Do you wear shoes inside? The gross reason you should never

Well, ain’t that some s- -t.

Wearing shoes indoors could be welcoming a wealth of germs into your home.

While it’s no secret that public sidewalks, parks and floors run amuck with bacteria, one content creator’s DIY experiment revealed the disgusting truth stuck to the bottom of your shoes.

Dena O’Neill, a home cleaning and organizing guru who boasts more than 33,000 Instagram followers, shared the vile reality of wearing shoes indoors after swabbing the bottom of her footwear.

In an Instagram Reel that has racked up more than 20,000 likes, O’Neill embarked on a home science experiment to settle the debate between the advocates and skeptics of indoor shoe-wearing.


Bottom of shoe being swabbed
O’Neill said she “wanted to figure out how dirty our publicly worn shoes are AND the floor where we walk with those shoes.”
Instagram/dailydetailswithdena

Swabbing the floor
O’Neill swabbed the floor and bottom of shoes.
Instagram/dailydetailswithdena

“A few weeks ago, I did a poll asking who wears [publically worn] shoes throughout their house,” she wrote in the caption. “I was surprised at how many people said YES they wear any and all shoes throughout their house.”

She continued: “So, I wanted to figure out how dirty our publicly worn shoes are AND the floor where we walk with those shoes.”

After swabbing the soles of her shoes and the entryway of her home, she deposited the pathogens in a petri dish and let them fester for a week in a dark closet.

The result? A gag-inducing number of bacteria spores flourishing in both plastic dishes that had O’Neill “shook.”

While she admitted she didn’t know “exactly what’s growing in those dishes,” she said that it’s probably “not good bacteria” due to the many unclean places our shoes travel outdoors, such as parks and grass were “animals pee and poop,” public restrooms and shared floors where others walk with their outdoor shoes.

“So before this petri dish, we didn’t wear shoes in the house, and after the petri dish, I stand by my decision,” she concluded.


Swabbing petri dish
After swabbing, the bacteria were deposited in a petri dish and left alone for a week.
Instagram/dailydetailswithdena

Dirty petri dish
The petri dish flourished with a plethora of unidentified bacteria.
Instagram/dailydetailswithdena

“Here’s the thing, if you’re wearing these shoes through your house, you have to clean your floors WAY MORE OFTEN. That takes way longer than taking off the shoes,” she said, advising viewers to purchase a pair of slip-ons for indoor use only.

The Post has reached out to O’Neill for comment.

New Yorkers be warned — with a population totaling more than 8 million, there’s no telling what’s growing on the sidewalks, especially with the pet feces smeared on Upper East Side cement.

A study from Marymount Manhattan College this year found that the bacteria even persisted after the poop was scooped, one of the study co-authors previously told The Post.

“We found numbers of bacteria that were absolutely astonishing,” said chemistry professor Alessandra Leri. “The real question was, even after the feces are ostensibly cleaned up, do the bacteria persist on the sidewalks?”

Despite an onslaught of complaints that even the swankiest neighborhoods are “full of s- -t” — and not to mention the $250 fine dog owners could face for not cleaning up after their pooch — Manhattan remains a literal s- -tshow.

Leri, who voiced concerns for infants who regularly crawl on carpets and put “everything in their mouths,” also advised shoe removal in the home.

“I think that you could easily decrease your exposure in the residential environment just by taking off your shoes when you get inside, leaving them inside the entryway,” she said.