Monday, June 9, 2008

Americans and their carpets - updated w. photo

I believe I've ranted before about wall-to-wall carpets.

When I stayed with my host-family during my first year here, a pink carpet covered the floor in the bathroom. A few times, the toilet would flood, and it just created a really nasty situation. That rug had to go.

A friend who visited her sister in England came home to tell me there were carpets in the kitchen of her sister's apartment. Just imagine the unsanitary conditions there!

But this one might take the cake! My friend Beth and I were cleaning out a bedroom off of her kitchen. When moving a computer desk, I noticed a window behind it.

Standing in the middle of the room, which had no carpet on the floor, I exclaimed "Your windowsill is covered in carpet!"

"Yes, I know," Beth calmly replied, while we were both looking at the dusty soft rug that may at one point have been a dark pink.

"It's been that way since we moved in," she said.

Now, why would anyone do that?

Later that day, I cut and removed the carpet. It went straight into the trash, and the room was left with a perfectly fine, white wooden window sill.

3 comments:

BluePlastic said...

Ha...bathrooms, kitchens and windowsills are no place for carpets. :)

Somewhere like kitchens or bathrooms where water or food are likely to be spilled needs linoleum or tile or laminate, or even hardwood, not carpets. eww.

I dunno how I feel about wall to wall carpeting in the rest of the house. On the one hand, it does hold dirt and needs to be steam cleaned. On the other hand, I slip and fall easily on hardwood floors, I trip over the little rugs that people put down on them, they're cold and they attract dust bunnies. And, they're hard and they hurt when you slip and fall on them. :(

Anonymous said...

Carpets in bathrooms and kitchens - disgusting!

And disgusting in other rooms as well. Dogs run around, food and beverages get spilled, cats pee and so do kids, sometimes - not to talk about (yuck) amorous encounters in front of the fireplace... There are a million stories in the wall to wall carpet!

Vickan said...

When I lived on the farm, we also had a huge flea problem. The cats were using Frontline, but the fleas never went away.

I vacuumed twice a week and tried to keep everything clean - I even sprayed the stupid carpets with flea-killing stuff, but it seems wall-to-wall is just a haven for nasty creatures, bacteria and dust mites.