Saturday, January 17, 2015

Warm Feet in a Motorhome

My RV was 15 years old when I bought it. The wall to wall carpet was original and looked like it had been vacuumed maybe two or three times in 15 years. YUCKY POO! It had faded unevenly, it had questionable stains that refused to budge. It was downtrodden in the usual areas. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be brown or orange, or gold or beige.

I lived with the awful carpet for about 6 months. I would borrow a vacuum cleaner whenever I could to try to clean it, but nothing helped. It always looked horrible. I bought some cheap throw rugs to hide most of the hideous carpet. Now I had carpet on carpet. This made it even harder to keep clean because there isn't room for a big upright carpet cleaner. Eventually I did buy a fabulous little hepa filter vacuum cleaner, but it's very small without a push handle, though it does do a superior job.
If you are pinched for storage like me, then you might love this vacuum cleaner as much as I do! It's a Shark bagless cyclonic hepa filter and it is AWESOME. It does come with the rotating beater brush for carpets and upholstery. The hepa filter picks up miniscule dust mites and THAT I just love. However, if you get one, remember you must be diligent in keeping the hepa filter clean so suction remains powerful. I always clean my filter outside away from the motorhome after every use. 


One day in the summer of 2010 on a whim, some friends and I ripped out the wall to wall carpeting, then we laid down self sticking vinyl tiles. I loved the new look! Sweeping it up was a breeze. Mopping it with a rag wrapped around my foot cleaned it up beautifully.

Right up until winter...

Then I realized the vinyl flooring was COLD.

Incredible.

Every few years, I buy some bargain nonskid rugs for my little old motorhome. Usually the rubber backing falls apart and then I repurpose them while shopping at either Dollar General or Big Lots to find new rugs.

Well, the last batch of rugs, lasted about 18 months. Recently I went to pick them up to shake them out before sweeping the vinyl flooring. Incredibly everyone of the 4 rugs were STUCK to the flooring. Yet, I had shook them out a few days prior with no issues.

Even WORSE.

When I pulled them up, most of the rubber backing STUCK to the vinyl flooring leaving a huge ugly mess.

It took several days of scraping and lots of assorted products to finally remove the final residue. I was hopping mad by then. I folded the carpets in half so the rubber stuck to the rubber and stick it did!

My friend was going to a boat yard to work on his boat, so he took the old carpets with him to use in the yard, to wipe his feet before climbing his ladder to go up on the boat. He also very generously gave me a ride to Dollar General  to look at their latest rug inventory.

Earthly Angels and Santa Claus had left me some spending money, which I was carefully saving for RV parts and repairs. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Something is always falling apart around here cause my little old wheel estate is working on her 21st year. So I looked in my bookkeeping to see what I had spent on carpets before and what I might expect to spend now, set myself up a tiny shopping budget then prayed I might get lucky.

At the Dollar General, I almost bought a selection but suddenly changed my mind. I unrolled the carpets, then laid them down on the floor in Dollar General, much to the amusement of my friend. Once unfurled, I had an inkling I wouldn't like them so much once I got them home. So I rolled them back up and left.

Next we went to Big Lots. By golly, I found something much nicer, more to my liking that would coordinate with the existing decor. I unfolded the rugs there and roughly scattered them out the way they would arrange in my motorhome. I liked it!

Shoppers would walk by the end of the aisle, stop to see me with all these rugs laid out strangely down the aisle, then leave without coming down the aisle at all. One even gave me a frightened look, like I might be one of those unsafe people that had escaped from the asylum. Once I was satisfied I would like the carpets I added up the cost, realized I was under budget, so *ahem* I patted myself on the back, paid for the carpet and went home with the new look.

Bonus rug!
I've never had carpet under my dining booth before which is about 2 inches higher than the main flooring.
I was excited this flowery rug fit under there near perfect.
My feet are often cold in the winter, so this is a big help!

The entry stripes run one way while the bath and bedroom hall stripes run the other way.
The kitchen floral means I can make coffee and wash dishes without cold feet.

Standing aft near the bedroom, looking forward towards the kitchen, entry and living area.
The dining booth is on the forward left, but the kitchen cabinet is blocking the view. 
Right after I bought these rugs, I laid them out took the pics, then rolled them up and put them away. HUH?

It was so nice and warm, I enjoyed the thrill of just having the vinyl to clean and not having carpets to shake out or vacuum. But a few nights ago, the cold rolled in. I was walking around the wheel estate realizing my feet were cold, so out came the new rugs again. Wheeeeee!

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4 comments:

  1. I really like the way the colors go together. I pulled up filthy carpet when I moved into my mobile home and had laminate flooring put down. It's cold in the winter, and hard as a rock. I can't even lay on it with my yoga mat piled on top of a big throw rug.

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  2. In my old house, I had a nice area rug in my bedroom for my big doggy to enjoy since he wasn't allowed on the bed. A carpet installer sold me a custom cut piece of very plush carpet padding. You can cut whatever you get down to size, I think he cut it about 1-2 inches smaller than the actual rug size so it wasn't a tripping hazard.

    Oh my GOSH, was that ever heavenly to walk across and my doggy was absolutely thrilled to be able to sleep in my bedroom at night on the area rug. I can still hear her contentedly sigh when she laid on it to sleep or nap.

    Back in those days I did exercises on the rug because it was so awesomely comfortable. Once when I had company overflowing at my house, someone begged to sleep on my bedroom rug because it was so plush with the addition of the padding.

    As I recall, the exquisite padding wasn't cheap, but it lasted the entire 7 years I owned that home and was still just as plush and luxurious to walk across. The purchasers wanted me to leave the rug and padding for them, so I did.

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  3. By the way, you can also get memory foam carpet padding in assorted sizes. Copy and paste the link below this description. It cuts to fit too!

    6' X 9' Carpenter Memory Foam with built-in DuPont Stain Protection Rug Pad

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005PJVXLG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005PJVXLG&linkCode=as2&tag=motorhomeandrvstore-20&linkId=WEKJXFTNPTJNHZC5

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  4. Those carpets are really the need in mobile homes. I got a lot of them.

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