Please Remove Your Shoes

Growing up we always removed our shoes upon entering the house. My mother has made up many different signs trying to figure out the most polite way to ask visitors to remove their shoes. I once saw a vinyl sign on someones door that said "Loose the Shoes," I'm still trying to figure out if that is funny or not. Everyone in my family knows when you go to someones house you remove your shoes, it's just what we do. At one point my brother had hospital booties for those people who opted not to remove their shoes. My Grandpa was having heart trouble and he drove himself to the hospital because he didn't want the EMT's to drag mud in on his freshly cleaned carpet, no kidding. That obviously was highly frowned upon, but now you know where I get my craziness from, it's genetic!
Why are we so crazy about this? Imagine where you go in a day, public stores, public restrooms, pavement, so many places where dirt and filth abound, mainly all sorts of bodily fluids or feces. As you walk around the soles of your shoes pick this stuff up and when you come home your carpet acts like a huge tongue wiping it all off. Gross! Especially when you think about your children playing on your carpet, walking barefoot, or your baby crawling on it.
Solution: simply remove your shoes, and have your children and guests remove their shoes at the door or outside. We have most of our shoes on shelves in the garage because I got sick of hauling shoes from the garage to the closets, and I didn't want all that junk resting on the soles of their shoes in our bedrooms!