Want to cut down on your vacuuming? Want to make your carpets last 10 times longer? Want to keep bacteria out of your home? Wow, sounds like a miracle product right? Actually you can accomplish all of the above by simply training yourself and your family to remove their shoes at the door.
Day 13: Remove Your Shoes at the Door
The carpets in our home are at least 13 years old. Believe it or not, they are in great shape! The main reason is that we don’t wear our shoes in the house. The carpeting is good quality carpet. We clean up spills immediately with our carpet steam cleaner (you can’t have kids and pets without one!) I’ve had the carpets professionally cleaned twice since we’ve owned the house in 7 years.
Do we require our guests to remove their shoes? No. But, most of them do anyway because when they come in the mudroom it’s evident that we take off our shoes at the door.
In order to create a habit of removing your shoes at the door, it’s important to have a convenient storage location for shoes. Creating shoe storage doesn’t have to be expensive.
Beth made these beautiful faux birch log shoe storage out of PVC pipe:
Jessica shared how she took a nook and put in shelving for shoe storage .
I made a small shoe storage bench out of a kitchen cabinet .
But, my sanity saver is this larger shoe storage bench I made out of salvage materials .
Do you have any other tips for keeping your carpets looking like new?
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In reply to Lynet Witty .
Lynet, I have pictures of our carpeting throughout the Home Tour tab on the side: https://prettyhandygirl.com/my-home/ The carpet has very few stains. The main area of wear is on our stairways and you can tell the pile is not as high as it used to be, but still looks good. IMHO.
I need to make a shoe storage and place the new commandment in the house. our carpet is not as old as yours (not high quality either) but I’m determined to make it last as much as it can. we can’t afford to do the flooring i want for another century or so. by the way, i love how antique your diy shoe storage looks. i love it.
also, let me see your carpet. ha!
This is something me and my other half are definitely trying to train ourselves to do. Such an easy yet effective way of keeping the carpets fresh and germ free!
Here in Canada it’s more or less the cultural norm to remove shoes. It’s nice, because everything DOES stay way cleaner, including floors 🙂
My wife and I were brought up to take shoes off at the door and wear slippers in the house. We do this in our own home and with our family. We have found that this is the easiest and most effective way of keeping our expensive carpets clean
I’ve never had a carpet cleaning machine since I thought they would leave a residue or additional water in the carpet & pad. Now I’m rethinking this. I have always loved your shoe organizer bench. That birch log organizer is very clever. Thanks for this one too!