Aim for a shoeless Christmas to keep bugs out of your home

Aim for a shoeless Christmas to keep bugs out of your homes (Photo: iStock)

The Christmas mood is already in the air. Some will have their houses full to the brim with family and friends. If you mostly entertain indoors, you will have to consider making your house shoeless. That means everybody showing up takes off their shoes before they enter your house. This isn't a strange practice; it's already ingrained in many cultures. At face value, leaving shoes outside the house maintains a certain level of cleanliness. But as it turns out, it is also a pretty healthy habit.

Scientific studies already confirm that shoes carry all sorts of micro-organisms. That in itself shouldn't be surprising, you step on all manner of crap as the day evolves. And some of that crap sticks onto the undersides of your shoes and becomes a habitat for bugs to thrive in. Lab studies have consistently demonstrated overwhelming numbers of disease-causing organisms from the soles of all manner of shoes. Sometimes the organisms identified have surpassed those found in dirty bathrooms! You now know that allowing everyone, and anyone to enter your house with their shoes on isn't such an appealing idea. Doesn't matter that the shoes aren't obviously soiled, they will still harbour microscopic organisms within them.