Rugs in Your Home: All Pros and Cons

Rugs, or carpets are floor coverings that have been popular for centuries and can still be found in many apartments and houses of different styles. And this is not in the least surprising – they bring many positive things into our homes. However, there are many people, who are absolutely prejudiced against rugs and would never put them on their floor. That is why we decided to find out all the truth about this piece of décor and name its pros and cons honestly and completely.

Pros of rugs

Soundproofing

If you’ve ever visited a rehearsal room of a music band, you must have seen a carpet on its floor. That’s because this covering perfectly absorbs loud sounds and improves our relations with neighbors. In fact, this refers not just to musicians, but to all people living in apartment buildings.

Heat insulation

Carpets undoubtedly retain heat and can warm you up on cold winter evenings. Perhaps, this is one of the most common reasons for having rugs on the floor.

Disguise

Rugs hide dirt far better than linoleum, parquetry or laminate: you can even drop a piece of pizza or some pasta on a carpet and forget about it for a couple of days. A less popular option is to use carpets for camouflaging imperfections of walls: your kid’s creativity, holes, detached wallpaper or non-washable stains.

Coziness

Even if your room is a mess and you already forgot about the last time you cleaned the window, a sweet little rug on the floor would bring a note of homey coziness to the interior.

Cons of rugs

Dust

Remember the clouds of gray powder coming out of your carpet when you were beating the dust out of it? It’s hard to believe this, but a carpet is able to accumulate up to 2-3 kilos of dust annually. So, it’s the main disadvantage of this floor covering and the most common reason for allergies, breathing problems and sleep disorders.

Trash

On average, rugs are four times dirtier than toilet seats and seven times dirtier than almost any pedestrian street. Why? Because of keratinized skin particles that drop from our body – about 600,000-1,500,000 pieces per hour!

Vermins

Best you not know how many small insects and micro-organisms live in rugs. According to British researchers, there are millions of them. In fact, almost anything can be found in a carpet, from E. coli to bacteria causing pneumonia. On the other hand, chemicals that are sometimes used to treat rugs can be so toxic that even mice die of them.

Fire danger

Pile of rugs is one of the first things that catches fire and turns into a big fire pit. And a synthetic rug may poison its owner with extremely toxic gas.

Smells

Carpets absorb smells: food, cigarette smoke and anything you spill on them. And there’s a chance that neither regular cleaning, nor air fresheners would be able to fight this cocktail of odors.

Now that you’re aware of all the pros and cons of carpets, you’ll be able to make the right choice. And if you’re determined to get a rug, we have a few tips for you!

Tips

• Choose light-colored carpets for limited spaces – they can expand them at least visually. While darker shades of floor coverings optically narrow rooms.
• The golden designer rule says that you should leave about 20-30 centimeters of free space between a carpet and a wall.
• The best choice for a bedroom is a carpet with long pile – it adds warmth.
• The best choice for a kid’s room is a carpet with short pile – it’s easier to clean.
• The best choice for a mudroom is a carpet with rubber backing – it absorbs moisture and is more wear-resistant.
• The best choice for a dining room is a carpet, on which a table and all the chairs can be arranged completely.
• A rug in natural wool shouldn’t smell like sheep: responsible producers treat their products with antistatic and hypoallergenic components that kill all the smells.
• A rug should be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner at least once or twice a week. And both from the upper side and the backing (!).
• Thorough dry-cleaning should be held at least once or twice a year and preferably by a professional cleaning company.
• Wet cleaning is permissible only at selected parts of the rug. For example, if you need to remove a stain.