Is it okay to put your shoes in the Puja room?

Our house isn't a large mansion with walk-in closets and vast amounts of storage space. Sorry, Tom, I don't even have a garage to clutter. Having packed our closet from Minnesota, we were immediately challenged with the question of where we should put things; and, thus have kept much of the hanging cloths in the boxes they were shipped in (the rooms are only provide with an amoire each to accommodate, well, everything).

We have a small enclave on the main floor that we started using to put our shoes in and I had been wondering how I could add hanging rods and shelving to have someplace to hang some of the clothes stashed under the bed.

The owners had told us that we shouldn't hesitate to talk to them about how we can make the house more comfortable as they said that the place was intended by them to be rented to westerners. So I asked about making the changes, but my request was rebuffed because the owners had intended that the room be a Puja (blessing/prayer) room, typically housing a statue and/or picture of the god most closely associated with by the resident. That, of course, explains why the "closet" had the best light fixture in the house.

We do have a Ganesha in the house near the front door, but that is about as far as I (and I would wager, ANY foreigner) would be willing to go to putting up Hindi shrines in the house. .....So now we are to using loose rack fixtures to help with the storage challenge....The shoes will have to stay in the Puja room.