Well, we have finally moved into our new house! Yay!!
All of the months and months of planning and preparation...finding all of the most eco-friendly, green sourced, recycled, renewable, sustainable, chemical-free, indoor air quality boosting materials...led up to this great house, which we are now enjoying.
This tree-hugging behavior of mine has been ingrained in me: my dad didn't like for me to waste water by flushing the toilet too often or running water while I was brushing my teeth; my mom has always been very eco-conscious, composting in her garden; my step-dad has been an organic fanatic since way before it was cool.
I have always been taught to recycle as much as possible, and for years have been trying to use as much organic food as possible. In more recent years, I have decided to forgo chemical cleansers and fragrances. I drive a hybrid car.
And, as we spent so much time trying to keep toxins out of our house structure throughout the build and out of our bodies all of the time, I didn't think it would come as too much of a shock when we instituted a no-shoe rule in our new house--our untainted space! Most of our guests in the first weeks were our subcontractors, who were burly and in and out of the house a bazillion times a day; they didn't bat an eye at leaving their boots at the door time after time. Our contractor removed his shoes before he entered without being asked. Our foreman and coordinator did the same. Our friends removed their shoes without batting an eyelash--several of them have no-shoe rules in their homes, and another was a nanny in Hawaii where it is customary to leave shoes at the door.
The no-shoe rule transition was going quite swimmingly until I asked my dad to remove his shoes. He blindsided me by becoming really angry, as if I was being super-rude by requesting this. He questioned my motivation to institute the rule--as if it were something like, I don't want you to sully the white carpets (we don't even have any carpet, and our rugs are all quite old...and not in an expensive antique kind of way). When I responded that it was a concern for chemicals and toxins (solvents, gasoline, exhaust debris, pesticides/herbicides, germs) and not dirt that I was concerned about, he said under his breath that this was ridiculous since I have dogs in my house (who do sometimes do the old butt-surfing-on-the-carpet thing, in his defense--I'm trying to stand in his socks for a moment, here.)
Is it really too much to ask for guests to remove their shoes? Is it rude? I am just really shocked by the reaction and wondering if I've finally gone too far with my desire to have an eco-friendly family home...
And, on another tangent of this situation, is it normal for a mom (of human- and fur-babies) to become so un-fazed by feces that a dog dragging its butt on the carpet doesn't seem nearly as gross as chemical solvents and lead dust transferring from shoes to the floor?? It is also important to note, on the subject of feces and my relationship with it, that I also have horses who poop, stand in poop, and roll in poop, so in addition to wiping poopy butts, dealing with poopy diapers, and collecting dog poop, I also pick poop out of hooves, pitchfork it off the ground, and brush it out of horse fur. That is a lot of poop, people, so it is true: a few microbes of poop transferring from a semi-clean dog butt onto my (again, not priceless) area rug, just doesn't get me that worked up at this point...
Long story very short (don't you wish you could've just started here?): I think poop is way less yucky than chemicals. Period.
I'd love to hear what you guys think!
