My New Outlook on Carpet

A French lop rabbit

For the past three years, I've lived in an apartment with hardwood floors. I loved this apartment - it had crown molding throughout and black & white tile in the bathroom. I even loved the hardwood floors. For awhile. Then after a few years, the dust bunnies began to build up to a very obvious level, and my roommate and I just didn't have enough time to constantly move furniture in order to clean. By the time we moved out, I'm pretty sure those bunnies were the size of lop-eared rabbits.

Then there was our inability to sit comfortably on the floor, which naturally lead to a lack of seating when we had larger, casual parties. I ended up finding a large area rug for $20 from Bed Bath & Beyond* that we used in the living room, but for $20, you don't get much from an area rug, including any sort of cushion.

Recently, because of the end of our lease as well as my roommate's impending nuptials, I moved into a new apartment. The new place has many of the details I loved about the old (an abundance of character, being one), but it also has carpet. At first, I was skeptical. How many people's dirty feet walked over that carpet? I even bypassed one apartment because of its smooshed, tainted carpet... Blech! as Snoopy would say.

But this new apartment has good carpet, as I most pleasantly discovered. It's a cut pile, neutral in color and pretty basic. But it's thick and cozy and, quite frankly, it makes my feet happy. Plus, I feel like my entire apartment is one comfortable space for my friends to sit, stand, rest or spend the night. It opens up many more possibilities that our hardwood floors formerly canceled out. I don't feel like dust bunnies will take over my space - the Carpet & Rug Institute says it even improves indoor air quality. And I really believe that the carpet provides additional insulation that cools in the summer and warms in the winter.

It's not that I dislike hardwood floors - quite the contrary. I've simply expanded my flooring options and find myself pleasantly surprised...



* On a completely unrelated note, I've recently been very impressed with Bed, Bath & Beyond as a retail store. Its employees are generally friendly and knowledgeable, its return policy is excellent, and it provides gift wrap for bridal registry gifts - free of charge! And then, of course, it offers the occasional $20 area rug find. But as impressed as I am with BB&B, I'm as equally unimpressed with Target's return policy. I have always been a huge Target advocate, but lately, I'm considering decreasing my trips there - talk about a lack of customer service.

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