re: You need to leave your shoes outside your House.

After reading articles warning of the dangers of bringing germs inside, I tried asking guests to remove their shoes when we moved into a brand new house in Texas 20 years ago. (We were not wearing shoes) Their reactions ranged from surprise to shock to anger and I was made to feel as though I was a bad hostess. These were a group of people from the church we had just joined, who were coming to our house for Bible study.

I gave up. I'd rather have people feel welcome and do more intensive cleaning.

Now we're in Florida and folks tend to automatically remove their shoes just because of the sand.