holey socks, getting runs in expensive hose, foot diseases, ugly exposed feet, some people's foot fetishes, etc.....
just as some people's feet are dirty and/or sweaty, some people's floors and carpets are filthy and covered with pet hair, and worse. aren't there places you simply wouldn't want to walk around in unclad feet?
i realize i'm really rambling and disorganized in this post, and that's because i'm only beginning to give this matter any kind of serious thought for the first time.
i'm really not sure what my thinking will be once i've read and listened to the opinions of some of the folks out there who would ban or discourage the wearing of shoes in their homes....
again please forgive my incoherent writing in this post--i just don't want to rewrite the whole thing, and there may actually be a valid thought or two contained somewhere in here....
Aunt Bea
Master Chef
I think this is how the butter battle started!
Dr. Seuss was a smart fella!
Dr. Seuss was a smart fella!
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
Let's see. As a child I learned that you had to kiss it up to God, then eat it. And our parents always said, "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." I am still working on my peck. And since God didn't cook it, he didn't really care. 
sparrowgrass
Head Chef
I have lived all over the country, and seldom ran into the 'shoes off before entering' rule until I moved to Ely MN--way up north. Snow + the salt/grit used on the road made an awful mess if shoes/boots were worn indoors. Of course, that rule only applied in the winter (which was about 9 months of the year)--shoes were ok in the summer.
I did mention this was likely a cultural thing right? For goodness sakes people, take your cue from your host. If I greet you in sock feet, please don't wear your shoes in my house. Similarly, if I come to your house and you're wearing shoes, I won't gross you out with my sock feet. I won't be observing the 5 second rule in your house either though.
