Keeping Carpet Clean

18 Comments

I consider us pretty fortunate to have found our rental in the middle of the winter. It’s a brand-new twin home that has never been lived in. How often does that happen for rentals?

Our place was one of two listings that I found that didn’t have taupe/tan/off-white walls. It has warm grey paint with white plain moulding, loads of south-facing windows, a large kitchen with a very open floorplan and a gigantic unfinished walk-out basement for my studio. Really, this place is just about perfect. Except for the carpet (and linoleum flooring, but that’s a totally different issue).

I can’t stand carpet. It’s nice in bedrooms, but I don’t find carpet has a place in high-traffic areas. At least not cheap rental carpet that will likely go threadbare in a few short years.

We’re fortunate enough to have a “tiled” entryway by the front door, but there’s nothing to protect the carpet from the door leading to the garage. We have two rugs on either side of the door, but the one on the inside of the door always gets crumpled up, and bunches beneath the door.

As I was fixing it for the millionth time the other day, I had a little brainwave to tack down the rug with upholstery tacks. The subfloor is wood, but not gorgeous hardwood that’s waiting to be revealed. It took me about two seconds to secure the rug and it looks WORLDS better. It’ll also make vacuuming it a breeze. I’ll let you know how it holds up.

So tell me, if you could build your dream home, would it have carpet in it? Mine surely wouldn’t!!

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    1. Marisa says:

      I definitely agree with you, wall-to-wall carpet is unnecessary in every room of the house except maybe for the bedrooms. Apart from that, carpet just gets in the way. It gets dirty really quickly but is hard to clean and you can’t really put chairs on it because they leave marks. Loose carpets are much more practical.

    2. kelly says:

      We don’t have any carpet and I like it that way, but when we go over to visit our sweet little neighbor, my daughter Lorelai rolls around on the floor because she loves the carpet ;)

    3. Our house is mostly hard floors, only carpet in the bedrooms. I always thought I’d want hard floors but we have a 75lb terrier who clicks and clacks up and down the hall and its super loud and annoying. So then I wish for just a little bit more carpet ;) BUT, hard floors are so easy to care for so it’s a trade off I guess. XO

    4. Crystal says:

      I’m with you. We have hard floors in the main living area and carpet just in the bedrooms. It makes it so much easier for general clean-up, and is wonderful for potty training and puking kids :)

    5. Emily says:

      Sounds like you’ve got a great space!!!!! I do like carpet in the bedrooms but not in the kitchens or bathrooms (eek!) or entryways. I’ve never had a non carpeted family/living/tv/piano room and while I theoretically like a non carpeted room, I’m not sure if it would just be too loud.

    6. Emily says:

      PS I have some friends that did the same thing with a rug. So smart.

    7. Kristin says:

      We have wall to wall hardwood and I hate it in the bedrooms. Sure, it’s easy to clean in high traffic areas, but the dust is visible ten seconds after I clean it and I hate mopping my bedroom floors. In a perfect world, I’d have hardwood living areas and carpeted bedrooms.

    8. Erin R. says:

      No carpet. When we bought our house, we were fortunate that it had lovely hardwood under all the carpet. We pulled up all the carpet and refinished the floors. Now we just need to replace the linoleum in the kitchen with bamboo and the linoleum in the bathroom with tile. I use area rugs in the kids rooms to give them a soft place to play and warmer floors for the feet in the winter.

    9. phil says:

      concrete !!!!

    10. Heather C. says:

      When we bought our home it was ALL carpet. Yes, all! Bathrooms, kitchen, you name it. The bathrooms are now tile, dining room and master are hardwood (I love old homes that have the nice hardwood subfloor hidden underneath.) The kitchen is still carpet until we can remodel the entire kitchen. Until then, we have less dishes that brake so that’s a great plus!
      Looks like you have a beautiful place!

    11. samarahuel says:

      Oh my goodness, I HATE carpet. I can’t understand for the life of me why it was ever a coveted thing to have “wall to wall carpet.” With kids, I see it as having one benefit: a softer landing for learning to sit/walk, but everything else: eating, potty training, puking, UGH! It’s such a pain. You can use rugs when that little bit of padding is needed, and I think they’re easier to clean (or even rotate to hide any stubborn stains if need be). I have rugs over the carpet in my kids’ rooms anyway, as we already had them for our last apartment and it was simpler than finding a place to store them. They shift and get rumpled, which was never a problem having them over hard flooring. I love your idea for solving that! Also, because our place is so small, the only place my husband has for working on his bicycle is the living room. Carpet is not the best flooring option for all that grease and dirt. So, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I HATE CARPET!

    12. Heidi says:

      Clever!
      My dream home would have heated hardwood floors, no carpet although I’m not against a pretty rug or 3.

    13. how in the world did you find a rental with such a pretty wall color?! I looked for 8 months and concluded that it didn’t exist in UT. any suggestions?

    14. Jenn says:

      We have the same warm grey walls, but they made the molding a glossy green/grey so the whole house was quite depressing. We have repainted all the rooms except the stairway and front room.
      We also have this cheap (I think it was literally on clearance) tan carpet. It is like a stain magnet & since its made of plastic, you can’t clean it like you think you should be able to. Trust me, I have tried!
      I am planning to put slate tiles down through all high traffic areas – entry, hallways, kitchen, dining & baths. Then I want to put med-dark stain wide plank wood in the rest of the house. I figure I can always buy rugs if I really miss carpet. But I love how well slate hides dirt, a must have with a kiddo & 3 dogs in the house! Plus it’s practically indestructible :)

    15. Aside from your flooring issues, your new place sounds like lovely and like a renter’s dream! I can’t wait till you share some photos… :)

    16. marissa says:

      i totally agree about the carpets. i love seeing wood floors! but rodney needs them for his fragile feet that can’t handle too much hard, flat surface. hahaha! i love this and i have to say i’m glad we don’t have carpet at our doorways to the outside. i would seriously hate that.

    17. JulieK says:

      I surely would NOT have carpeting anywhere in a house I built. We are fortunate that we don’t have it at all either in our 1961 Cape (yay!) we have a few area rugs but that’s it!!
      (On the sidenote – I love your blog design, and also this comment drop down feature – is this part of the template or theme? I’d love to know how you made this happen!!! TY!!)

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