06 Jun 07 Black & White

In our living room we have what I think is the very worst thing. A white carpet. Yes, white. OK, so it looks nice when it’s clean.

And that, is what makes it the worst thing. Clean.

It looks white, you shampoo it, the water is almost black. Now, being white, it probably gets cleaned more than it would if it were very dark – I won’t say black, because I’ve never yet met anyone with a black carpet. I mean all over fitted black carpet. Anyway, this white carpet has finally put me off having carpet at all anywhere for good.

As soon as we can, we’re going to take it up and lay hardwood flooring. Or some kind of laminate stuff at least.

You see, whatever color it is, it’s hiding dirt. Mountains of it. The same amount of dirt as it would if it was green, or red, or blue or brown, or even black.

No wonder so many folks have so many allergies these days. No telling how many critters live in that cozy, dirty, wool or shag pile.

It’s gotta be a breeding ground for all kinds of bugs and mites. No matter how much you clean a carpet, when you do it again, the water is still black.

On top of that and in our nice hermetically sealed doubled glazed air conditioned bubbles we call home these days, cooled and heated to a constant temperature, it’s a vacation park.

Remember the petri dish experiment at school? You dip your dirty fingers into the culture medium in the dish, pop on the lid, and put it in an incubator until the next class?

Well, that’s the average home! Your feet are the fingers, the petri dish is the carpet, and your nice hermetically sealed doubled glazed air conditioned home is the incubator.

Come next week, what really is alive in that carpet? And remember this – even that white carpet doesn’t show all the dirt – unlike a pint of Guinness, you can’t see the black through the white.