If your experience is similar to mine, as you ease yourself into wet-weather riding, you will develop a much better sense of your local weather, including which local forecasts you believe, and will be able to further extend your comfort zone while also limiting your gear to the stuff that you absolutely need. I started out with carrying full rain jacket and pants every single day, in case the weather changed during the day. Today, I rarely carry any gear unless it's actually raining when I leave my house. The weather is the same, I still don't love to get soaked, but I rarely get caught off guard by rain any more.
For shoes, when it gets warm enough, I just wear sandals or flip flops and carry my shoes in a bag.