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And it does seem Americans in general do wear shoes indoors quite often

How do they wear long pants? I tried it myself -- if you want the pants to not touch the floor while you are wearing them, you have to

  1. Sit down and fold the pants' sleeves in half, fixing them in place with hands

  2. Put each of your feet and kick outward so that the folded half extends with your legs going in them

  3. repeat for the other foot

Obviously for shorts this method is unnecessary and you can balance your way to wearing them :)

Does everybody do this? I think I found this out looking at my roommate do it but I can't remember how I got to wear pants this way. Am I really the ocd/pernicious sort? I'm guessing if you are acutely aware of how dirty the floors are if you step on them with shoes worn outside

one really doesn't want his/her pants to touch the floor very often, if at all.

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  • If you're worried about your pants legs touching the floor, it sounds like you're sitting on a seat that's low to the ground and/or your pants are extra long. You may want to look for shorter pants or have the hems shortened by a tailor.
    – mkennedy
    Dec 9, 2019 at 19:28
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    Your assumptions are incorrect. People don't wear shoes in the house if their shoes are dirty. Most people aren't walking in muddy fields before entering the house, they're spending all day in a carpeted office, for example.
    – Mike Harris
    Dec 11, 2019 at 20:12
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    There are currently three close votes on this question. However looking at What topics can I ask about here? I see "Psychological and physical effects of the immigration to a different country, effects of weather, different culture and language" (my emphasis). I think this is entirely on-topic here.
    – Martin Bonner supports Monica
    Dec 12, 2019 at 10:21
  • If you are from a culture (e.g Japan, Scandinavia) where people don't generally wear outdoor shoes at home, you are perfectly entitled to continue that sensible and hygienic practice, and to request that visitors to your home also remove their shoes.
    – padd13ear
    Dec 16, 2019 at 16:48

2 Answers 2

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Unless your shoes get unusually dirty or muddy, nothing terrible ever happens. You can wear shoes in a house and let your pants touch the floor and, really, nothing happens. You don't get ugly stains on your pants. You don't get sick.

Of course, there are exceptions. When it's muddy or rainy, people will wipe off their shoes when entering a house or remove them, depending on how rainy. If you step in something unusual, you wash it off or leave your shoes outside until you can clean them.

But 99.9% of the time, it works just fine. There really is no problem. Try it for a month and nothing unusual at all will happen.

If you wish, you can always remove your shoes before or upon entering other people's houses. And if you wish, you can request people to remove their shoes before entering your house.

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It is absolutely normal in the USA or in Europe to wear shoes indoors. It is absolutely not normal to wear dirty shoes indoors that leave mud on the floor.

The place you visit (or your own place) will have a doormat that you use to clean the bottom of your shoes. That's usual all you need. If you stepped through mud and that doormat isn't enough then you take your shoes off, possibly ask the home owner for something to clean them, and if you still can't get them clean enough to use them indoors, you only put them on again when you leave.

I wonder what kinds of trousers you are wearing. None of my trousers would touch the ground while I'm wearing them. And if they did, nobody would have a floor in their home that is dirty enough to get your trousers dirty.

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