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are they under your bed?

 
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I find the answer to this question revealing about a person. Do you keep hard soled shoes (or sandals or slippers, etc) under your bed?

Do you?

Living in an earthquake zone, it's always been standard to stuff the off-season shoes under the bed (cleaned and aired out first) so that there is something to put on the feet to avoid broken glass and stuff.  Next to the bed slippers are no good because glass and debris can fall in it.  But under the bed ones are the best.

Later I learned that this is recommended in non-earthquake zones too.  Fire of course.  And apparently there are storms that can break windows.  And other things I wasn't paying attention to.  

And yet, almost everyone I know says no.   They don't keep hard soled shoes under their bed.  They can't imagine why anyone would, especially as they have this lovely shoe rack.  

So am I the only one?  

 
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No.  But I do keep a complete change of clothes, including shoes & credit card, in my car in the spare tire well.
 
Rusticator
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Yup. I also have hooks on the wall for easy to throw on clothes, my bathrobe and a few other items.
 
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No, because our bed frame sits directly on the floor.

When I lived in Florida, I put my Sunday shoes under the bed.  When I went to wear them they were covered in mold.
 
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It's a great idea but like Anne mentions they will mold here although I suppose in an emergency moldy shoes are better than no shoes?

All we have under our bed is a huge set of inherited pink flowered haviland dinner ware that no one seems to want 🙄
 
Carla Burke
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Mine don't mold there, because they're only there for the night. I take them off and go to bed. In the morning they're back on my feet. Come to think of it, we use that space to store several things, and even though they get dust, they don't mold. Something regional that I'd never thought about, I guess.
 
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I can't say that I have intentionally. Today I learned something new!

My slippers are 'hard' soled and I keep them by my bed. I have a bad habit of leaving my pants right next to my bed from when I used to volunteer as a fireman/emergency medical provider where if the pager went off I'm running out of the house as quickly/safely as possible.

I might just have to be a little more intentional in planning it seems!
 
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Seems to me that having lived through some kind of disaster influences one's thinking forever afterward....we have been years since moving out of California wildfire zone, and yet there is still the "go bag" with all the most important papers in it, in a known place, ready to grab at a moment's notice.  And it's also forward looking....where we live now is a tornado zone, and there is an in-ground shelter, but it is prone to flooding.  So it became a high priority project to build a platform in it above high water line, so that it can be used in any kind of weather.  
 
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Mold under bed?

I've never had that.  Does everything in your climate go moldy under the bed?  I've always used it as a storage location for lots of differnt things.  But shoes specifically get cleaned and dry first and turn down my bed each morning to prevent moisture build up from sleeping.   It's really good for stashing seasonal clothes if we get one of those moth resistant bags from ikea.

Perhaps it's a climate thing?


 
Judith Browning
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Mold under bed?  




Actually it's just leather things that grew surface mold and where we live now it's a bit musty so I don't want to risk.
It also depended on how long things sit there out of circulation...no long term storage other than china.

It is humid enough in our house at times that unused wooden spoons grew surface molds.
 
r ranson
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Ouch.
 
Carla Burke
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We get about 45"/ year, and fairly humid (not New Orleans humid, but fairly). BUT, we heat with a woodstove in winter, which dries the air, and in the summer, John doesn't do well, with the heat and humidity, so we keep the a/c on much more than I'd like, and he runs a dehumidifier. Those could the the biggest differences.
 
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After testing my ability to respond to "DANGER NOW!!!" scenarios from a dead sleep,  way back in the 90's, I keep all the bedside stuff as simple as possible.  Slip on shoes, click button flashlight, simple gun, etc.  The blue heeler isn't simple, but he's not complex either.

I am the most humid. It is a rain forest here. My front door mat grows grass and seedlings which I have to pull out. My cars grow moss, even the daily driver.  Mold is the fifth state of matter. But my crocs have never molded and I can put those on without looking.  I did have a pair of slip on Keens, those were good as well.

I have never been in a earthquake, but I have gotten into some troubles barefooted. Never again. I  may look silly in my crocs, but I won't be wincing on the gravel or bleeding from broken glass either.



 
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It took me a while, but I've learned that one big factor affecting the risk of mold is air-flow. If our box-spring wasn't so ugly, I would ditch the "dust-ruffle" on my bed, because it decreases the air-flow.

My indoor slippers aren't super "hard soled", but they also aren't as wimpy as many slippers I've met. They also have a sturdy insole inside that I need because most shoes weren't designed for my feet. (Although with age, my feet have widened and this has helped a lot.)

That said, I really have to up my game so far as emergencies go. We have an old motorhome that I used to keep up for that purpose, however, after Hubby let the rats in for the 3rd time, I gave up. Hubby's truck has a cap with a leak, but a tarp will fix that in the short term, so long as whatever emergency creates the need, if the truck doesn't get squished or burned, getting from my bed to the deck to the ground to the truck would be do-able in my slippers.

Shoes are an important first step, but it's good to know what step 2 is in your head also.
 
pollinator
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Yes I grew up putting my shoes under the bed. So yes my shoes still go under the bed.
I have lived in quake prone areas and in hurricane and tornado prone areas, now we live in an area that has wildfires and tornados. Important papers are in the bright red metal box near the bedroom door, the go bags are near it... meds are in a ditty bag so easy to grab also.  At night the dogs sleep in crates so we know exactly where they are and leashes are by the door.  Cars are never allowed to have less then half a tank of gas.  Yes I have evacuated a couple of times in the past...  
 
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We do not wear shoes inside. They have too many different types of animal poops on them and it would be hard to reconcile when I lay on the floor for something.
 
r ranson
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Slippers, house shoes (aka, shoes that don't get worn outside) and house sandles are very popular here.  Quite a few doctors recommend them for people with chronic pain.

Not all footwear need be worn outside the house.
 
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I live in what is probably the world capital for brown recluse spiders, and I'm sure shoes under the bed is their #1 favorite habitat, so no no no no!!
(we also would get amazing mold if shoes were kept there. it's a climate thing. If our humidity falls below 50% it's basically a rarity, more often it's 75%+, you learn to live with it)

Instead, we have the ubiquitous rubber soled flip-flops next to the bed (no place for spiders to hide in them), they are what everyone wears around the house unless it's winter and slipper time.
 
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Tereza Okava wrote:I live in what is probably the world capital for brown recluse spiders, and I'm sure shoes under the bed is their #1 favorite habitat, so no no no no!!
(we also would get amazing mold if shoes were kept there. it's a climate thing. If our humidity falls below 50% it's basically a rarity, more often it's 75%+, you learn to live with it)

Instead, we have the ubiquitous rubber soled flip-flops next to the bed (no place for spiders to hide in them), they are what everyone wears around the house unless it's winter and slipper time.



A mossie head net over each shoe?
 
Tereza Okava
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jason holdstock wrote:

Tereza Okava wrote: brown recluse spiders under the bed  


A mossie head net over each shoe?


I don't go under the bed/behind sofa/etc without gloves. If you don't touch/move something every week, it is perfect habitat for brown spiders. A net over the shoe just makes another good space for nesting!
At any given time 80% of the population here is probably wearing hard-soled thongs -- which are kept next to the bed! Not OSHA approved, but will do for stepping over broken glass. Or to get to the shoe cabinet, where the real shoes live (a well-closed spider-proof space that gets cleaned out regularly).
 
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