Useful extras
November 15, 2008
Lose the shoes
Challenge Yourself for: 2 days
When you take your shoes off before entering your house, you keep your carpets cleaner. Plus, you avoid tracking-in outside pollutants, which can potentially lower your indoor air quality.
This weekend, challenge yourself to set up a system for reducing the transfer of outdoor pollutants into your home and freshening your air. Some ideas:
• Place a shoe rack and indoor-only slippers at your entryway.
• Air out the house by opening windows when you’re home to allow maximum ventilation.
• Vacuum with a HEPA filter vacuum.
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I will certainly challenge my family to do this…it’s scary to think of all of the dangers you bring in on your shoes!
We have done this for years also. My kids friends think it is so cool, it makes them feel more at home, and my floors stay cleaner. In so many customs, it is a sign of respect to take off your shoes when you enter someones home.
We have done this for years to help keep the floors clean! I recently read an article that talked about the pollutants and toxins that we bring into our house from our shoes. We now make sure that our shoes are off! We let visitors know that their shoes need to come off and (when we remember!) let them know before coming that they might want to bring house shoes to wear when they come over.
I bought a plastic shoe tray that I put near the front door, as we enter we stand on the rug at the door the shoe tray is to the right, we remove our shoes (or boots, since the weather has been snowy here) place them in the shoe tray. Saves on my hardwood floors from the salt from the boots. The tray stays there all winter.