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

I moved to a house with no carpets, and I miss them so much. Hate kneeling/sitting/crawling after young DC on a hard floor (and yes I've tried the foam mats but they just constantly pull them up). If we had the money I would carpet the bedrooms for sure.

I've got carpets. every room except for the kitchen/diner.
just buy a carpet cleaner there not much money and they get all the dirt up we can't see. Problem solved.

Zaphodsotherhead So true. I wonder how many people worry about what's going on in their matteresses and pillows as well as their carpets? Personally, I don't care. Luckily we don't have allergies, and we all have feather pillows and duvets, which are rarely cleaned and I am sure are about 98% dead skin and bacteria by now .

"all the relentless cleaning and wiping and bleaching of everything."

I'm disinfecting food that comes in to my home, but other than that no extra cleaning as I live alone. I don't see why it would be necessary as long as I wash my hands after coming in or after touching something that gets used outside like my bank card.

I hate them, they really gross me out and just don’t look or feel clean.

I also don’t like the look of them - to me, they look quite dated (weren’t wall to wall carpets a mid 20th century invention?) Personally, I think a wooden floor with a rug looks a lot cleaner and more stylish. Wooden floors can be kept clean and last for decades with care so seem a better investment/less wasteful too.

And as for them being cosy/warm I just wear slippers.

Take your shoes off after you come in and only wear indoor shoes or slippers, helps a lot

I hate carpet. It’s pretty much guaranteed to be gross unless it’s very regularly cleaned professionally, and no one does that.

I get wanting something soft and warm underfoot, but rugs work for that and can be easily pulled up and cleaned properly (or just replaced if something really nasty happens eg. pet diarrhoea).

And as for them being cosy/warm I just wear slippers

Which is completely missing the point. Our house has very old wide floorboards without carpets the draught would make the entire house freezing. I dread to think what our (already substantial) heating bills would be like.

Some people like carpets, others don’t. There’s really no need to brand them grim, gross, filthy, etc. I don’t want to live in a sterile hermetically sealed box and wear slippers all the time.

Rugs don’t work for me. They don’t cover the floor fully so it defeats the purpose. And they can slip.

We love our all wool carpets with tiling in kitchen and bathroom. We don't have children or pets and neither are we in the habit of dribbling or spilling food - if you wipe your feet before you come in it's no problem. I don't understand this obsession with germs and dirt that seems to have taken over, I blame this Hinch woman who seems to have fuelled the anti-germ anxiety. We brought children up on cosy carpeted floors and none of us ever suffer from upset tummies and the like. Marble floors in Spain are super in the hot summer but blooming miserable in their chilly, damp winters.

We pulled up old carpets and couldn't afford new ones.
We have exposed floor boards with gaps and don't feel any colder at all in winter.

Yeh wearing slippers is pretty grim tbh. I might get some'crocs'....
And rugs are no good if you have small children.

I like a mix all hard floors downstairs with rugs, carpets from the stairs up, expect bathrooms of course.

Slippers are grim!!!

Bloody hell! I have heard it all now

There are some incredibly fastidious, precious flowers on this thread

@Alsohuman no I didn’t miss the point. I’d rather have wooden floor and put on an extra layer or wear slippers than have carpets. If I had big drafty floorboards I’d replace them with errrr better wooden flooring or fill them somehow rather than have carpet.

And slippers are grim? Ok.

I really do think carpets are gross, unhygienic and generally look horrible. You’ll note that’s what I think - it’s my opinion.

@Zaphodsotherhead

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.

The pathogen aspect doesn’t bother me, but choosing to have something that harbours hair and dead skin is disgusting to me. To me it isn’t any different to someone scratching their dandruff out while sat next to me and it going on my clothes.

but choosing to have something that harbours hair and dead skin is disgusting to me

Are you unfamiliar with hoovers?

@LaurieMarlow

but choosing to have something that harbours hair and dead skin is disgusting to me

Are you unfamiliar with hoovers?

A vacuum cleaner will still leave hair and skinflakes behind in a carpet.

If vacuum cleaners worked that well carpet shampoo machines wouldn’t get so much dirt out though.

"Are you unfamiliar with hoovers?"

Did you not see my point above about hoovers and carpets?

I don't get the hygiene thing. No one that I know of has become ill from carpets in a reasonably well tended home (maybe severe asthmatics aside) . People have managed perfectly well with them for many many years. Any dirt and dust dries settles and is hoovered up. You can shampoo them. Bit of dirt never hurt anyone anyway!

"No one that I know of has become ill from carpets in a reasonably well tended home (maybe severe asthmatics aside) ."

The people you know with pet and dust allergies probably avoid houses with carpets. I can assure you that pet dander in carpets makes me ill.

I am not 'fastidious' or 'precious' at all I just find the whole concept and reality of 'slippers' a bit revolting. I would rather walk about in muddy boots indoors tbh. Blame my mother she never got us 'slippers'.
Plus they are always really naff looking.

I love my carpets, but I will admit to hoovering daily, bring a shoes off household, and acting like a demon with the carpet washer.

Hard floors and rugs would be my first choice. The kind you can hang over a line outside on a sunny day and beat the crap out of with a carpet beater (only fun because you use the dyson on them 99% of the time.)