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

If anyone really wants to be grossed out, we have cream carpet everywhere apart from the kitchen, bathrooms and dining room. We’re a shoes on household and the downstairs carpets get professionally cleaned annually. The carpet looks as immaculate as it did the day it was laid. Since the only thing that touches it is feet - you know, exactly what it was designed for - it seems fine to me.

"What they do have are well insulated, well heated homes. That’s not universally true of the U.K."

It's not universally true of Europe either. Belgian and northern French homes are no better insulated or heated from what I've seen. Scandinavian, maybe.
Even northern Spain can be pretty cold in the winter and they don't have good heating or carpets there. It really isn't just a climate thing.

Laurie - isn't wood harder to clean than laminate though. I think that some wood (parquet?) needs to be polished rather than washed with water.
I'm pretty happy with my laminate. I have a carpeted hallway, but I'd never go back to a fully carpeted place and can't even visit a carpeted place with pets for long.

Not a fan of carpets. Only nice when they are new. Then they stain and collect dirt, and you have to live with that for years. May be ok for a small household of very tidy and careful grown-ups, but not for a family with children or pets.
I think they were trendy in the 60s and 70s in most of Europe, then people moved on to more practical flooring solutions.

What I really don't get is carpets in public places. Schools. Hospitals. Why?

I used to be a strictly carpet girl but now we have wood downstairs and I love it. Carpets upstairs still which I think is ok. I hoover, we dont have potty training children anymore and generally dont eat or drink upstairs

Carpet is minging. I've lived in 6 different houses (very old and very modern) with a mixture of different floors and that is my unshakable conclusion.

Unless it's less than 2 years old and white so you can see it's clean AND it's hardly used (like my aunts entire house) then it's going to be yucky or on the way to being yucky.

I have a big living room with a wood floor and our large rug in the middle at the moment is a Persiany one with cream as a base colour. I hoover the whole floor plus rug every morning and mop the wood twice a week. The water never looks dirty but although the rug has only been down 6 months you can see the dirt starting to build up on the cream bits. We don't wear shoes in here and we all tend to walk around the rug as well! No dogs. One white cat.

No thanks to carpet.

Use a vacuum and get a wet vax to get any remaining dirt out x

There are plenty of cleaning products that you can use to clean carpets properly. We also use a rug doctor 2 or 3 times a year on ours. I think they do help with keeping the house warmer - carpets are less popular in many other European countries but they have better insulation and efficient heating in my experience.

As long as you clean regularly carpet is fine. Absolutely no carpet in bathrooms or kitchens though!!

We've got carpet upstairs (except bathrooms!) and hard floors downstairs - that feels like the perfect combination to me. Easy to clean downstairs where more dirt is likely to be brought in, but more cosy upstairs with carpet.

May be ok for a small household of very tidy and careful grown-ups,

That describes our household exactly

Carpet is minging...I hoover the whole floor plus rug every morning and mop the wood twice a week

No it isn't Laiste. It really isn't. People and animals are minging. Do you have pets and/or small children or are you just being excessively fastidious?

My carpets certainly aren't minging but appreciate other people's might be.
We are a shoes off house. straight off as you come in on the mat and slippers on.
I have tiles in the porch, kitchen, toilet and bathroom. Wood in 1 bedroom and carpet everywhere else.
We will replace the living room with hard floor when we get closer to getting a puppy but the rest can stay.
I am asthmatic and if I don't hoover my carpeted bedroom regularly then I suffer. Once every few days is enough with Henry.

We have carpet on the stairs, landing and in 2 of the bedrooms. Wool carpet. I had never worried about moths in 10 years and now we appear to have the little bastards.

The bedroom carpets are going. Everything else will be treated. Urgh

If you look after carpets properly they're OK but not in bathrooms or kitchens. I can aporeciate that people might not like them but I find hard floors cold, echoey and a bit sterile.

We just moved into a 6 year old house. Built by Persimmon.

We had the flooring guy in straight away to remove the carpet in the bathroom and the toilet downstairs

Our neighbour said ALL the Persimmon houses on this estate were built with carpet in the bathroom and downstairs toilet! Absolutely disgusting!!

I see where you're coming from but it's not like the dirt has to just build up - you can hoover and clean the carpet. Plus I've never known a house with no carpets to feel anything but sterile. I see the reason for tiling throughout in some parts of the world but it really decreases how homely a place feels.

Why would you put carpets in bathrooms and toilets? Now that is crazy!!

It's not the carpets that make asthmatics and allergics ill though, is it? It's the dust. Or sometimes, if they are allergic to wool, it may be the fabric. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to go into any public building with soft floor coverings or hotels. I'm allergic to dust mites, and only have trouble with carpets when I'm taking them up.

I have tiled flooring throughout downstairs. Like I said before, it's very practical, but a bit 'industrial' and not very cosy. Also, if you drop ANYTHING it will smash/shatter or break and may also damage the tiles. I'm putting down easy-wash rugs in the main areas.

I personally find them gross.
. Have removed several old fitted carpets and it's disgusting with the crap from perished underlay and dirty corners where nobody has cleaned in years.

Why anyone would want that shit in their living space is beyond me. And it doesn't matter how good a housekeeper you are .

I have concrete floors and floor paint and rugs . if you saw the crap that comes up when I shake the rugs and sweep and mop....you would agree..

@kazza446 my parents have carpet in the bathroom because my dad has Parkinsons and is unsteady on his feet, trips easily on things like rugs and mats, and doesn't have the dexterity to just slip some slippers on.

It's not that crazy.

I sometimes work with Americans to help them relocate here.
When I’m doing a homesearch most of them specify no carpets in the bathroom because they’ve heard that “all British bathrooms have carpet”
They are very relived to find that’s not the case!

I don't understand how all your carpets are so dirty though....... we have children and a cat, and are Mr and Mrs beige. Everything is white/cream/beige, carpets, walls, sofa's. We've never had any incident that couldn't be cleaned. Perhaps that's the answer, if everything shows every mark, you are more careful, and clean up as you go along?

Baah - it's the dust, animal skin, etc. that just get stuck in carpets. They're bad for people with allergies even if they don't look dirty.

I think as well that part of it may be the current craze for everything to be 'bacteria free' (ha, like that's possible!). Every advert on the TV is saying things like 'your washing machine LOOKS clean, but are there lingering bacteria in there?' (well, yes, obviously). And then trying to sell you something to clean it. We've also got it now with carpets, trying to tell you that your carpet has 'bacteria' in and needs to be cleaned with their special solution that will render 99% of bacteria DEAD!

So people are perceiving dirt, perfectly normal, household dirt and dust, to be teeming with deadly bacteria which need to be expunged from the face of the earth.

I'm watching with interest to see what has happened to people's general background levels of immunity after COVID and all the relentless cleaning and wiping and bleaching of everything.

It’s true OP about carpets holding dirt. I think for living room you definitely need flooring with young kids. I have mainly carpets they are warmer by far and I bought a Vax carpet cleaner!

@Zaphodsotherhead....so true. Companies'are really cashing in on this 'DEADLY BACTERIA' craze