To think carpets are grim?

[flawedflooring]

I never gave much thought to carpets until a couple of years ago. We moved from a house with wooden floors to one with carpets and it grosses me out a bit.

I used to mop our floors once a week and the water would be pretty filthy. Now that we have carpets all that grossness is just sitting there in the carpet. Not to mention that I have been potty training DC too, which brings its own new level of grossness. Obviously I vacuum and could get it professionally cleaned, but in between times it'd still be pretty grim.

Also, with wool carpets there's a good chance you'll have some moths making themselves a nice home within, and now, knowing what we know about micro plastics, synthetic doesn't seem like the best plan either.

I'm just baffled, why do they exist? I know they're nice and warm underfoot, but so are slippers. We lived briefly in a country where carpets were nonexistent and now I understand why. Are we the only country that covers our houses in something that's pretty impossible to clean properly?!

YABU = carpets are the best thing ever
YANBU = carpets are grim

Our house wasn’t that clean growing up & I’ve got several allergies.

I’m in the UK and don’t know anyone with carpet in the bathroom. I also don’t know anyone without carpet on the stairs.
Also, it’s been a while since I have stayed in a hotel abroad, but I’m sure they all have carpets so it can’t be a uniquely British thing.
I have hard floors downstairs but a big rug which is probably just as disgusting as a carpet would be so I can’t get too bothered about it (I do hoover and carpet clean both the rug and the carpets so treat them the same).

I’ve got laminate on the stairs and carpets in both bathrooms but I’ll be changing the bathrooms when everything gets back to normal.

We bought this house new 7 years ago and the builders had carpeted the bathrooms 🤢

There are some incredibly fastidious, precious flowers on this thread

This says it all. I can't help but wonder how some of us made it to adulthood with our slovenly unhygienic ways.

eaglejulesk
Exactly!

Carpets need to be combined with no shoes IMO. we have wood downstairs (no issues) then carpet on the stairs and bedrooms. I don’t ask guests to take shoes off if they’re popping up to use the loo but generally we don’t wear shoes on our carpets.

There are some incredibly fastidious, precious flowers on this thread

Actually, having wooden floors allows you to be the opposite of fastidious and precious.

A good sweep or hoover and the occasional mop and you are good to go. Hard floors are just intensely practical, especially with dogs.

Absolutely no need to start making personal comments about people based on their flooring preferences either!

I live in a country where those kind of fitted floor carpets don't exist. But people cover their floors in rugs(carpets) and send them to the carpet cleaners when needed. You still get a nice place to sit/play off of, but its easily maintained. Some very thin rugs can also be run through the machine!

"Totally agree with this. Some people on MN are bordering on obsessive when it comes to cleaning!"

I agree about MNers cleaning too much - there's a thread on at the moment where people are saying they clean every day.
However, it doesn't mean it's not true that dust, skin, etc. clings to carpet in a way that it doesn't to other surfaces.

I clean when I can't get away with not cleaning any longer. It's stretching now that we're in lockdown and nobody else can come into the house (and see my slovenly living conditions).

But I have to slightly disagree with hard floors being better with dogs. They may be better for us as dirty paw prints can be wiped away (when I can be bothered), but my terrier slides about a lot when she jumps off the window seat or runs in for her dinner. She's young and only a small dog, but my big dogs would have suffered horribly from the lack of traction; one had problems with his hips in his latter years and he simply wouldn't have managed at all.

Zaphod it depends on the type of hard floor. We have parquet and waxed floorboards and no sliding daschunds here!

Ah, that must be it, @Studycast. I have tiles and they are slippery as hell, and poor old Big Dog also had trouble with laminate in people's houses.

I need more rugs. And more dogs.

I think it's when their claws can't get any purchase Zaphod; and there's been the odd case on the TV about dogs who are literally afraid of their own reflection on shiny floors ... .

Definitely agree about needing more dogs

"grim" - no carpets are not grim unless you have a weirdly overactive imagination in relation to "germs" etc.

they look awful, are a pain in the ass to maintain and full of dust. So grim is a pretty accurate description

The don’t look anything like as awful as vinyl or laminate if you ask me.

I’d define those as ‘grim’ much quicker than carpet.

I can't get upset about carpets after unintentionally learning about dust mites and what's on our faces.

Thinking about it @Studycast, before I bought this house, the person who owned it had daschunds and they didn't seem to have a problem with the flooring. So maybe it's just that Patterdales and tiling don't mix!

I still don't find carpets 'grim' though. I'd have bought this place even if it was fully carpeted, despite Previous Dogs having been on it.

And I'm very allergic to animals.

Oooh really love Patterdales Zaphod!

I hate carpets. Dh likes them and we have carpets upstairs because he wanted them in the bedrooms, but I don't feel clean having them. He did buy a vax carpet shampooer after I kept complaining.

I love carpets. We have laminate in the hallway and kitchen cause of dogs, bit everywhere is carpet. Its much warmer and cosy, wooden floors are cold

@Zaphodsotherhead - I had forgotten about dogs and wooden floors. Our dogs were much larger than yours,, but yes they did slide on the floors if they were tearing around.

Incidentally, is it just me who hates the use of "grim" the way it is used on MN? I don't live in the UK, and can't say I have heard the word being used for years here, not in the context it is used on MN anyway, such as to describe carpets, slippers etc.