When you hear excited cheeping and drop a three-hundred dollar laptop on the floor in your rush to get out the door because it sounds like there's something out there with the chicks and if the neighbour's cat is out there again you're gonna commit felinicide...
Possibly a Western PA farm thing, but all of my family I've ever visited has this rule. Until I visited my boyfriend's family the first time, I had no idea that this wasn't universal. Most houses near where I live have a separate sort of room (a mudroom, if you like) for shoe storage.
Honestly...