Whatever happened to people taking their shoes off when they walk into someone's house!? One of my BIGGEST pet peeves is someone coming to my house and not removing their dirty shoes! I work day in and day out to keep up with the process called life by cleaning my ass off every single day to keep my nice light colored carpet clean! I also DO NOT want your nasties in my house!! The bottoms of your shoes are said to be dirtier than a toilet seat!! Think about it, WHERE did you go today??
Any place you went today you picked up millions of bacteria on the bottoms of your shoes. A study done at the University of Houston found that 39% of shoes contained a bacteria called C diff, which is resistant to a number of antibiotics and causes serious health problems. Coliforms, which is a type of bacteria found in feces, for example E. Coli, were present on 96% of the bottoms of shoes they tested. At the University of Arizona, they found that 9 different types of bacteria lived longer on people's shoes than on any other surface! HOLY CRAP THAT'S GROSS!! At these universities they also tested to see if the bacteria would transfer from the shoes to tile and carpet and found that 90% of the time on tile and even more for carpet!! A Microbiologist, Dr. Charles Gerba, who teaches at the University Of Arizona conducted a study on a pair of brand new shoes and in TWO WEEKS the bottoms of the shoes accumulated 440,000 units of bacteria! WHHHHAAAATTT!?
http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/memes/best-surprised-patrick-meme
Escherichia Coli- aka E. Coli can cause urinary tract infections, respiratory illnesses, and pneumonia to name a few. E. Coli infects millions of Americans yearly. https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/general/index.html
Clostridium Difficile-aka a Superbug because it is resistant to several antibiotics. Each year in the United States, C. Diff kills about 29,000 people each year. It causes severe infections in the gastrointestinal tract. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/02/25/389017912/infections-with-dangerous-gut-microbe-still-on-the-rise
Those studies seriously blow my mind and gross me out! I have had several Microbiology classes to know that your shoes better be off at my door or I'm losing my mind on you! Think about when you have to use a public restroom, how much urine do you think you are really stepping in? Walking through the grass at a park where a dog could've peed or pooped, nothing but bacteria! How about the doctor's offices or hospitals, where sick people go? There are a few things you can do to make sure that your carpets and floors stay germ free! First thing is Remove your shoes at the door!!No questions asked! Second thing is to make sure you do a thorough cleaning if someone does wear their shoes in your house. Recently I had TWO repairmen come to my new house where I have light colored carpet and did NOT take off their shoes. This made me so angry but I was grateful they came to help me so I said nothing. As soon as he left I went to scrubbing and sanitizing furiously. Third thing is to make sure you regularly vacuum and clean your carpets and hard floors that will reduce the amount of bacteria and dirt that stays in your carpets and on your hard floors.
I am posting remove your shoes signs on the outside of my entrance doors AND in the entrance area of my house. This is a rule I will FOREVER enforce from this day forward! No one wants you bringing your germ infested shoes into their whole house! Be respectful and REMOVE YOUR SHOES! I use to laugh at my Grandma when I was younger because she would always make me take off my shoes. I learned that it was the respectful thing to do when I was a child. When I became a college student with microbiology courses, I realized it was the HEALTHY thing to do!! LOL So PLEASE, REMOVE YOUR SHOES we want to stay clean and healthy!
Sources:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/coliform_bacteria
My Brain