I buy cheap open sandals or repurpose old ones to wear as slippers. No outdoor shoes, we have white carpet throughout the house. I wear a bathrobe a lot at home, or exercise clothes. To wear outdoor clothes and shoes at home would really feel uncomfortable. I grew up in Russia, where there was usually a lot of mud outside and people normally kept several pairs of extra slippers for guests.
On the shoes or no shoes in the house matter, I’ll never forget the housewarming my brother had in his brand new house. Pine floors in the living and dining rooms. Someone wore stilettos and much of the wood flooring was damaged with gouges from the heels. Nobody thought about it and nobody noticed it until his wife was cleaning up. Now there’s at least one good reason for no shoes 
I grew up in the mid-Atlantic but my parents were both from very snowy climates. We did not have a “no shoes”policy but we did enter the house through a garage/laundry and never ever used the front door (only guests did). If the weather was gross, it was common sense to leave our shoes in the laundry room, but otherwise, we would wear them inside. My next door neighbor growing up had white carpet and would yell at any kids coming in to take off shoes and then she was the type that followed us around to make sure we wouldn’t leave a mess. Needless to say, we hated going over there to play so rarely did. I never wanted my kids’ friends to feel that way. No white carpet here-we have wood floors and an area rug in the family room.
When my kids were younger, I did try to get them in the habit of removing shoes just to keep the floors cleaner when we were walking around barefoot. However, I quickly learned that four kids in six years going constantly in and out to play and often needing help with shoes just became unmanageable. So I gave up. Now that they are older, they do typically kick off their shoes and leave them in our garage or mud room, it only if they are coming home and staying a while. Often their shoes are in their room, so they will put them on and wear them inside until they leave. The only time I remind them to remove shoes is if it is wet out. Their friends sometimes kick,their shoes off at my front door where I have a large rug just inside the door but it is not something I would ever insist.
The only time I lived anywhere where everyone removed shoes was in Hawaii. I learned pretty quickly that this was common practice so made sure my toes were always nicely polished.
I’m not a big poster on CC, but I did want to chime in on this one. We too are a no shoes in the house family. My mom who lives close by has trouble with her arches so I keep a pair of “indoor only” Nike’s for her that she puts on when she comes over. I have a D18 and S22 who have friends over often and most every kid takes their shoes off without even being asked. I find most of our friends here in an Austin suburb do the same. One of our very dear friends is Asian and offers a bin of slippers to wear when you take off your shoes in their home. I am a giant germaphobe and all I can think about is mersa or staph or god knows what else is on the floor of our local Target, HEB or CVS. Can’t imagine wearing my outside shoes inside, but hey, to each their own which is one of the awesome beauties of CC! :)>-
We had hardwood floors that scratched easily in our house in MN. That is when we got in the habit of slippers or socks. We didn’t make guests do it, though.
NEPatsGirl, I knew about another situation where stilettos ruined a brand new hardwood floor.
When we had a reception for S and DIL we went round and round about how to handle this.
D had a fit that we would tell people they could not wear heels to this gathering. We added a cute
ditty to the invite basically saying shoes on were fine and the floor did not like heels. Not sure exactly
what the wording was but I was relieved and did not get any criticism except from D> I am truly looking
forward to the day D has new flooring and nice things ;).
In HI, it’s mostly assumed that it you go to someone’s home you would remove your shoes unless they entreat you to leave them on and they as hosts have their shoes on.
It’s important to try to bring distinctive footwear and remember to reclaim your footwear when you leave. Sometimes when many of the guests wear similar (often black rubber) slippers, there is a mismatched paír or someone goes home with someone else’s slippers as their pair was mistakenly claimed by someone else.
Yes, according to our flooring installer, stilettos and sand are two of the worst things for wooden floors. 
Anyone remember the Sex and The City episode where Carrie goes to a party and has to remove her shoes? Hilarious, and her expensive shoes ended up missing. I side with her on this one - my shoes are part of my outfit, I don’t want to go to someones house and walk around barefoot.
I grew up in the mid-atlantic. I had one friend whose mom made everyone remove shoes and she had white everything and vacuumed constantly. I don’t personally know anyone as an adult has you remove shoes before entering their home.
I grew up in a community that had a large population of people of Pacific Islander and Japanese descent. Most of my friends had households where we removed our shoes. My SIL lived in Japan for a number of years and in her house people remove shoes.
I don’t find my floors to be any dirtier whether we wear shoes or not. Most of the dirt comes in from the dog. When I clean my floors they aren’t really all that dirty. The exception is if it’s raining or if we have been at the beach we take our shoes off.
I will share a story about shoes. When my mother died and people had gathered at her house, everyone took off their shoes which was funny because my parents never did. At the end of the night, my poor cousin found out that someone had taken one of her shoes and left one of theirs. She never did get back the right shoe.
If I’m having guests, I do not expect them to take their shoes off… but a lot of them do.
For those times, I just plan to vacuum and bona when they leave…but I would have to do that anyway after entertaining!
I used to have cute shoes to wear to parties. Now where I live everyone is obsessive about their floors and everyone takes off their snow boots and puts on slippers.
I got everyone a pair of Minnetonka moccasins for Christmas a year ago. They’ve replaced regular slippers for my husband and me. My daughters occasionally wear them to school. And my son never took them out of the box.
When the weather gets warm, I change to Teva mush flip flops.
So if you are worried about germs on your shoes are you also taking off all your clothes when you get home from being out? I’m sort of not being sarcastic - but sort of am! Your clothes touch all kinds of things when you are out - including your hands that touch SO MANY things and then touch your clothes when you get in the car, zip your coat,
Do you sanitize your pets paws when they come in from a walk?
“What do you people who have the “no shoes indoors” rule do when you entertain? Don’t you ever have large parties? Do you make everyone take off their shoes for those?”"
For adults, parties or just when a few are over, I don’t do a “no shoes” policy. For some adults, especially older ones, getting in and out of shoes can be challenging. They are my guests so normal household rules don’t apply to them. I wouldn’t want to make it awkward for anyone who might be uncomfortable with it for a whole host of reasons.
For the kids’ friends, they always took off their shoes. Most would normally as soon as they arrived. If they didn’t, my kids would ask them to. The “kids” are in their 20s now and still take off their shoes.
If I go to someone’s house, I’ll follow whatever I see them doing. If they are wearing shoes, I’ll keep them on. If they aren’t, I’ll take them off.
“So if you are worried about germs on your shoes are you also taking off all your clothes when you get home from being out?”
My clothes aren’t stomping around on the ground where animals poop and people spit, etc. 
But, actually, when I was still working, I usually did change as soon as I got home although that was mainly for comfort reasons. And I typically do wash my hands when I come home from shopping or whatever.
When we did have a dog, her paws did get a wiping when she came back in the house.
When I was in elementary school, by bestie’s parents were from Japan. We were under strict orders to leave the shoes in the mud room. I have been charmed by that idea ever since.
Wiping is what I do with my shoes when I come inside on a rug - so unless your disinfecting your pups paws according to the shoes have germs rule, their paws still have germs!
Not a thing to debate - really - I probably shouldn’t have brought it up - the extend to which some people go just surprises me!
For me, going shoeless is just as much about comfort as cleanliness.
I guess we are lucky not to have issues with our feet that necessitate wearing shoes although I do wonder, however, if some of that is because we go barefoot as much as possible. It’s not like the human body was made to wear footwear the majority of the day.
I’ll also add that for me it is less about germs than wear and tear. I’m not a a germaphobe and actually think being exposed to some germs is better for one’s immune system. I’ll never use anti-bacterial products in my home, for example, and think that all the washing of anti-bacterial products down our drains is not good for us.
In addition to the comfort factor, the no shoes thing is more about wear and tear and laziness. Germs aside, bringing dirt into the house does cause wear and tear on carpets and wood floors. Laziness factors in because a shoeless house means you can get away with cleaning your floors less frequently.