No shoes at home in Finland
Not only Japanese people remove their shoes when they walk into a home: Finnish people do so too.
To everyone who isn’t used to remove their shoes at the entrances of the houses – like me – this is quite shocking.
I went to Finland at the end of a summer, and it was then when I learned about this tradition. I must admit that in summer it doesn’t seem to make that much of a difference, but in winter you truly understand why Finns do what they do.
And not doing it is truly a faux-pas in Finland.
My shoes in the corridor. Now I am used to do this.
Table of Contents
The polite way: leave your shoes at the entrance of a home
Winter is the longest season of the year in Finland, especially in the north of the country.
Everything is covered in snow outside and the snow lasts for months at a time. When you walk around, since you can’t stay indoors for months, snow gets stuck to the soles of your boots. That snow, when you arrive at someone’s home – which will be heated appropriately – will start its melting process. And if if you don’t remove your shoes, soon the whole house will have little puddles everywhere, something extremely annoying for the people who did remove their shoes.
That’s why in Finland, unlike in Japan (as far as I know), there is a very practical reason behind removing the shoes at the entrance – in winter anyways. So when you go to Finland, show your politeness by removing your shoes at the entrance of the houses. The interesting thing, of course, is when many people arrive at a house simultaneously and there are a thousand pairs of shoes by the door. But that’s a small price to pay for respecting the house owner.
Pretty please? Source (CC: by)
What about in public places, workplaces and schools?
If you are wondering, kids in Finnish schools also remove their shoes at the entrance before going to class. (By the way, it seems that the Finnish Baby Box is on sale now).
In universities and some public buildings there is a place at the entrance to leave your belongings, where you can leave your outdoor shoes if you want and use some others that you can take with you (this, of course, is more common for university buildings than for public ones).
In the case of office buildings, you can bring some sandal-like shoes for walking around indoors, if you want. Some people do that if their work doesn’t require a very formal attire.
Shoes outside an office, for a meeting. Or so it says the caption of the photo. Source (CC: by-sa)
How to effectively remove as much snow as possible from the shoes
Finnish people are prepared for winter like no one I’ve seen before. If you want to know which clothes to wear for a trip to Finland in winter, here is our list of recommendations.
At the entrance of each building you can see a gigantic brush designed to remove the snow from your shoes. You can then be confident that you’ll be behaving as politely as possible when entering any building.
Some pictures of this Finnish invention:
Have you ever forgot to remove your shoes while entering someone’s home? What’s the biggest faux-pas in Finland in your opinion?
Topics: Curiosities, Finnish traditions |
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Hello I, m from the Netherlands and we keep ouwer shoes on
But I know it is normale in Finland be case my son live there and I tink is ver good !
Hello, my husband works in Helsinki and it is a no-shoes office, even for visitors. They all have slippers they wear at work. Like you we’ve discovered that it really is the only way, especially in winter. Wearing shoes inside now seems a bit strange. I found in Japan they are even discouraged in changing rooms. ; )
I’m from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the population is largely Finnish. It has always been the tradition to remove shoes at the entrance. I’ve never done it any other way!
Dear Santiago,
as you think the reason for taking off the shoes is snow, I think it hasn’t happened to you yet… but it will. It goes like this: It is a warm, lovely and sunny day (winter or summer, time of a year is not important here). You feel great, life is smiling to you. You are walking down the street and you smile and say hello to everybody. Oh, there comes kids of neighbor with their dogs. How cute they are, both the kids and the dogs. You say something nice to them and dogs sniffs you. Next you run into your other neighbor, amazingly beautiful lady with her dog. You and she have a very nice discussion, her dog licks your face and you wave after her feeling even more happier. Then comes an old workmate of yours with his dog. You have a long talk about how the things have changed better nowadays. And after him you meet another one who is out with his or her dog. And another and another. You love people. You love dogs, you have one in your home too.
Then it happens. You feel it and you stop immediately. For a moment you think what to do. You feel shame and anger. Then you get your decisiveness back. You turn around and began to walk very fast back to your home without saying anything to anybody. And no one is even trying to say anything to you as they see how angry you look. And when you get at home, you SURELY take your shoes off. You go right away to write down a letter. You are going to send it to the local newspaper to be published on it.
I mean, there is two very common Finnish habits too: step on a dog shit in the street and write a public letter about it. If it had not happened to you yet, don’t worry, it will. Sooner or later. After that experience you understand it much better what it is to be a Finn.
I’m sorry, I think it should be said “begin to walk”, not “began to walk”, I had it in wrong tense. Excuse me. English is not my native language, thought it is the language of my best friend (which is my television).
Or change “turn around” to “turned around” and then “began” would be the correct tense to use.
i don’t think the dog shit is the only reason, just generally even during the summer, you get other crap and bacteria on your shoes and why would you bring it to every room in your home
Hello, Im from Finland and the main reason for removing you shoes is to keep your home clean and free from shit people carry in with their shoes. Makes sany ense? Its not the snow or manners. If you like to keep your shoes on, you take clean ones and change them on before entering in other peoples homes.
Hei Santiego!
I like your story, nice to know what people think about our way of living. But I notice one thing you wrote;
Finnish baby box is not in sale. They just renew it’s content, that’s why it has been in the news. And we kind of get it free when baby borns or we get some money, which one parents (read:mother) choose.
Erkka: Mother who live in Finland getting a baby get babybox free,but another has possibilities buy it.
Finnish baby box IS in sale now.
From their site: “We are three dads living in Finland and want to give families around the world a possibility to get the same box that every Finn can get.”
http://finnishbabybox.co/products/finnish-baby-box
At everyday life we do take our shoes off but at a party or going to the theatre, opera, dance club ect. Finns usually have a pair of better shoes that they can change.
Erkku, a copy of a finnish baby box is for sale. See finnishbabybox.co for more info
we in western canada always take our shoes off, it is effing wet or muddy most of the time. I do not feel like cleaning up the hardwood floors all the time…I guess I was very much welcomed in Finland and i did not know there was a custom but I always look down where ever I am anyway…it is respectful of others’ customs.
Hiya!
As a Finn Master’s student I can say the following. The basic reason for taking shoes off is to keep the house clean. This is very common in private areas such as people’s homes. The same goes also with the compulsory school (grades 1-9) and the High School/Senior Secondary School (that is the three more years to get your matriculation examination for example. I do not know the right terms for these actually).
But for example in the universities one do not take his/her shoes off. That is perhaps because there’s paid cleaners to clean the mess and such. The same can happen in some working places (although usually people have some slippers for indoors). That being said, the basic habit is to take one’s shoes off, but in public places and working places one can also keep one’s shoes indoors.
This is a tradition in Turkey as well. If you goto Turkey, you can see this in most people’s house’s and apartments. You can see outside of mosques. I am Turkish but I have lived for a looong time in Helsinki.
The snow in not the only thing that might go home with your shoes. There is also dog shit and other things on the streets. In Finland and also other countries. So it is habit to keep your house clean and it works really well…
Here in Canada, shoes and boots are taken off when entering a home as well.
Some offices request you remove your shoes, but not all of them.
Schools have shelves to put your boots on, especially in the winter. Children are required to have indoor shoes in the for class.
Finns are so practical. Half my family lives there and my grandchildren always remind me to leave my shoes at the frontdoor before going inside. Lovely kids. Good show from them.
It’s not uncommon in New York city that people will ask you to take the shoe’s off.However, this is only if entering a private residence. I do it for traditional health reasons of trying to keep my apartment sterile and germ free. It’s a necessary hassle.
I am from Finland, and I comfirm what the others already said that the main purpose of taking shoes off is to keep our home clean, no matter what season. In the summer you carry sand and dirt in shoes so it’s not only about the snow and mud. Also it’s more comfortable not to wear shoes all the time and feet don’t sweat and smell so much! At school grades 1-6 have to take shoes off inside, but older students can keep their shoes on. My little brother is 13, on 7th grade, and his feet smell really bad after a school day. He says it’s “not cool” to take shoes off during class.
In the U.S. lots of people also don’t wear shoes in the house. We never do, winter or summer. It keeps outside dirt outside.
I’m a Finn too, and I agree the main reason is to keep the house clean – around the year.
If you’re invited to a bit more formal party at someone’s home and you dress up for that, it’s okay (or even expected) that you bring a separate pair of indoor party shoes and change into them at the door.
But soft wool socks or slippers are also the comfiest thing you can wear. And no sweat! Our winter shoes keep our feet warm outside when it’s cold, but wearing them inside get your feet sweaty in just a few minutes. Yuck!
As a Finn I like to point out that also on Spring and Fall, specially rain time, it’s nice that we have custome to take shoes off. There would be tons of sand and little rocks every where if we don’t do that. 🙂
As for snow though, people not only use the brush contraptions by the doorside, but also when entering a bus, train, tram or a car, they give a gentle kick to the threshold. This is not a sign of superstition, but to remove excess snow from shoes. In public transportation in particular, the opening and closing of doors will easily create a nasty mound of snow inside the doorway and the little kick goes a long way to prevent that. And to keep the floors from getting wet and slippery. Talk about snow-how!
For me this custom is very natural, since we in Hungary do the same thing with shoes. We take them off in front of our home and put them to their place on the shelf. By this , we keep our home cleaner. I don’t see nothing strange in this.
I’m a Finn living the most of my life in Spain where it’s not used to take the shoes off when entering into the house.However I still do so and don’t feel comfortable wearing the shoes on inside the house.It seem to be also like change your mind when entering into your home and change your shoes or flip- flops . 🙂
Hi there!
My parents and other relatives comes from Finland, but I’m born and living in Sweden. We also have the custom to take the shoes off. It’s not because the Finnish tradition, it’s common in Sweden too.
Shoes off get your feet “breathing” and not smell like yeak 😉
At the same time you have a clean home 🙂
Have a nice shoe-off-day!
it is also healty for your feet to take shoes of! we say that if you take your shoes of your feet can breath!
Hi, I am from Bulgaria and we take of shoes before to step home . we dont want the dirt at home. Now we watch too many american films and there are bulgarians who dont take shoes off. And there are just dirty people who has shoes on. Same in Russia, shoes off. I leave in Finland for 20 years, we take always shoes off even in summer. Even real estate and Realter people take shoes off. 🙂
In Canada we take our shoes ff in the house as well.
I am a 2nd generation born American-Finn and my family always take their shoes off inside the entry way of our house – summer or winter. The reason is cleanliness pure and simple.
Howdy, here is a comment from a Finn living in Helsinki: the main reason for this is to avoid bringing dirt and all kind of crap into homes. The Japanese have a similar mentality, and they are even more strict as the place where you leave shoes is *lower* than the rest of the apartment.
As a Finn I find it really hard to imagine how people could walk indoors in their shoes, especially in some parts of the world where people have carpet floors (in Finland you almost never see any carpet flooring). It would be extremely impolite to walk on floors and carpets inside with the same shoes that you might have stepped on dog shit. If you are asked to quickly just visit someones home and help with something, the home owner usually specifically says “ei tarvitse ottaa kenkiä pois” – you don’t HAVE to take your shoes off this time, as nobody would be rude enough to just walk in.
The article is correct in the sense that yes, winter is a big reason for not to use shoes inside, especially due to gravel being used to make sidewalks less slippery and salt to melt the ice on roads. You will pretty easily destroy a wooden parquet floor (very common) with salts and scratching it with the gravel.
In Finnish homes there is usually a double door – the actual front door (ulko-ovi) and an insulating inner door (väliovi) which connect directly to an area called “eteinen” – vestibule/hallway. This is the place where you leave your shoes. In many homes the vestibule is in the same open space as the kitchen/living room/corridor, and your instinct tells where it ends (where it is not appropriate anymore to step with your shoes on).
And yes, when finns arrange home parties, the vestibule is usually so filled up with shoes that sometimes you can’t find yours and it is hard to open the inner door because of the pile of shoes 😉
I am half Finn- raised in Canada.
I grew up taking off my shoes in any home. We were taught, outside of cleanliness, that it is a sign of respect for the owners of the home you were visiting. Even if the home is not too clean you take off your shoes out of respect. Better to get your socks dirty than to offend your hosts. Leaving your shoes on leaves a bit of an FU impression on some cultures.
I do find it a little offensive when people wear their shoes in my house – and struggle to understand that they do not mean to be disrespectful…..but it is always a little hard.
Im british
In school (12 at the time) my brother and I (15) had a finnish and she invited us over to her house so we came over and she asked us to take our shoes and socks off, and i asked her why and she said its a barefoot only house. So i took my shoes and socks off but my brother hates being barefoot (IDK Why) but Im always barefoot, So she said you’ll not be allowed in without barefeet. She offered us some slippers to wear I said no because i just wanted to be barefoot and he said Yes, and she said “you still cant wear socks with them” so he finally took his socks off and put on the slippers. anyway a few hours later he had lost the slippers and didn’t notice and was barefoot for ages, and then he didn’t mind.
When she comes over my house she also has to take her shoes and socks off (She does anyway) and so do I, INfact she makes all the boys and girls who come over go barefoot in her house. But it doesnt matter.
Infact we would always go to the library after school and go barefoot inside, The people who work there say “Its wierd but as long as your comfy then its ok, Infact they even keep mine and her shoes and socks in a bag behind the counter. She even paints my toenails even tho im a guy