Host it in your backyard and offer shoe covers for those that need to come inside to use the restroom or whatever. Get cleaners to come the next day anyway bc there will be folks who wear their shoes inside the house anyway.

OP, if you're getting stressed out about this then this is about more than being a shoe-free house. This is OCD. You need to be able to adapt to circumstances and have your floors cleaned the next day.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously curious about everyone's foot hygiene if they can't bear the thought of being in socks in someone else's home.

I'm not sure what how you dress, but if I'm wearing heels of any height or sandals I am not wearing socks. I don't go barefoot in my own house, much less someone else's.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously curious about everyone's foot hygiene if they can't bear the thought of being in socks in someone else's home.

Sometimes I don’t wear socks…

We are a no-shoes Asian family and we don’t ask people to take their shoes off when we throw large parties. Just having friends over, yes absolutely will politely ask everyone to remove shoes at the door. But hosting the lunar new year party for the whole grade, no, I’m not policing shoes for that many damn people. Just get the floors cleaned afterwards. It’s part of the deal when hosting a large gathering.

Seriously curious about everyone's foot hygiene if they can't bear the thought of being in socks in someone else's home.

Shoe free house here too. I do offer shoe covers if guests would like to keep their shoes on. Just mention it on the invite, if people don’t show their loss.

I get shoe free houses but you forfeit your ability to host. No, I don’t want to see anyone’s feet at a cocktail dinner- so gross.

Anonymous wrote:We are shoe free, but I make exceptions for parties. I know several who don't, though, which is also fine.

In this case, with people I don't know, I would leave a basket of slippers and shoe covers by the door for people who want something to wear.

If you left shoe covers by the door, I would think you had fairly severe OCD. Not sure if this is the impression OP wants to give straight out of the gate.

No, I don’t think you can require your guests to take their shoes off. You can try to persuade them by having an area by the door for shoes and maybe slippers, but you cannot instruct your guests to do it.

Put it on the invite.
You could get a bunch of contractor booties for the people with orthopedic shoes etc and cheap disposable slippers and say "disposable slippers and shoe covers available."

I’m Indian and grew up in a non-shoes house. My parents never asked anyone to take off their shoes. I don’t either - and when people ask me, I say do what is comfortable. They (And I) just knew we’d being doing a lot of mopping and vacuuming the next morning with certain guests. The good thing is that guests who don’t get the clue and keep their shoes on are the type of guest to wonder out of the common areas (which makes cleaning easier).

I have an unusual situation -- I have a physical deformity that impacts both of my feet. I once attended an event at someone's home and everyone was asked to take off their shoes. I was the only person who did not, and I felt terrible, but I have crippling anxiety about my feet and I just couldn't do it.

If I'd been given a heads up I would have worn shoes with socks and it would have been a non-issue.

OP, tell people in advance.

I don't mind being asked to take off my shoes but I prefer to know before hand. A few times I have worn slacks with heels and when I took them off my slacks dragged along the floor.

Anonymous wrote:I think we’re all missing the much more important point that a school is asking all of the families to host a large gathering at home??? That’s insane to me! I assume it’s fake, right?

All our class parties at someone’s home. They were by grade. Smaller schools though.