The Down Side To Laminate Floors...

Okay, let's start here... I love laminate floors. I would love real wood floors, but let's face it, for the average person they're slightly impractical - cost a ton of money, get wrecked when wet and scratch and ding really easily, both of which happen a lot with little kids. So I love laminate, they look great, a easy to clean and stay a lot cooler during the warmth of Florida's summers. But there is a down side to laminate that I'm sad to admit. They don't hold the dust in like carpet. Let me explain.... when you have carpet, any dust that's in the air settles into the carpet and you don't notice it as much on all your electronics, tables, counters, and any other surface prone to dust (everywhere in my house). Therefore you don't have to dust nearly as often. I'm terrible at dusting. You'd really notice it if you came to my house on pretty much any day of the week. I'd fail a white glove test miserably. I was trying to figure out why my house is always so dusty a couple weeks ago and was thinking back to my home as a kid. I don't remember dust even being an issue. Yes, I remember being told to dust every now and then and I'm sure my Mom did more than her fair share of dusting to keep the house looking so great, but I don't remember dust being a real problem back then like it is for me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I was just a kid and didn't care about things like dusting, well, expect for when it was my turn to do it, but then again, maybe it just wasn't all the dusty. So that got me to thinking what could possibly make all the difference. That's when I realized that we always had wall-to-wall carpet. Sure we had some vinyl and tile in a few rooms like the kitchen, bathrooms and foyer, but everywhere else, carpet. I guess it helps that my Dad was in the carpet business. Anyways that led me to remembering how gross the water would be when we would wash the carpets. What would make the water so grimy, other than the three kids who lived there on a constant basis and the hundreds (at least it seemed like that many and I'm sure like more to my parents) that passed through the house daily? Dust! Instead of landing on the furniture it made it's way down to the carpet and stayed there. Our house now has not one single piece of carpet in it. Not even a little rug. No wait, there's one bath mat in one bathroom, but that's it. So that's my excuse. No carpet equals lots of dust and I hate dusting so that means lots of dust left lying around to look nasty. You have a choice, nice looking laminate and dust or carpet and no dust. It's up to you.

Wait, I have one more gripe about laminate, and you thought that was it. I can't stand how much garbage and grime gets stuck to your feet. Every night before Jeff and I go to bed, the last thing we do before climbing in is to dust off our feet (a totally different kind of "dusting" that doesn't bother me quite as much, but still enough to blog about it). Between having a kid who makes a mess no matter what she's doing and walking around the house all the time in shoes, there's always stuff on the floor. I'll have just finished sweeping and already find my feet covered in crumbs and dirt. There are definitely days when I just get fed up with sweeping ten times a day and you'll see cheese, crackers, and whatever else Sydney had been eating that day, lying on the floor. I get really disgusted with myself, but then I'm so frustrated that it's just going to be right back there that I don't do anything about it. I feel bad for Jeff and Sydney, having to live in this squalor, but well, I'm not perfect and sometimes there's going to be stuff on the floor. I guess that's just part of the price you have to pay having kids and laminate flooring. And I'm more than willing to pay it, just be nice if you stop by and notice a mess everywhere, and for your sake and your socks if you're wearing them, keep your shoes on.