Wearing shoes within your own four walls is viewed differently in many cultures.
While it is almost normal for us to sometimes wear shoes indoors or at least to walk around in them for a short time, there are different habits in other countries.
In Asian countries, for example, it is considered good manners to take off your shoes before entering the house. Taking off your shoes beforehand is not just a sign of respect for the host.
Therefore you should not enter the apartment with shoes
Up to 400,000 pathogens can nest under your shoes – these are 400,000 good reasons why you should take off your shoes right in front of the front door and then put them on a carpet or another surface in the cloakroom or in the hallway.
You can probably guess where the bacteria and viruses come from. The ground is often dirty on public roads, in meadows or in shops, and animal droppings are not uncommon outside. As a result, a special bacterial culture develops on the underside of your shoes, which consists mainly of E. coli bacteria.
According to a study by the University of Utah, 90 percent of the pathogens get from the sole of the shoe to the floor or carpet. Once the bacteria are in the apartment, they can spread to every room and spread to other objects.
As part of a study at the University of Houston in Texas, researchers found that the bacterium Clostridium difficile is present in 40 percent of the cases in which shoe soles were examined. This bacterium can sometimes lead to diseases in the intestine.