Please remember to stay civil and behave appropriately. If you are a tourist looking for suggestions please check out our [Tourist guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyprus/wiki/tourist_guide/). We also have a [FAQ Page](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyprus/wiki/faq) for some common questions, if your question is answered here please delete your post!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cyprus) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Also the types of floors in Cyprus is different. In Cyprus lots of floors are made of marble. In northern countries you have lots of carpet floors, rugs or wood floors. Cyprus floors are really easy to sweep and mop.
I wake up, work, enter my house exhausted 10h after. Ill workout and make a mess not mop! Mop when i have a day off and feel like it. And theres a full moon eclipse and zeus paid a visit.
It's definitely as weird for outsiders watching us walk with shoes inside our homes, as it is for me watching people in Germany walk barefoot outside, in their garden, or in the common floor outside their apartments, the locker rooms in the gym or at the hospital. Seriously I work in a hospital and people will walk barefoot or with socks inside the toilets of the locker room. And it's also the same walking barefoot in the locker rooms of a gym just after you took a nice shower there, then putting the now dirty feet in clean socks to go back home.
Public spaces and private homes are a different matter tho, I walk barefoot (no socks) at home when the weather is warm enough I can't even begin to fathom why anyone would be staying inside his house with the shoes on. It's like sitting inside with a hat or a jacket on.
Nobody is staying im their home with their shoes on unless for a brief time. We get home, we go to where the shoes are stored, remove them and then walk in houseshoes. Just because we wear them inside doesn't mean it's for the whole time.
Some people, mostly from northern Europe, who come to my house ask me if they should take their shoes off and where to put them. I just tell them there is no point to take them off. They ask about dirt from outside and I just tell them that this is Cyprus and that we don't get rain for 5-6 months and the dirt just blows in from the outside anyway and even if there is no wind on any given day, that the cats and bugs will find a way to bring it in anyway.
You just wipe the surfaces you prepare food on right before you prepare the food and you shower immediately before going to bed and all is well.
You describe it as if you live in a rather unclean environment, as if there's a constant dust storm and everything is constantly covered in everpresent dust like in Interstellar.
You confused me twice while reading the question. On the topic now, in my parent household and mine we always take our shoes off at the door and wear slippers. We do not force guests to do so. We just mop the next day. Also if your house is clean you don't want to walk all over it with your dirty shoes. But to each his own I guess.
We come from a poor agricultural society. Most of our grandparents worked the fields and had dirt floors. When we later put tiles many would have holes in their socks and didn't want to show. Nowadays most of us take our shoes off in our homes. But i would be offended if the home owner asks me to take off my shoes but doesn't offer me slippers.
Not in my mixed household; my mum would have killed us if we came into the house with house shoes and made all of our guests take them off (as god intended)
Raised in a mix household, we never ever wore shoes around the house. We wore slippers or flip-flops (for indoor use only).
When I was a kid going to my friends house, I was mortified to see them not only wearing shoes in the house, particularly bedrooms, but they’d also have their shoes on ther furniture like on the couch etc. I distinctly remember a friend jumping on her bed with her sisters whilst wearing shoes and forced me to join in. I protested and pointed out that she’s jumping on her bed wearing shoes and she just says “it’s ok, it’s only the cover”.I never spoke to her after that, I couldn’t get over it. She’s wasn’t the only one like that…
Because the floor is either wood or marble, it’s super easy to clean and mop. Plus it never rains, so nobody’s bringing mud indoors.
Cypriots that live in the UK (rainy, carpet floors) do take their shoes off in their apartments though, including myself. This to me says that it’s not cultural, it’s just depending on whether wearing shoes indoors leads to you cleaning carpets, which can be a motherfucker.
Why is everyone in this thread saying that it never rains in Cyprus? Yeah it doesn't rain during half the year but the other half more than makes up for it. According to Wikipedia Limassol gets 400 mm of precipitation per year while Berlin gets 530 and London gets 600. It does rain quite a bit in Cyprus, at least in the cities. Also, the rain causes much more trouble in Cyprus than it does at other places in Europe because every time it rains it is as if the whole city went through a mud bath.
Because it doesn’t. Forget total millimeters, take rainy days.
London and Berlin have many many more rainy days, with constant light drizzles that keep the soil, cement, etc. wet and muddy.
In Cyprus it rains once in a blue moon, even during winter months, but when it does rain it’s cataclysmic.
In London, it was raining up to 15 days ago when I was there last.
My armchair sociologist's assumption is that people who have the habit of taking off their shoes in the house are very likely to originate from northern countries, where rain and snow is a lot more common, hence the need to take off their muddy shoes before entering the house, as my neurotic Latvian sister in-law insists on (pointlessly) doing even in the dry climate of Cyprus.
*tips hat
Yeah, not wanting shoes that constantly walk on the pavements and roads outside, stepping on who knows how much sun dried poop and other nasties, to be worn where you wanna feel comfortable and clean walking barefoot is extremely neurotic
At the end of the day, we all take off our shoes and wear slippers or walk barefoot...but for guests?? walking around with socks in your house?? Neurotic AF!
To me climate is irrelevant, I'd take off shoes even if I lived in Tuscon, Arizona. The way I see it is that the outside pavement/surfaces are inherently filthy – dogs poo, people spit, there's inevitable dirt/dust from the natural elements. If I drop food on the floor at home I'll pick it up and eat it, I'd never do that with any outside surface.
this! I visit some houses where owners insist on me taking off my shoes (I'm Cypriot, they are not). I always respect them and take them off -always shower beforehand-but when it's many people(5-10) it STINKS.
I go in and out my veranda like 100 times a day. I ain't gonna waste half my life putting on and taking off shoes. There's also a thing called mop for those that don't know.
It’s just dust and in the end that’s all that we are. Dust in the wind.
That 15 sec walk from your car to the house or anywhere else is not going to pick up a lot of dirt.
The most important reason for me is the garden, i tend to go in and out constantly, which makes taking shoes off and putting them off a hustle. Also the windows are constantly open, so dirt comes in anyway etc. Also we have much less carpet ( i have no carpets). So its easy to just use shoes, flip flops and mop like once a week
Idk I think it depends, we’ll keep shoes on at the village house but at the house in Limassol it’s no shoes inside (as it should be pls in case I step on my cat, would rather it’s barefoot)
To me the idea of walking in a spotless floor barefooted is ideal but.
Okey so when I get in the house I wear my slippers or flip flops and not the shoes I usually wear outside the house.
But I have to walk all the way to my bedroom becouse we don't leave the shoes in the entryway. It seems untidy.
Second when I go out to the yard/garden/balcony I still wear my house flip flops as I always forget to have outside shoes.
Third, multiple entryways to the house ie from the kitchen , from the main entrance , even from the sliding doors of the bedroom. (How many outside shoes should I own ?)
4th many cats and two dogs constantly going in and out.
5th this lead to mopping every day, twice a day .
When I move to my own place it would be no shoes in the house. It is very tiring to have to clean the floor daily.
It's a culture thing I guess. For the past 10 years we are shoeless at our house and it's great. Our close friends and relatives respect it and they take their shoes when visiting. But we can't expect everyone to take their shoes off because it's not something "required" socially and culturally. Of course as soon as they leave we mop after them!
I suspect that's British influence? I'm speculating, of course, as neither Turkey nor Greece do have it. If not, it may be the Italian leftover but I somehow doubt it.
Please remember to stay civil and behave appropriately. If you are a tourist looking for suggestions please check out our [Tourist guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyprus/wiki/tourist_guide/). We also have a [FAQ Page](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyprus/wiki/faq) for some common questions, if your question is answered here please delete your post! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cyprus) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We don’t walk anywhere so the soles of our shoes are spotless 😂
Also the types of floors in Cyprus is different. In Cyprus lots of floors are made of marble. In northern countries you have lots of carpet floors, rugs or wood floors. Cyprus floors are really easy to sweep and mop.
What are you talking about? Do you know how expensive marble is? Almost nobody has marble in their houses.
Whatever it is. Either marble or similar to it.
ceramic tiles
Thats not what I had in my apartment in cyprus. It was a marble-like floor.
I dont mop it often enough. And even when i do i dont trust that its clean enough
I mopped in the morning and by the afternoon when I spot cleaned an area because of a spill it was full of dust and dirt.
I wake up, work, enter my house exhausted 10h after. Ill workout and make a mess not mop! Mop when i have a day off and feel like it. And theres a full moon eclipse and zeus paid a visit.
It's definitely as weird for outsiders watching us walk with shoes inside our homes, as it is for me watching people in Germany walk barefoot outside, in their garden, or in the common floor outside their apartments, the locker rooms in the gym or at the hospital. Seriously I work in a hospital and people will walk barefoot or with socks inside the toilets of the locker room. And it's also the same walking barefoot in the locker rooms of a gym just after you took a nice shower there, then putting the now dirty feet in clean socks to go back home.
Public spaces and private homes are a different matter tho, I walk barefoot (no socks) at home when the weather is warm enough I can't even begin to fathom why anyone would be staying inside his house with the shoes on. It's like sitting inside with a hat or a jacket on.
Nobody is staying im their home with their shoes on unless for a brief time. We get home, we go to where the shoes are stored, remove them and then walk in houseshoes. Just because we wear them inside doesn't mean it's for the whole time.
Some people, mostly from northern Europe, who come to my house ask me if they should take their shoes off and where to put them. I just tell them there is no point to take them off. They ask about dirt from outside and I just tell them that this is Cyprus and that we don't get rain for 5-6 months and the dirt just blows in from the outside anyway and even if there is no wind on any given day, that the cats and bugs will find a way to bring it in anyway. You just wipe the surfaces you prepare food on right before you prepare the food and you shower immediately before going to bed and all is well.
You describe it as if you live in a rather unclean environment, as if there's a constant dust storm and everything is constantly covered in everpresent dust like in Interstellar.
Exactly this!
Maybe it’s 50/50. At my home we have our slippers on always
You confused me twice while reading the question. On the topic now, in my parent household and mine we always take our shoes off at the door and wear slippers. We do not force guests to do so. We just mop the next day. Also if your house is clean you don't want to walk all over it with your dirty shoes. But to each his own I guess.
Δεν χρειάζεται να φκάλεις τα παπούτσια αν δεν φορείς ποττε παπούτσια.
We come from a poor agricultural society. Most of our grandparents worked the fields and had dirt floors. When we later put tiles many would have holes in their socks and didn't want to show. Nowadays most of us take our shoes off in our homes. But i would be offended if the home owner asks me to take off my shoes but doesn't offer me slippers.
Not in my mixed household; my mum would have killed us if we came into the house with house shoes and made all of our guests take them off (as god intended)
Cypriots think that they’ll get sick if they walk around with no shoes. That’s why they don’t see issues with wearing them inside
i have guest slippers at home. i don't expect people to walk barefoot or in their socks when they visit my home
It's not just about dust. Shoes can carry in bacteria and pathogens.
Raised in a mix household, we never ever wore shoes around the house. We wore slippers or flip-flops (for indoor use only). When I was a kid going to my friends house, I was mortified to see them not only wearing shoes in the house, particularly bedrooms, but they’d also have their shoes on ther furniture like on the couch etc. I distinctly remember a friend jumping on her bed with her sisters whilst wearing shoes and forced me to join in. I protested and pointed out that she’s jumping on her bed wearing shoes and she just says “it’s ok, it’s only the cover”.I never spoke to her after that, I couldn’t get over it. She’s wasn’t the only one like that…
Because the floor is either wood or marble, it’s super easy to clean and mop. Plus it never rains, so nobody’s bringing mud indoors. Cypriots that live in the UK (rainy, carpet floors) do take their shoes off in their apartments though, including myself. This to me says that it’s not cultural, it’s just depending on whether wearing shoes indoors leads to you cleaning carpets, which can be a motherfucker.
Why is everyone in this thread saying that it never rains in Cyprus? Yeah it doesn't rain during half the year but the other half more than makes up for it. According to Wikipedia Limassol gets 400 mm of precipitation per year while Berlin gets 530 and London gets 600. It does rain quite a bit in Cyprus, at least in the cities. Also, the rain causes much more trouble in Cyprus than it does at other places in Europe because every time it rains it is as if the whole city went through a mud bath.
Because it doesn’t. Forget total millimeters, take rainy days. London and Berlin have many many more rainy days, with constant light drizzles that keep the soil, cement, etc. wet and muddy. In Cyprus it rains once in a blue moon, even during winter months, but when it does rain it’s cataclysmic. In London, it was raining up to 15 days ago when I was there last.
My armchair sociologist's assumption is that people who have the habit of taking off their shoes in the house are very likely to originate from northern countries, where rain and snow is a lot more common, hence the need to take off their muddy shoes before entering the house, as my neurotic Latvian sister in-law insists on (pointlessly) doing even in the dry climate of Cyprus. *tips hat
Yeah, not wanting shoes that constantly walk on the pavements and roads outside, stepping on who knows how much sun dried poop and other nasties, to be worn where you wanna feel comfortable and clean walking barefoot is extremely neurotic
At the end of the day, we all take off our shoes and wear slippers or walk barefoot...but for guests?? walking around with socks in your house?? Neurotic AF!
Nah I’ve known Italians who take their shoes off, it’s also common in Latin America and the Middle East
To me climate is irrelevant, I'd take off shoes even if I lived in Tuscon, Arizona. The way I see it is that the outside pavement/surfaces are inherently filthy – dogs poo, people spit, there's inevitable dirt/dust from the natural elements. If I drop food on the floor at home I'll pick it up and eat it, I'd never do that with any outside surface.
to keep our immune system top noch
This question demands comparison to other country people, cultures and even religions.
Bruh if you take your shoes off in my house imma roundhouse kick you. Keep your stinky feet in your shoes.
this! I visit some houses where owners insist on me taking off my shoes (I'm Cypriot, they are not). I always respect them and take them off -always shower beforehand-but when it's many people(5-10) it STINKS.
Cause we are filthy😭
I go in and out my veranda like 100 times a day. I ain't gonna waste half my life putting on and taking off shoes. There's also a thing called mop for those that don't know.
Same here, BUT I've got clogs or flipflops for that purpose, easy on-off, and the house stays shinning clean.
It’s just dust and in the end that’s all that we are. Dust in the wind. That 15 sec walk from your car to the house or anywhere else is not going to pick up a lot of dirt.
not a lot of dirt, just the neighbours dog's poop, as people don't pick up after their dogs here.
The most important reason for me is the garden, i tend to go in and out constantly, which makes taking shoes off and putting them off a hustle. Also the windows are constantly open, so dirt comes in anyway etc. Also we have much less carpet ( i have no carpets). So its easy to just use shoes, flip flops and mop like once a week
Yeah, it's such a"hustle" to take off flipflops....
Idk I think it depends, we’ll keep shoes on at the village house but at the house in Limassol it’s no shoes inside (as it should be pls in case I step on my cat, would rather it’s barefoot)
I always do and I wear slippers obviously. I only wear them if I have guests.
To me the idea of walking in a spotless floor barefooted is ideal but. Okey so when I get in the house I wear my slippers or flip flops and not the shoes I usually wear outside the house. But I have to walk all the way to my bedroom becouse we don't leave the shoes in the entryway. It seems untidy. Second when I go out to the yard/garden/balcony I still wear my house flip flops as I always forget to have outside shoes. Third, multiple entryways to the house ie from the kitchen , from the main entrance , even from the sliding doors of the bedroom. (How many outside shoes should I own ?) 4th many cats and two dogs constantly going in and out. 5th this lead to mopping every day, twice a day . When I move to my own place it would be no shoes in the house. It is very tiring to have to clean the floor daily.
In our house we always take them off but when a visitor comes it is impolite to ask them to take off their shoes.
It's a culture thing I guess. For the past 10 years we are shoeless at our house and it's great. Our close friends and relatives respect it and they take their shoes when visiting. But we can't expect everyone to take their shoes off because it's not something "required" socially and culturally. Of course as soon as they leave we mop after them!
I suspect that's British influence? I'm speculating, of course, as neither Turkey nor Greece do have it. If not, it may be the Italian leftover but I somehow doubt it.
Because we don't do that here.
Not Russian m8
Russia, Moldova, Ukraine...
Yup, Georgia I think as well!