One of my biggest health tips is to make your house a no shoe zone. Did you know that by taking off your shoes before you enter your house you can reduce the amount of dust in your home by more than 50%. And 50% less dust means 50% less dirt, pesticides, heavy metals, flame retardants, diesel particles, pollen, insects and mould spores – many of these are known allergens and toxicants and contribute to ill health.
Pretty much in short Our shoes bring anything you’ve been walking in out there into your home (and that can be a lot of weird and toxic stuff – poop is just the tip of the iceberg)
So what’s on the bottom of your shoes, lets take a look
Pollutants commonly found on the bottom of your shoes
These pollutants found in enormous amounts of the bottom of our shoes that it turn affect our indoor air quality in the house as we walk with them in the house.
These toxins do build up in the dust inside our homes, which we then come into contact with when we walk around, touch things, etc. Babies, small children, and pets are particularly susceptible and have the highest exposure in the household because they spend more time on the floor and their breathing zone is closer to the floor. Kids also stick their hands in their mouths, and pets, primarily cats, groom, thereby ingesting these chemicals.
Before you whip out the cleaning agents and clean your floors like crazy, research is showing that we shouldn’t be killing the bacteria in the dust with everything we’ve got, but rather trying to reduce their numbers by physically removing dust – not wearing shoes in the house, microfibre clothes, HEPA vacuums. This causes the diversity of microbes in the home environment is preserved, which is essential for a healthy immune system, especially for infants and toddlers who may ingest up to 10 grams of dust per day crawling around the house ek thats a lot!
Out of all the things we can’t control, taking off your shoes is a free & easy way to dial down what you unintentionally track into your home and hence into your body. Go for having a thick piled door mat at the entrance which you can regularly beat and shake off and a shoe rack out the front that occupants and guests can place their shoes before entering the home.
Cold flooring in your house? the answer is have house slippers and socks! With a german hubby and after spending quite a few years in Germany, I learnt the fact that in many german households its quite the norm to have a pair of house shoes that you only wear inside, quite often Birkenstock’s. I remember wearing a pair of my Birkenstock’s out in public one day and got a few strange looks.. until hubby mentioned that its quite strange to wear Birkenstocks out of the house as they are house shoes now I like the idea of having a pair of house shoes.
How about you are you a shoes on or off person in your house?