How to ask for shoes off!

[RudolphRed]

I don't want to be 'that person' but we are having a little Christmas Eve get together at our house tomorrow. We've just put every penny we have into a house renovation, so I would really prefer if guests remove their shoes. I always do when I visit people, but is there a diplomatic way to ask if they don't? I'm not usually super fussy, but we've spent so much getting our home nice, I could really do without a lot of dirty shoes traipsing through and it's given heavy rain all morning to make matters worse!
If you're just going to make a snide remark, please don't bother replying to my post - helpful answers only please. Thankyou 🥰

People live in Stately homes.
Kings and Queens do not take their shoes off and it would be the height of bad manners to ask guests.

I get that many on here don’t compute that with their precious cream carpets. (Don’t have a party then).

Never have I been to a party where people stood around in bare feet. Sounds crap.

Do you have carpets downstairs op?

If I go to a carpets downstairs/in the hall house I tend to assume they want me to take my shoes off, but if you have laminate, tiles, parquet or wood you would probably need to tell me.

I wouldn't mind at all but might need to be asked as I would assume hard floors is shoes on unless instructed otherwise.

I just say similar to others above. Could you pop your shoes there etc.

I've never understood people wearing outdoor shoes indoors. I mean, birds, dogs etc crap and wee on the street for a start. And in autumn and winter shoes are usually damp/muddy on the bottom. I mop weekly, my floor is certainly cleaner than the street! And people I know have clean houses so 🤷‍♀️
I only know 1 set of people who wear shoes indoors, they bring some indoor shoes to wear when here which is fine by me. I have a toddler and a crawling baby, I'd rather not havepeople's mucky shoes traipsing through the house! And the doormat thing...doesn't remove all water from shoes, and certainly not bacteria from poo 🥴

I'd warn everyone in advance and have some spare socks and slippers for guests. The chair or stool is a good idea for anyone struggling to balance.

Long term you might want to get a sign.

I suffer from inflammatory arthritis in my feet so the thought of being barefooted or just in socks on a hard cold floor makes me shudder as the pain would be awful. If I knew in advance I would happily bring my own slippers to wear

Simple, if they don’t (honestly, most people will) just say ‘could you please remove your shoes) If you’ve got the time, even get a shoe rack to put in your hallway before your get together as it will be a visual prompt.

In every day life people always remove their shoes, and we do too. But absolutely not for a party! I think it’s rude to ask and many people will feel uncomfortable if they’ve dressed up. Just have a good doormat and accept you may have to clean up the odd bit of dirt.

So we are a shoes on house and only once was dirt trailed through the house by an out of control drunk. .it too about 5 mins to hoover.

We have white floorings.

I know some one else who has white carpet and the only person who trailed mud in a smaller area was a disabled man .

They made a fuss about it.

Op can you buy those surgeons blue scrub plastic coverings??.

They are elasticated and so easy to slip on.... guest's can then also keep their shoes on?

I hate having my shoes off in other people’s houses. In my own I always have slippers or flip flops in summer. I hate the feeling of crumbs underfoot, or cold floors, just standing around in socks feels weird and uncomfortable. I always bring slippers to friends’ houses but if I was going to a ‘party’ I probably wouldn’t think to. Just message people beforehand to say please bring slippers as it’s no shoes and give them the option! I would be v peed off if it was sprung on me at arrival!

Purple chicken, a clean house and living cleanly are two different things.

'Hello, Welcome, etc etc. Shall I take your coat? You can leave your shoes over there'.

Tell people in advance by messaging them:

Hey, looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow at ours. The fizz is on ice! Forecast heavy rain tomorrow and we’ve just had new carpets so if you want to bring indoor shoes or slippers we’d really appreciate it. See you soon!

Yes, it is rude to ask someone to go shoeless if it causes them pain! As I said, some of us have medical conditions that require supportive shoes (not slippers) to be worn at all times. A good host would never Vue their carpet more than the physical comfort of their guests.

@Quincythequince If shoes have been worn outside at all, even just from the car to my front door, then they're not coming past the genkan area of my hall. I don't want my toddler crawling around on dirty floors 🤷🏻‍♀️

Happy for you to do whatever you want in your house but I choose to not have shoes on in mine.

You could not course mop it of an evening, and especially after a party.

You’d probably also have a heart attack if you could see what germs your toddler is exposed to in the run or normal mill toddler stuff.

Slides, soft play, high chairs
etc… but as you were.

Thinking about the socks only indoors thing…the worst injury I ever had was when I was wearing socks - I’d taken my boots off at the back door and I slipped on the tiled floor. Landed on my ankle and heard it snap, spent a week in hospital having it pinned and plated. I’ve still got the hardware in there twenty years later, and it still gives me trouble in cold and damp weather. I’d be utterly horrified if that ever happened to anyone in my home because I’d asked them to remove their shoes. I just can’t get my head round putting your flooring above your guests.

I have a sign up next to my front door - Shoeless House - so I don’t have to say it.

It’s much more common these days than when I started enforcing no shoes 26 years ago after having my 1st DC (common sense - my family used to hate it but all do it themselves now!). I think most people would expect to take shoes off if they were going into someone’s house.

Depends what your ‘get to together’ is? A few friends casually sat round on the sofas chatting fine to ask them to remove shoes. A larger gathering for a stand up drinks do/ party it’s really not the done thing and you’ll have to just put up with it

it reminded me of the SATC episode too!

I mop weekly, my floor is certainly cleaner than the street!

I mop my kitchen floor every day. It takes five minutes. We wear our shoes in the house.

I don't think there's a polite way because it's just so incredibly rude to ask people to remove shoes

Just ask politely when the come in can you take your shoes off please.
Or leave a big note on the door knocker please take your shoes off once inside. X

If you took your shoes off you wouldn't need to mop as much 🤷‍♀️

I must be mopping wrong, it takes me five minutes just to fetch it, fill up the bucket and lug it to the living room.

Same here.

And tbh, I'd probably not go. I hate "shoes off" indoors. I have recurrent Achilles tendonitis, and spending more than brief periods standing or walking barefoot exacerbates it.

I doubt the OP is expecting the King, though.