One of the easiest ways to keep dirt outside and off your carpets and floors is to take off your shoes when you get home. The shoes you wear out will gather all sorts of interesting items on the soles and in the treads. If you walk around your house with these shoes on, dirt will invariably fall off into your carpets or onto your tiles. Wooden floors are especially susceptible, with dirt and sand having a sanding effect on the wood. Stiletto shoes can also damage a wooden floor with or without street dirt on them!
Allowing for a frequent and handy change of shoes does mean having the correct things in place to allow several pairs of outdoor shoes, indoor slippers and a suitable area to do the shoe change.
If you enter the house through a garage, keep a shoe rack inside the garage. Each member of the household can keep their indoor and outdoor shoes on it – preferably with indoor shoes above the outdoor ones to avoid dirt cross-contamination.
Wherever you do it, try and keep it as neat as possible – there is nothing worse than piles of haphazard shoes!