May 9, 2023 • 45 mins
Are washable rugs actually sustainable? Tiff and Kat dive into whether or not a washable rug is worth adding to your sustainability toolbox -- or whether its possible effects are offset because we're all trained to be asshole consumers.
What We Used
Source Links
- Ruggable on its sustainability
- GAIA and Changing Markets
- The Good Trade
- Treehugger for its review on Ruggable’s sustainability
- Environmental Working Group for product ratings and general chemical research and helpful list of PFAs-free products
- CNN article about a Toxic Free Future study on PFAs
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management carpet cleaning paper
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
So here's the thing. The factthat rug bubble is washable
isn't going to stop like mynever ending itch for your new
hip. Yes,it's still going to be Yep. 100%
Yeah, soit's like I'm just as likely to
want to move on from that rugbecause the design is like
outdatedHi, cat. Hi, Tiff. How's it
(00:29):
going?
Oh, pretty good. Yeah. How areyou?
Good. I'm really I think I'mover all of the funk that I had
the last coupleof weeks. Oh, my God need to
cheese leaves. I got anotherfunk in the form of a stomach
bug from my own or no.
(00:50):
Three drinks in a row. Yeah.
That's or calling my friend'snephew patient zero.
Totally. It's so true. Littleincubators. Yeah, it was like a
one full week of just stomachpain. almost constant, so sorry.
I just learned to live with it.
Like,I know, you're just like, this
(01:11):
was my life now. Yeah,I was like, I'm never gonna feel
better. So just get used to it.
Yeah, but Ido feel better. Yeah. It's so
magical when you start reallyfeeling better.
Oh, totally. I was runningaround the house. Like I'm gonna
clean every thing. Yep.
I vacuum today. It was reallyexciting. Yeah, it's feel so
good. Yeah. So speaking of like,vacuuming and stuff. Should we
(01:35):
just dive into this week'stopic?
Totally. Why not? Well, firstoff, welcome.
Well, Oh, yes. What are we whoare we?
What's happening? Welcome togreening up my act. We are two
marketing writers. And we talkabout green hooey, which is
(01:55):
basically like greenwashedproducts that pretend they're
eco friendly, when they'reactually not at all. And we do
all the research and try tofigure out what is actually
better for the planet and forus, and for everybody involved
in what's kind of a load ofcrap.
(02:15):
Yep. We also make sure that wemeasure whether it's cost
effective, and whether or not itactually does what it says is
going to do. So. Does it work?
Yes. Because that's a big thing.
It's like, okay, even if hisproduct claims to be super
sustainable, is it actuallygonna get that stain out of my?
Yeah, you know,avocado stained white onesie. I
(02:36):
think that is going to be likeour big avocado stayed is like
our big.
The funny thing is I sent mydaughter to school today with
avocado stained pants on like,good luck. That's just how
that's just my life now. Yeah.
That avocado. Nobody tells youit's like, they're so good for
(02:59):
you. But I thought it was quiteunsustainable, but we can get to
that later. Yeah.
We'll be our grocery listseason. Yeah.
Yeah. So So yeah, that was, thatwas my day. I always feel like
people are judging me, but Inever judge other people
for Yeah, so why kids? Yeah, mymom used to tell us that we look
(03:21):
like orphans. And it really gaveme a complex, like, brush your
hair. You know, I'm like, Irealize now like, little kids
are just supposed to look likethat. Yeah, it's true. But you
know, it's the fear that youwill be judged by how your child
looks is legitimate. I thinkeverybody feels that.
Yeah, it's weird. It's reallyweird. I never thought it would
(03:42):
be that way. But oh, well,it's in there. She's therapies
for Yeah, she's.
She's fine. So yeah, we whatelse about us? I think that's
it. Like we're here to do theresearch for you. So you don't
have to because you don't havetime. Nobody's got time for
that. Yeah.
You're listening to this on yourway to work. Or on your
(04:02):
afternoon run? Orwhile you're washing your rug?
Yeah. Washing your up, washingyour washable rug, ya know? Or
while you're researchingwashable rugs, because I'm going
to tell you,yeah, listen up, listen up. For
Give it to me about washablerugs because I actually am in
the market for some new rugs.
(04:24):
And I was wondering what you'resaying. So this is perfect.
Yeah. All right. The bait like awashable rug. It I don't know
why I'm defining this, but Ifeel like I should. Basically
it's a rug that you can throw inyour washing machine at home,
rather than take it to a cleaneror use one of those bulky like,
cleaning machines like what arethey called? carpet cleaners
(04:45):
thatoh, yeah, I have a right yeah, I
have a rug cleaner. I do. Yeah,it's like a vacuum but let's
wait, it's what it's like avacuum and puts water down and
sucks it up. Butit's not. It's not like that.
vacuum combined, right? It'slike a separate thing. Yeah.
So yeah, it's a vacuum first,right? So you have to
store that thing and thenprobably buy cleaner for it and
(05:08):
blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So,basically, okay, first off, let
me list off my sources because Ilooked into, like washable rugs
and I wanted to see most of themcomplaint complaint. Oh, my
Lord. Brain, most of themproclaimed, that's not even the
word I was trying to say, butsure, will say proclaim that
(05:32):
they are sustainable. And I waslike, Are they actually though?
Because I don't know. So to findout, I used a bunch of sources.
One of them was a study on thecarpet industry in general, from
Gaia. This is one name that Gaiaand changing markets. Oh, well,
(05:55):
okay. Yeah, but it was a wholestudy on like the carpet
industry. Okay, it was reallyhelpful. Um, another website
that I really found useful wascalled the good trade. And they
reviewed rug bubble. So spoileralert, I looked into irrigable.
Okay. And so they reviewed rugbubble and their sustainability
(06:15):
NIS, whatever costs,sustainability?
Yes. Sustainability factor. TreeHugger is another website that
also has a review of Red Bull.
And they were really helpful. Asalways, I looked into the
Environmental Working Group,they if you don't know them,
they are really helpful inrating products, like cleaning
(06:37):
products, and any householdproduct that you use, and they
rate it from A to F based onwhether it's bad for the
environment, whether it's badfor humans, typically, I find
finding that they don't alwaysgo hand in hand. Actually,
that's something we shouldprobably talk about because I'm
I feel like the to getconvoluted all the time. But
(06:57):
like, when you call it ecofriendly, you're actually
talking about it being non toxicto humans, but whatever we can
get into that later. And thenthere's a CNN article about this
study from toxic free future. Onokay, I don't know how to say
this. P PF s. P FAS. I in myhead, I say P FAS, I said are
(07:20):
like s two. They're like those.
You say pee fast. Okay, cool.
Yeah. Yeah, they're basicallythe the permanent
cause or substances? Yeah, yeah.
Perrin? polyfluorinated.
substances? Yeah, yes. Wow.
Okay. I didn't even bother likewriting out the full name
because I knew I just didn'thave the energy for it. Yeah.
But yeah, they're like thepermanent forever chemicals.
(07:43):
Yep. And then I use the IndianaDepartment of Environmental
Management about they wrotethis, like little brief about
carpet cleaning. Because I waslooking for a government
website. And for some reason,the EPA didn't write about
carpet cleaning at all. So comeon, guys. Get your act
together. Right.
Alright, so I looked at rug abowl, as mentioned, mostly
(08:08):
because it's popular. It'srelatively affordable, and I
already have one.
Bam, okay, that was anotherworst when you okay? I don't
want to like ruin everything.
But it's like, when you go. Youlook up something you already
have. You're like, that wasmaybe the worst thing I ever
could have bought.
Right? Totally. Yes. You'relike, dang it. I mean, that's
already happened on this podcastabout 45 times. Yeah.
(08:29):
Basically, like, I am a WalkingDisaster.
I am just a human, you know?
Yeah. You know,yeah, we don't have to
catastrophize everything.
Well, so how the hell are wesupposed to know?
Right? Because we didn't havesomeone doing this podcast for
us. zactlywe're trying to help other
people not make our mistakes.
Well, luckily, that's not reallythe case with rakibul. So
(08:52):
spoiler alert, they're not bad.
But the rogol Raghava website.
So the way that druggabledescribes its rugs is with the
word sustainable. And I Okay,yeah. And I was like, Are they
though? Like, in what way?
Because I was just reallycurious. So on the rug wool
(09:15):
website, it uses a statisticthat says, war, a billion pounds
of carpeting and rug waste gointo the landfill every year.
And I looked up that stat itdoesn't really tell you where it
gets that information, but Ilooked it up. And that's where I
found the Gaya and changingmarkets study. But what was
interesting from that study, isit like yes, it is accurate, but
(09:40):
and Raghu mentioned ces on theirwebsite, they're not trying to
mislead anybody, but it's astudy mostly about carpeting.
Like whole house carpetingoffice carpeting like okay, so
not like like rural rugs. Yeah,so it's um, it's like totally
unclear how much rugs impactthat number. Okay, so that was
(10:03):
kind of like the start of myskepticism a little bit. And I
was like, I don't know what tothink about that. But on the
other hand, if you think aboutthe influx of cheap rugs on the
market, and how many there arenow, and they're, I mean, in a
lot of ways, they're more orless considered disposable these
(10:26):
days. Yeah. More or less. Imean, not necessarily, but more
so than if you have like an$1,000 rug that you plan to keep
for your suit yourTurkish or your Yes. Persian
rug. Yeah, yeah. You invested inand your last trip to Morocco.
(10:47):
Exactly. Totally different thesedays, because you're ordering it
off of Wayfair. And it costs$100.
Yeah. And it was made by amachine rather than, yeah, a
Turkish woman who's been trainedin this her whole life, right.
Okay, so rugs in general, theproblem with a lot of rugs that
are made these days, this isfrom the good trade, they say
(11:11):
that they can contain flameretardants, or chemicals that
repel water or stains, but arenot good to be around. And I
actually started looking intothis when Charlie came around
like I mentioned, she kind ofwas the impetus for me to look
(11:31):
into a lot of stuff but Iremember reading something
random about the chemicals inrugs and then I had just bought
this rug of one and I freakedout and looked on their website
it was like oh my god cuz she'scrawling around. She's like,
right rug all day. And luckilyturns out Ruggles, okay, but
thank goodness,okay, yeah. Okay, spoiler alert.
Get into that really shortly. Soit's okay. But so the EW G, the
(11:55):
Environmental Working Group saysthat blue bromine or chlorine
based flame retardants have beenlinked to cancer or, and hormone
disruption. But the good newsisn't most of these were banned
in 2017 by the Consumer ProductsSafety Commission. So most new
(12:16):
products, okay, most US basednew products aren't using these
chemicals anymore, but a lot ofimported stuff might still be
using it. Okay. And then I alsofound some information about
like, the ones that havereplaced it, like this always
happens. It's like a terriblechemical outlawed whatever,
replaced by a very similarchemical, just a different
(12:38):
strain. Right? And is not hasn'tbeen studied. So you don't
really know if it's any better.
It's just yeah, like, you know,trying to comply with the law
and get away with what you canget away with. So Right. Yeah,
so these flame retardants also,I heard, I read that they're not
even actually that useful, likethey don't really work that
(13:01):
well. So it's, I don't know whowhat kind of racket who sold the
racket of flame retardants, butI don't like them. Now, CNN
wrote an article about thisstudy from toxic free future,
which is I think it's like anactive is it an activist group?
I'm not sure if it's activistbut anyway, they're an
organization looking for a toxicfree future. And the study shows
(13:25):
that repellents, repellents likewater repellents and or stain
repellents can contain PFS,which are the forever forever
chemicals. And this can be likescotchguard is one of them
that's popular. So yeah, sothese things are in a lot of
rugs. Potentially, depends onthe rug, whatever. The ew G
(13:47):
maintains a list of pee fastfree products, by the way, so
okay, that in the show notes, soif you're just curious to see
like, what doesn't have a P bassin it, then. Okay. So in fact,
irrigable itself, is itsustainable? Or is it better?
This is the question. So treehuggers review of rug, a bowl
(14:14):
says quote, while they areplastic based and can't be
recycled, so they're plasticbased and can't be recycled. Two
important facts. Some styles aremade with recycled plastic
bottle waist.
(14:34):
So that's kind of cool. Yeah,that is cool. Like that. Yeah,
that's important. Yeah.
And it says they are extremelydurable and are printed on
demand. So the company is lowwaste in that respect.
Yeah, they're not just storingstuff and letting it go out of
fashion or whatever. Yeah, sothat's really cool. And then
undruggable own website. It saysthat they their rugs do not
contain toxic dyes. Instead,they're water based dyes. They
(14:58):
don't use flame retardants likeI mentioned can be bad, they do
not use P PFASs. To help themwith stain guarding. But the
good trade review the thatwebsite, the good trade, they
review mentions that there mightbe trace amounts of what's
called methylene. chloride inthe rugs. Okay, trace amounts.
(15:19):
So I don't know if you canreally call them non toxic, but
I'm not that worried about it.
Right? trace them. So it's like,yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And it's also like, itmight be there. It's like, not
really,they haven't. Yeah, they don't
really no. Yeah.
And from what I can understandthe company is working to solve
(15:41):
that. So. So it seems like apretty legit company. So we'll
go into the kind of like thepros and cons at the like, in a
minute. But first off, how do Ilike it? So
that's a good question. Yeah.
Yes. Give me the day to day ofyour rug. wool rug. Yes.
(16:01):
So when I ordered it, it came ina box and it came in like
plastic packaging, which I thinkthey could probably do something
different than that. But yeah.
So it's basically like, the wayit works is it's two parts. And
there's one part that's called arug pad that sits on the ground.
And that's sort of like yourbase layer. Right? And it's
(16:23):
honestly like a giant velcropad. Right? It holds a rug and
place. Yes. And so you put yourtop portion, which is actually
really thin. I think that's whyit's washable. But you put you
just have to place your topportion on top of it.
It just sticks to it. Okay.
So that fact makes installationan absolute bitch.
(16:46):
Okay. Yes,not very easy, but it is a
clever design. Right. And it'snice that, like, I think that's
one of the reasons why it'swashable. So that's really
helpful. There are two options,you can get a thicker pad or a
thinner pad, I got the thinnerone, but I would recommend the
thicker one if you want it tofeel cushiony. Or if you have a
(17:06):
wobbly toddler who will hit youat every fair. Man, I felt so
guilty several times. I waslike, dammit, if only I'd gotten
the thicker one.
My baby was top heavy.
She's arrived, it's fine. Sookay, so let's get into my pros
(17:32):
and cons about this rug itself.
So the pros, it's easy to use,minus the installation. But it's
easy to use, in the sense thatyou can wash it on your own. So
mine is an eight by 10. Okay,and sorry, I'm adjusting memory
for mine is an eight by 10. Andit fits in my washing machine.
(17:53):
Which is like a pretty big rug.
I'm not 100% convinced that anine by 12 wood, but I do think
I've heard other people say thatit does. So yeah. So it's like a
big rug fits in your washingmachine. You wash it like you're
doing a load of towels. And youdon't have to like lug it to the
(18:15):
cleaner or buy or rent a carpetcleaner or store a carpet
cleaner. or deal with thosechemicals because I learned as
well chemicals aren't good,right for them on the most part.
So I love that fact that is ahuge Pro. And then you can
actually tumble dry it which welearned what tumble dry was last
week, right? Exactly.
Not last week, couple weeks. Andit's basically air dry, but I
(18:40):
had no idea. So I always pulllike just throw mine on my deck
and it dries pretty quickly. Imight try the tumble drying
method but we'll see. And thenif this so by washing it
yourself and using homemadelaundry detergent, like we
learned in a previous episodesaves the use of potentially
(19:04):
toxic chemicals from cleaningcompanies. So if you take it to
a cleaner, they're the chemicalsthey use are probably not great.
And I've learned that they alsomay dispose of them illegally.
So it enter streams and riversbecause you're not supposed to
just throw it like in thewastewater you're there's a way
to dispose of it that somecompanies don't comply with
(19:27):
according to the IndianaDepartment of Environmental
Management. And then thehousehold carpet cleaners are
not great either. Some of themare fine, but a lot of them are
rained rated like an a D or anF. According to the
Environmental Working Group.
There's only one householdcarpet cleaner that was ranked
(19:49):
in a and the funny thing this isso funny. I was so confused for
good 10 seconds is called SimpleGreen and naturals Carpet Care.
Okay, there's another one.
That sounds like a lot of greenhooey. But
okay, doesn't it, but it wasrated an A. So that's funny. But
(20:10):
there's another one calledsimple green carpet cleaner
that's rated an F. But the crazything is, it's the same company.
Yes, I was so confused. And I'mstill slightly confused.
If you like, I just wouldn't buythem just for that.
I know. That's how I feel. Theydo have a lot of products that I
(20:34):
looked them up, they have a lotof products that have the simple
or the Safer Choice Label, whichis the label from the EPA. That
means that it's like better,it's maybe not like perfect, but
it's better. So a lot of theirproducts have that. But this one
apparently is just like reallybad. Woof. Isn't that weird? So
I'm like, Oh, easy would it beto buy? But another thing is, it
(20:56):
was kind of hard to find thislike the Simple Green the bad
one. Yeah. So I don't know ifthey just phased it out, and
then replace it with the betterone. So I don't want to like
totally, you know, I don't wantto give them too much shit. But
it was just so strange. And Iwas like, Wait, Simple Green
simple.
(21:17):
Just flipping through them like,yes. So but then other ones like
resolves carpet cleaners, shoutcarpet cleaner Hoover will like
they also a lot of them are D'sor F's by the
assist. Like don't look underyour sink, cat.
I know. I know. So it's prettywild. So that's a pro like you
(21:40):
can avoid all that shit,basically. And also, yeah, you
don't have to store all thatcarpet cleaner and stuff,
either. That's true. And use andthen throw away the plastic
because it always comes in aplastic bottle, no matter,
right? Totally.
Which doesn't everything butwhatever. I know. It's fine.
It's not fine. It's not me.
(22:03):
So another pro for irrigable isit they're quite durable. So I
have owned it for about twoyears, and I've washed it maybe
10 times, Max. Definitely notmore than 10. I've spilled a lot
of things on it, including anentire venti of cold brew that I
talked about a couple of weeks.
Yes, I remember getting knockedoff. Yeah, right all over the
(22:25):
rug.
And it came up pretty well.
Actually, a rug doesn't have apretty intricate design, which
is why I bought it because it'slike, stains aren't going to
show as well.
But yeah, I wanted likesomething dark. Right? Yeah.
I can't do dark because my dogis white. Always. Yeah, it's a
conundrum.
(22:45):
Yep. Fair.
But yeah, the rug is still ingood shape. There are only maybe
a few strands on the edgescoming apart, but nothing
serious. And the one thing thatI've seen a lot of people
complain about rug bubble and Ithink other rugs have this issue
too, is the corners and theedges are coming up to the point
(23:05):
that they like we tripped overthem some carpet. I know you
told me about it and then okay,so rug tape. I need it. But I'm
confused by it. I was going toask you this because I'm
confused. If I need to wash myrug, do I just have to replace
all this tape or why?
I have and I know that that'snot a sustainable thing. I have
(23:27):
replaced the rug tape because itgets hair stuck on it. It stops
being a sticky,okay. Okay. I'm not worried
about the sustainability of sometape. But okay.
I mean, I've I've only done likeonce a year max or something.
Like I have. Yeah, I have a spotwhere my dog or one of my rugs
curls up because it's a cheaprug and it just curls up. And so
I've been taping it down. Likeit's getting flatter. But it
(23:52):
Yeah, it's it still comes in. SoI think for the first especially
two years that I was in thishouse, I was taping it down and
Okay. It's gotten better, butall right, I should try it. It's
just like, I don't really watchit that often. But I'm like my
God, if I have to wash it andtake
the tape off and blah, blah. Butyeah, yeah, I mean, it's Yeah,
who knows? You'll probably getless I got pretty industrial
(24:15):
RockTape I wonder if there'slike less. Just if it's just
gonna have like a little tackthat just holds the corner.
Yeah, you're like double sidedtape. It's great for keeping
your keeps your bra bra thistop. Tape down your your
buttoned down and perfect. Yes.
So many uses. Yeah, so I need toget rug tape. I just haven't. I
(24:40):
don't think about it ever. Soit's like a trip on it like dang
it.
I know. I know. Rubble Rubble,so I'm not like 100% convinced
that it's more durable thanother cheapo rugs I have owned.
But I do think I do think it'sdurable. That's why I said quote
durable, I'm not sure it's likethe Erie durable. Alright. It's
(25:01):
hard to say because it's twoyears, you know, rug needs last
two years, but, but I have heardthat washing your rugs, makes
them last longer. So thatprobably can't hurt. Right?
Yeah.
I mean, that's what they saylike vacuuming? Washing? It is.
It is actually good for them.
Yeah. So that's like your denimor whatever. Right, right.
(25:23):
Yeah, so that's a pro. Two otherquick pros. And mostly, it's
mostly non toxic. And you know,this, which is nice to be able
to do the research and see,like, look at the website and be
like, Okay, I know what's goinginto this rug. Because sometimes
I feel like if you buy somethingfrom Wayfarer, that would be you
have no idea.
You know, I think there's thewhole thing about they were
trafficking children. Like,which wasn't true. But yeah, you
(25:46):
just don't know what waiverbecause it's, it's just don't.
You just don't know. It's alsoit's like, it's like Amazon.
It's like a conglomerate ofdifferent sellers.
I really hate when I open a boxof something. I bought off
Wayfair and it has theCalifornia
Yes. Warning on it. Yes. I'mlike God dammit, now I'm going
to kill myself sucked. And thenit kind of smells.
(26:09):
It's just off gassing just yeah,you just feel like horrible. I
also not the same at all, butI'm very bad at gauging sizes.
And so I'll think it's gonna bebig and it comes in and it's
like dollhouse size and I'mlike, why is this $800 Okay, I
made that mistake too manytimes. And I started measuring
(26:31):
because I've even measured andso oh my god, that's hilarious.
Okay, so the other pro last andfinal pro is that they're
relatively affordable. I don'tknow what you normally pay for a
rug. So I'm definitely sayingrelatively to talk
Facebook marketplace. Okay, sowhere you go for free or like my
(26:51):
buy nothing group?
Yeah. So they're definitely notas cheap as they come. So for a
new rug? I would say, I don'tknow people call it affordable
is really such a subjectiveterm. Right. It really is. And I
have not bought a secondRoadable rug rug because I'm
like, holy shit. It's tooexpensive.
No, yeah. I was just Googling asyou were.
(27:13):
Yeah. So an eight by 10. arearug cost between $489 $99. Yeah,
depending on the 600 bucks.
That's a lot. It is a rug.
I mean, I think even though likemy ex husband bought what the
one that's in our living roomnow that I really want to get
rid of. So I was thinking ofreplacing it with irrigable.
(27:34):
One, because especially in thedining room. Washable is great,
right? Yes. But yeah, I thinkthat one even on Wayfarer was
probably 200. And it's like asix by eight or whatever.
Right. Yeah. And actually ourold cheapo one. Well, it was
big. I think it was like nine by12. Right. That was like 300 400
bucks. So yeah, I mean, it'slike pretty comparable, but it's
(27:56):
notfree. Not definitely not free.
Not free. I was just looking onCraigslist, and there's some
rugs. Jonathan Adler, this onewas? There's a five by seven rug
bubble rug.
Oh, there you go.
That's a good way to do it.
$100. Fine. It's not the onethat I want. Right. See, that's
(28:18):
a five by seven. Yeah, butfive by seven for $100. Yeah,
that's not a bad deal. You couldtalk them down
and be like, well, you like 45?
I'm like, they're like cashonly. And I'm like when you take
50 And then like, Sure. And thenI'm like, kind of get changed
for 60. And then they hate meforever. That's how I shop on
(28:41):
Craigslist. Would you take acheck? Okay, yeah.
All right. So the cons of rugrug. Like I mentioned, they're
(29:04):
not recyclable. So this is a rugthing, right. And it's a carpet
industry thing in general, wherethey're not made to be recycled.
And I think I read on that. Ithink it was the Gaia study.
Yeah, it's like 1% of carpetinggets recycled. That's
disgusting. And I think a lot ofit is because of all of the
(29:27):
chemicals that they add, or theway that it's manufactured. I
think for irrigable it might bebecause it's made of plastic
there, which makes no sensebecause you can recycle plastic
but it but you can't not. Not inthat. I mean, we need to go into
that in our recycling season.
But I can totally when it's inthat state, you can't.
Okay, that makes sense. BecauseI mean, it's fabric, right? So
(29:50):
how the hell would you recyclethat right?
We have Yeah, fibers are reallyhard to recycle. Yeah.
So if you choose to dispose ofirrigable ROG it's going into
the land. infill. So that'swhere that's where I have a
problem with this idea that it'ssustainable, because it's like,
here's this claim that theserugs because they're washable
(30:11):
are helping lower the amount ofrugs in the landfill. But I'm
like not necessarily sure thatthat's going to happen. Like, is
that really true? You know whatI mean? Yeah. Yeah, I just don't
think that that you reallyequate that much. I mean, a big
(30:35):
reason. Okay. I will be honest,a big reason I got rid of my
last rug that might be ignitedby 12. One was because I didn't
have the energy to clean it. Soin that sense, because I
literally for it took me like,it was like a year of being
having these ambitions to go tothe stupid grocery store because
(30:56):
I think you can actually rentcarpet cleaners from the grocery
store. I don't know if you knewthis.
I did not know that. I just Ihave one. I just bought one.
Dog. I need thisone time, but But yeah, so I was
planning to do this for like afull year. I was like this
carpets disgusting. I also havea dog. It's really gross. And
then I just couldn't bringmyself to do it. So I ended up
(31:20):
selling that rug on Facebookmarketplace for like 50 bucks.
I you know what? And that, youknow, I would I have definitely
found rugs on Facebookmarketplace or like, the Buy
Nothing group. Just, I even gotone for one of my friends.
Because, like they're justgiving them away. And I think
(31:42):
that's way better than throwingit away.
Yeah, totally. And I was veryupfront. Like, this is not a
clean rug. Right. I was verylike,
please watch this. Go not feelfree
to take it. You can even barterwith me. I don't think they did
anything. They just gave me 50bucks. But But yeah, so I mean,
at least I didn't throw in thetrash. Right. But I didn't have
(32:04):
the energy to clean it. And itwas a pain in my ass. So I got
rid of it. So I mean, I guess inthat sense, rug bubble could be
saving rugs from going in the inthe landfill? Yeah. But that's
the only way that I can equatethe two, right? Yeah. But yeah,
I'm also not sure how much howmuch of a rug. How much of the
rug industry is going into that4 billion tonnes of carpet
(32:26):
waste? Yeah, in the landfill. Soyeah, that's one of the cons.
It's not recyclable. Okay, madeof plastic is the other con the
so the good trade talks about itshedding microplastics when you
wash it, right, which everythingplastic does, as we know. But
then on the other hand, some ofthe rugs are made from recycled
(32:47):
water bottles, which is cool.
The other con which isn'tnecessarily a con, but it's just
something to think about is thatit's not the only washable rug
out there. So it's justinteresting to me that these
companies are marketingthemselves as washable rugs. But
like, I got a rug that's notsustainable in any way, shape,
(33:07):
or form. I'll be honest, forCharlie's room, and before she
was born, and it's a rag rug,it's like one of those big it's
huge, but it's like a rag rug.
Made out of rags I used to makethe most my grandma actually
was yes. I know what you'retalking about. Yes. Yeah, the
little machine and I would likeroll it out. And she would pay
(33:30):
me I think a no joke. $1 anhour. She would pay me $1 an
hour to roll out rags it.
Oh, good. I love it.
But we also just spend timetogether. So that was nice. I
mean that yeah, that's the bestpart. Yeah, and I'm maybe made
like two bucks Max. But okay.
(33:54):
The time was grandma, right?
But then you know, this, thisrag rug that I got for her room
was 70 bucks. And it's lastedthe same amount of time. It's
washable. So it's like, I don'tknow. That's the other thing to
think about is like, there arewashable options out there.
They're probably not going to begood for the environment. I
mean, maybe there are some ragrugs that are but onto my
(34:17):
rating. So from one to fivegranolas we rate things products
overall washable rugs. One tofive one is not great. Five is
breaker tooth off super crunchybecause you want to crunchy
granola. So I'm reading washablerugs for all the reasons that I
just mentioned. Chewy, so it'snumber three. Okay, fair smack
(34:42):
dab in the middle. Not bad, notthe most impressive product I've
seen so far. So do I recommendrogol as a product? Yes, I
totally do. I actually do reallyrecommend it. But as a way to
have a more sustainable Lifethat's less clear to me.
(35:03):
Partially because I think in theend, it falls more on us as
consumers. So, I'm gonna usemyself as an example of your
asshole capitalistic consumer,which we all are. We bought our
rug bubble rug two years ago,right? I have since heard this.
(35:25):
I was watching this YouTuber.
She's like a Home Designer onYouTube. And I watched too many
of these people reallyjust make you feel bad about
yourself really wellthat she did because she
basically she didn't say theword basic. But in so many words
she called my rug design. Basic,no. Which is fine, like because
of your basic but subconsciouslythat has seeped into my brain
(35:50):
and made me very over thepattern of the rug that I
bought.
No, no, let them do that to you.
I know what. But so here's thething. The fact that rug bubble
is washable isn't going to stoplike my never ending itch for
(36:10):
your new hip.
Yes, it's still going to be Yep.
100%.
Yeah, so it's like, I'm just aslikely to want to move on from
that rug, because the design islike outdated because in like
two or two to four years, I tryto buy stuff that looks
relatively timeless. Yeah, andthis one is like pretty. I don't
(36:32):
know. It's nothing crazy. Andit's nothing super trendy. But
right. It's like that. Sort oflike a fake Persian rug, but
faded in spots. I don't know.
Yeah. You know what I'm talkingabout? Yes, I
don't I have one under my diningroom table currently. Okay. See,
I like it. That's one of my exhusband bought that's pink and
it doesn't know with my house,anyway. Yeah.
(36:54):
But yeah, I feel like thatdesign in two to four years is
gonna be super outdated. Yeah,if it's not already, it probably
is. I'm not that trendy. So likethat train of trends and all
that doesn't stop. So you'restill gonna
Yeah, that and that marketingcrap again, right. You're not
fulfilled. You need a new rug?
Yes. Oh, is it ternium YouTuber,got into my little brain cavity
(37:18):
and conduce me. I'm not saying Ican't fight it. Because I think
I can. But I think it just, itrequires us to be so conscious
of like, Why do I want a newrug? Why do I want a new rug?
Because I've been thinking aboutit in the back of my mind for
like months. And I never until Iwas doing all this research. I
was like, holy shit.
(37:40):
Well, then you just like, I havebeen thinking of replacing my
rugs. Because first of all, mostof them are cheap. That about it
like garage sales are unfit, youknow. Two of them. My ex
husband's, you know, and do Ilike them enough? Are
they great, right? Yeah, patchyou choose. True, though. Yeah,
(38:03):
that'sworth it. So, but then I'm like,
okay, so if I want it, I don'twant to do Rackable I think I
think you think you don't know,I think because I would want to
do and I'm just sending you alink right now to like this
Facebook marketplace when Iwould want to buy a used drug.
Oh, yeah. Okay to keep it out ofthe landfill and then find a
sustainable washing option.
(38:27):
Well, that one's really prettyYeah, but
look at the so I just sent herone on Facebook marketplace
because I was like casuallybrowsing while you're talking
just to see it's selling for$50 $20 It was listed 11 hours
ago. It has water damage worth acouple 1000 lol need gone ASAP.
(38:49):
was a beautiful rug right?
is so pretty. So you can Okay,you can see I'm saying like take
it to a cleaner but you actuallycan take those things to a
cleaner. Yes. So interesting.
That's really funny. I'm gonnabuy something that's like maybe
not water damage but like this.
(39:10):
That's like old and legit andgood.
Yeah, but batch isn't my decorand is like something you know
that because people are sodisposable about things like
rugs, furniture. So somethinglike permanent feeling. Yeah, or
just or just like not letting itget into a landfill feeling?
(39:31):
Yeah, yes. I love that. And thatyou know, I felt that way about
close to a lot of like I do alot of goodwill shopping and
stuff. Yeah, sometimes we needthat for our we're gonna have a
whole season about clothing butOh totally.
I just I get most of Charlie'sclothes and from there she's
gonna outgrow them in about 30seconds. Yes. Why bother and
(39:54):
tomorrow morally good thriftstores around here. I have a lot
of fun with Yeah,yeah. I I kind of wish I had
children just for that. Notreally. That's a silly reason to
want children. Even though it isactually yeah, yeah. And hand me
downs from your friends whenthey have something really cute.
Yes, it's you know it's cutewhen like all of your nephews
have the same onesie that getsyes
(40:17):
we have I got so many clotheshand me handed me handed down
how canI get them to meet me down to
hunted me? Down handed meso yeah, absolutely the best I'm
like please God Yes Give me allyour use clothes. Yeah so great.
Especially because they just getavocado
(40:38):
freakin point you know, I thinkthat's hippies for brown so much
in this Lastly, because theyjust got avocado all over them.
Right? And hemplove it. So yeah, so that's what
I mean, my conclusion as far assustainable rugs is like, it's
just it's on us to like hop offthat train, like buying a rug is
(40:59):
not going to. It's not going tomake us more sustainable. In
fact, if you don't need a rug,that's probably Yeah, your least
sustainable option is going andbuying a new rug. So yeah,
especially if you're just gonnathrow out your old again. I do
love the Facebook marketplacefor Yes, giving stuff away if
(41:19):
you can repurpose stuff. Yeah.
Yeah, reduce, reduce, reduce,then reuse, and recycle. Those
are options. So yep.
I love it. Okay, this is longerthan I thought it was.
I know we had a lot to say aboutrugs rug, talk. I mean, it's
such an integral part of yourhome decor. Um, you can change a
(41:39):
whole room, you know, it reallycan and change your mood about
that room and everything.
And let me tell you all of theInstagramers that I follow with
How would I describebittersweet?
Love hate.
Some of them more hate than loveand some of them more love than
hate. But anyway, um, all ofthem, man, they love their rugs.
(42:02):
And they are good at placingrug. You can look clean. I'm
like, Yeah, it's so clean.
I know. It's not clean. No, Ivacuum a lot. Yes, well,
luckily, Wine Stains don't showup on my big red carpet. There
you go. Avocado, my butt. Rightone on the other. Yeah, watch
(42:23):
out with that next taco night.
All right. Well, that's itthough. So
cool. Well, I thank you fortaking me on this journey with
you. I feel I do feel like Ilearned a lot and I am. It is
helping me really cement that. Ido want to get a used drug.
I love it. Okay, see, that'seven better. I love that so
(42:46):
much.
Yeah. Neat. I'll see withtyping in the background like
Sir taper, right?
Yeah, no, it's I mean, it's it'sfun for me. I love Craigslist,
shopping and things. But I knowsame.
I'm a huge fan. Actually, thedesk I'm sitting at I got off
Craigslist. It's like anantique. But any who's. Alright,
(43:09):
so next time, we are startingour series of homemade DIY
cleaners. Yes. So we're going totest out a couple we're going to
test them. Well, first off,we're gonna look up some
recipes, test them, researchwhether they're eco friendlier
or not. And to start cat isgoing to talk about homemade
(43:30):
window cleaner.
Oh, yeah. If you're a windexfan, right.
I feel like Windex. Every time Ispray it. I'm like,
I know. I know that job. I'llprobably start this. Well, okay.
Remind me to start the podcastoff next week talking about my
(43:51):
high school job using Windex.
Okay. Yes. Don't be like hey,what was your high school job?
And I'll be like, and how didyou use Windex and you will be
like, holy cannoli is what youwill say. Okay,
I'll remember to say that I'lltry it. I'll forget. But and
yeah, if you find a recipe, sendit to me and I'll try it too.
Okay. So listeners do us afavor. And if you like our
(44:15):
podcast take, we we ask that youtake 30 seconds and leave a five
star review. Wherever you listento podcasts, because it really
helps us a lot. And if you'retech no challenge
technologically challenged likeme. I don't know what to tell
you. Because I don't either. Idon't really know how to leave a
(44:36):
five star review. But it's notthat hard. To do that hard.
Yeah, it's not it's notyou just click it. When in your
wherever you listen to yourpodcasts. We'll be right under
the name. You should be starsand just make them all full.
Make them all yellow. Yes. Andthen we would love you always
for it. And we'lllove you anyway, but we'll be
extra.
(44:59):
All right, well, that That's allI got
all right till next time thanksTiffany
So here's the thing. The factthat rug bubble is washable
isn't going to stop like mynever ending itch for your new
hip. Yes,it's still going to be Yep. 100%
Yeah, soit's like I'm just as likely to
want to move on from that rugbecause the design is like
outdatedHi, cat. Hi, Tiff. How's it
(00:29):
going?
Oh, pretty good. Yeah. How areyou?
Good. I'm really I think I'mover all of the funk that I had
the last coupleof weeks. Oh, my God need to
cheese leaves. I got anotherfunk in the form of a stomach
bug from my own or no.
(00:50):
Three drinks in a row. Yeah.
That's or calling my friend'snephew patient zero.
Totally. It's so true. Littleincubators. Yeah, it was like a
one full week of just stomachpain. almost constant, so sorry.
I just learned to live with it.
Like,I know, you're just like, this
(01:11):
was my life now. Yeah,I was like, I'm never gonna feel
better. So just get used to it.
Yeah, but Ido feel better. Yeah. It's so
magical when you start reallyfeeling better.
Oh, totally. I was runningaround the house. Like I'm gonna
clean every thing. Yep.
I vacuum today. It was reallyexciting. Yeah, it's feel so
good. Yeah. So speaking of like,vacuuming and stuff. Should we
(01:35):
just dive into this week'stopic?
Totally. Why not? Well, firstoff, welcome.
Well, Oh, yes. What are we whoare we?
What's happening? Welcome togreening up my act. We are two
marketing writers. And we talkabout green hooey, which is
(01:55):
basically like greenwashedproducts that pretend they're
eco friendly, when they'reactually not at all. And we do
all the research and try tofigure out what is actually
better for the planet and forus, and for everybody involved
in what's kind of a load ofcrap.
(02:15):
Yep. We also make sure that wemeasure whether it's cost
effective, and whether or not itactually does what it says is
going to do. So. Does it work?
Yes. Because that's a big thing.
It's like, okay, even if hisproduct claims to be super
sustainable, is it actuallygonna get that stain out of my?
Yeah, you know,avocado stained white onesie. I
(02:36):
think that is going to be likeour big avocado stayed is like
our big.
The funny thing is I sent mydaughter to school today with
avocado stained pants on like,good luck. That's just how
that's just my life now. Yeah.
That avocado. Nobody tells youit's like, they're so good for
(02:59):
you. But I thought it was quiteunsustainable, but we can get to
that later. Yeah.
We'll be our grocery listseason. Yeah.
Yeah. So So yeah, that was, thatwas my day. I always feel like
people are judging me, but Inever judge other people
for Yeah, so why kids? Yeah, mymom used to tell us that we look
(03:21):
like orphans. And it really gaveme a complex, like, brush your
hair. You know, I'm like, Irealize now like, little kids
are just supposed to look likethat. Yeah, it's true. But you
know, it's the fear that youwill be judged by how your child
looks is legitimate. I thinkeverybody feels that.
Yeah, it's weird. It's reallyweird. I never thought it would
(03:42):
be that way. But oh, well,it's in there. She's therapies
for Yeah, she's.
She's fine. So yeah, we whatelse about us? I think that's
it. Like we're here to do theresearch for you. So you don't
have to because you don't havetime. Nobody's got time for
that. Yeah.
You're listening to this on yourway to work. Or on your
(04:02):
afternoon run? Orwhile you're washing your rug?
Yeah. Washing your up, washingyour washable rug, ya know? Or
while you're researchingwashable rugs, because I'm going
to tell you,yeah, listen up, listen up. For
Give it to me about washablerugs because I actually am in
the market for some new rugs.
(04:24):
And I was wondering what you'resaying. So this is perfect.
Yeah. All right. The bait like awashable rug. It I don't know
why I'm defining this, but Ifeel like I should. Basically
it's a rug that you can throw inyour washing machine at home,
rather than take it to a cleaneror use one of those bulky like,
cleaning machines like what arethey called? carpet cleaners
(04:45):
thatoh, yeah, I have a right yeah, I
have a rug cleaner. I do. Yeah,it's like a vacuum but let's
wait, it's what it's like avacuum and puts water down and
sucks it up. Butit's not. It's not like that.
vacuum combined, right? It'slike a separate thing. Yeah.
So yeah, it's a vacuum first,right? So you have to
store that thing and thenprobably buy cleaner for it and
(05:08):
blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So,basically, okay, first off, let
me list off my sources because Ilooked into, like washable rugs
and I wanted to see most of themcomplaint complaint. Oh, my
Lord. Brain, most of themproclaimed, that's not even the
word I was trying to say, butsure, will say proclaim that
(05:32):
they are sustainable. And I waslike, Are they actually though?
Because I don't know. So to findout, I used a bunch of sources.
One of them was a study on thecarpet industry in general, from
Gaia. This is one name that Gaiaand changing markets. Oh, well,
(05:55):
okay. Yeah, but it was a wholestudy on like the carpet
industry. Okay, it was reallyhelpful. Um, another website
that I really found useful wascalled the good trade. And they
reviewed rug bubble. So spoileralert, I looked into irrigable.
Okay. And so they reviewed rugbubble and their sustainability
(06:15):
NIS, whatever costs,sustainability?
Yes. Sustainability factor. TreeHugger is another website that
also has a review of Red Bull.
And they were really helpful. Asalways, I looked into the
Environmental Working Group,they if you don't know them,
they are really helpful inrating products, like cleaning
(06:37):
products, and any householdproduct that you use, and they
rate it from A to F based onwhether it's bad for the
environment, whether it's badfor humans, typically, I find
finding that they don't alwaysgo hand in hand. Actually,
that's something we shouldprobably talk about because I'm
I feel like the to getconvoluted all the time. But
(06:57):
like, when you call it ecofriendly, you're actually
talking about it being non toxicto humans, but whatever we can
get into that later. And thenthere's a CNN article about this
study from toxic free future. Onokay, I don't know how to say
this. P PF s. P FAS. I in myhead, I say P FAS, I said are
(07:20):
like s two. They're like those.
You say pee fast. Okay, cool.
Yeah. Yeah, they're basicallythe the permanent
cause or substances? Yeah, yeah.
Perrin? polyfluorinated.
substances? Yeah, yes. Wow.
Okay. I didn't even bother likewriting out the full name
because I knew I just didn'thave the energy for it. Yeah.
But yeah, they're like thepermanent forever chemicals.
(07:43):
Yep. And then I use the IndianaDepartment of Environmental
Management about they wrotethis, like little brief about
carpet cleaning. Because I waslooking for a government
website. And for some reason,the EPA didn't write about
carpet cleaning at all. So comeon, guys. Get your act
together. Right.
Alright, so I looked at rug abowl, as mentioned, mostly
(08:08):
because it's popular. It'srelatively affordable, and I
already have one.
Bam, okay, that was anotherworst when you okay? I don't
want to like ruin everything.
But it's like, when you go. Youlook up something you already
have. You're like, that wasmaybe the worst thing I ever
could have bought.
Right? Totally. Yes. You'relike, dang it. I mean, that's
already happened on this podcastabout 45 times. Yeah.
(08:29):
Basically, like, I am a WalkingDisaster.
I am just a human, you know?
Yeah. You know,yeah, we don't have to
catastrophize everything.
Well, so how the hell are wesupposed to know?
Right? Because we didn't havesomeone doing this podcast for
us. zactlywe're trying to help other
people not make our mistakes.
Well, luckily, that's not reallythe case with rakibul. So
(08:52):
spoiler alert, they're not bad.
But the rogol Raghava website.
So the way that druggabledescribes its rugs is with the
word sustainable. And I Okay,yeah. And I was like, Are they
though? Like, in what way?
Because I was just reallycurious. So on the rug wool
(09:15):
website, it uses a statisticthat says, war, a billion pounds
of carpeting and rug waste gointo the landfill every year.
And I looked up that stat itdoesn't really tell you where it
gets that information, but Ilooked it up. And that's where I
found the Gaya and changingmarkets study. But what was
interesting from that study, isit like yes, it is accurate, but
(09:40):
and Raghu mentioned ces on theirwebsite, they're not trying to
mislead anybody, but it's astudy mostly about carpeting.
Like whole house carpetingoffice carpeting like okay, so
not like like rural rugs. Yeah,so it's um, it's like totally
unclear how much rugs impactthat number. Okay, so that was
(10:03):
kind of like the start of myskepticism a little bit. And I
was like, I don't know what tothink about that. But on the
other hand, if you think aboutthe influx of cheap rugs on the
market, and how many there arenow, and they're, I mean, in a
lot of ways, they're more orless considered disposable these
(10:26):
days. Yeah. More or less. Imean, not necessarily, but more
so than if you have like an$1,000 rug that you plan to keep
for your suit yourTurkish or your Yes. Persian
rug. Yeah, yeah. You invested inand your last trip to Morocco.
(10:47):
Exactly. Totally different thesedays, because you're ordering it
off of Wayfair. And it costs$100.
Yeah. And it was made by amachine rather than, yeah, a
Turkish woman who's been trainedin this her whole life, right.
Okay, so rugs in general, theproblem with a lot of rugs that
are made these days, this isfrom the good trade, they say
(11:11):
that they can contain flameretardants, or chemicals that
repel water or stains, but arenot good to be around. And I
actually started looking intothis when Charlie came around
like I mentioned, she kind ofwas the impetus for me to look
(11:31):
into a lot of stuff but Iremember reading something
random about the chemicals inrugs and then I had just bought
this rug of one and I freakedout and looked on their website
it was like oh my god cuz she'scrawling around. She's like,
right rug all day. And luckilyturns out Ruggles, okay, but
thank goodness,okay, yeah. Okay, spoiler alert.
Get into that really shortly. Soit's okay. But so the EW G, the
(11:55):
Environmental Working Group saysthat blue bromine or chlorine
based flame retardants have beenlinked to cancer or, and hormone
disruption. But the good newsisn't most of these were banned
in 2017 by the Consumer ProductsSafety Commission. So most new
(12:16):
products, okay, most US basednew products aren't using these
chemicals anymore, but a lot ofimported stuff might still be
using it. Okay. And then I alsofound some information about
like, the ones that havereplaced it, like this always
happens. It's like a terriblechemical outlawed whatever,
replaced by a very similarchemical, just a different
(12:38):
strain. Right? And is not hasn'tbeen studied. So you don't
really know if it's any better.
It's just yeah, like, you know,trying to comply with the law
and get away with what you canget away with. So Right. Yeah,
so these flame retardants also,I heard, I read that they're not
even actually that useful, likethey don't really work that
(13:01):
well. So it's, I don't know whowhat kind of racket who sold the
racket of flame retardants, butI don't like them. Now, CNN
wrote an article about thisstudy from toxic free future,
which is I think it's like anactive is it an activist group?
I'm not sure if it's activistbut anyway, they're an
organization looking for a toxicfree future. And the study shows
(13:25):
that repellents, repellents likewater repellents and or stain
repellents can contain PFS,which are the forever forever
chemicals. And this can be likescotchguard is one of them
that's popular. So yeah, sothese things are in a lot of
rugs. Potentially, depends onthe rug, whatever. The ew G
(13:47):
maintains a list of pee fastfree products, by the way, so
okay, that in the show notes, soif you're just curious to see
like, what doesn't have a P bassin it, then. Okay. So in fact,
irrigable itself, is itsustainable? Or is it better?
This is the question. So treehuggers review of rug, a bowl
(14:14):
says quote, while they areplastic based and can't be
recycled, so they're plasticbased and can't be recycled. Two
important facts. Some styles aremade with recycled plastic
bottle waist.
(14:34):
So that's kind of cool. Yeah,that is cool. Like that. Yeah,
that's important. Yeah.
And it says they are extremelydurable and are printed on
demand. So the company is lowwaste in that respect.
Yeah, they're not just storingstuff and letting it go out of
fashion or whatever. Yeah, sothat's really cool. And then
undruggable own website. It saysthat they their rugs do not
contain toxic dyes. Instead,they're water based dyes. They
(14:58):
don't use flame retardants likeI mentioned can be bad, they do
not use P PFASs. To help themwith stain guarding. But the
good trade review the thatwebsite, the good trade, they
review mentions that there mightbe trace amounts of what's
called methylene. chloride inthe rugs. Okay, trace amounts.
(15:19):
So I don't know if you canreally call them non toxic, but
I'm not that worried about it.
Right? trace them. So it's like,yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And it's also like, itmight be there. It's like, not
really,they haven't. Yeah, they don't
really no. Yeah.
And from what I can understandthe company is working to solve
(15:41):
that. So. So it seems like apretty legit company. So we'll
go into the kind of like thepros and cons at the like, in a
minute. But first off, how do Ilike it? So
that's a good question. Yeah.
Yes. Give me the day to day ofyour rug. wool rug. Yes.
(16:01):
So when I ordered it, it came ina box and it came in like
plastic packaging, which I thinkthey could probably do something
different than that. But yeah.
So it's basically like, the wayit works is it's two parts. And
there's one part that's called arug pad that sits on the ground.
And that's sort of like yourbase layer. Right? And it's
(16:23):
honestly like a giant velcropad. Right? It holds a rug and
place. Yes. And so you put yourtop portion, which is actually
really thin. I think that's whyit's washable. But you put you
just have to place your topportion on top of it.
It just sticks to it. Okay.
So that fact makes installationan absolute bitch.
(16:46):
Okay. Yes,not very easy, but it is a
clever design. Right. And it'snice that, like, I think that's
one of the reasons why it'swashable. So that's really
helpful. There are two options,you can get a thicker pad or a
thinner pad, I got the thinnerone, but I would recommend the
thicker one if you want it tofeel cushiony. Or if you have a
(17:06):
wobbly toddler who will hit youat every fair. Man, I felt so
guilty several times. I waslike, dammit, if only I'd gotten
the thicker one.
My baby was top heavy.
She's arrived, it's fine. Sookay, so let's get into my pros
(17:32):
and cons about this rug itself.
So the pros, it's easy to use,minus the installation. But it's
easy to use, in the sense thatyou can wash it on your own. So
mine is an eight by 10. Okay,and sorry, I'm adjusting memory
for mine is an eight by 10. Andit fits in my washing machine.
(17:53):
Which is like a pretty big rug.
I'm not 100% convinced that anine by 12 wood, but I do think
I've heard other people say thatit does. So yeah. So it's like a
big rug fits in your washingmachine. You wash it like you're
doing a load of towels. And youdon't have to like lug it to the
(18:15):
cleaner or buy or rent a carpetcleaner or store a carpet
cleaner. or deal with thosechemicals because I learned as
well chemicals aren't good,right for them on the most part.
So I love that fact that is ahuge Pro. And then you can
actually tumble dry it which welearned what tumble dry was last
week, right? Exactly.
Not last week, couple weeks. Andit's basically air dry, but I
(18:40):
had no idea. So I always pulllike just throw mine on my deck
and it dries pretty quickly. Imight try the tumble drying
method but we'll see. And thenif this so by washing it
yourself and using homemadelaundry detergent, like we
learned in a previous episodesaves the use of potentially
(19:04):
toxic chemicals from cleaningcompanies. So if you take it to
a cleaner, they're the chemicalsthey use are probably not great.
And I've learned that they alsomay dispose of them illegally.
So it enter streams and riversbecause you're not supposed to
just throw it like in thewastewater you're there's a way
to dispose of it that somecompanies don't comply with
(19:27):
according to the IndianaDepartment of Environmental
Management. And then thehousehold carpet cleaners are
not great either. Some of themare fine, but a lot of them are
rained rated like an a D or anF. According to the
Environmental Working Group.
There's only one householdcarpet cleaner that was ranked
(19:49):
in a and the funny thing this isso funny. I was so confused for
good 10 seconds is called SimpleGreen and naturals Carpet Care.
Okay, there's another one.
That sounds like a lot of greenhooey. But
okay, doesn't it, but it wasrated an A. So that's funny. But
(20:10):
there's another one calledsimple green carpet cleaner
that's rated an F. But the crazything is, it's the same company.
Yes, I was so confused. And I'mstill slightly confused.
If you like, I just wouldn't buythem just for that.
I know. That's how I feel. Theydo have a lot of products that I
(20:34):
looked them up, they have a lotof products that have the simple
or the Safer Choice Label, whichis the label from the EPA. That
means that it's like better,it's maybe not like perfect, but
it's better. So a lot of theirproducts have that. But this one
apparently is just like reallybad. Woof. Isn't that weird? So
I'm like, Oh, easy would it beto buy? But another thing is, it
(20:56):
was kind of hard to find thislike the Simple Green the bad
one. Yeah. So I don't know ifthey just phased it out, and
then replace it with the betterone. So I don't want to like
totally, you know, I don't wantto give them too much shit. But
it was just so strange. And Iwas like, Wait, Simple Green
simple.
(21:17):
Just flipping through them like,yes. So but then other ones like
resolves carpet cleaners, shoutcarpet cleaner Hoover will like
they also a lot of them are D'sor F's by the
assist. Like don't look underyour sink, cat.
I know. I know. So it's prettywild. So that's a pro like you
(21:40):
can avoid all that shit,basically. And also, yeah, you
don't have to store all thatcarpet cleaner and stuff,
either. That's true. And use andthen throw away the plastic
because it always comes in aplastic bottle, no matter,
right? Totally.
Which doesn't everything butwhatever. I know. It's fine.
It's not fine. It's not me.
(22:03):
So another pro for irrigable isit they're quite durable. So I
have owned it for about twoyears, and I've washed it maybe
10 times, Max. Definitely notmore than 10. I've spilled a lot
of things on it, including anentire venti of cold brew that I
talked about a couple of weeks.
Yes, I remember getting knockedoff. Yeah, right all over the
(22:25):
rug.
And it came up pretty well.
Actually, a rug doesn't have apretty intricate design, which
is why I bought it because it'slike, stains aren't going to
show as well.
But yeah, I wanted likesomething dark. Right? Yeah.
I can't do dark because my dogis white. Always. Yeah, it's a
conundrum.
(22:45):
Yep. Fair.
But yeah, the rug is still ingood shape. There are only maybe
a few strands on the edgescoming apart, but nothing
serious. And the one thing thatI've seen a lot of people
complain about rug bubble and Ithink other rugs have this issue
too, is the corners and theedges are coming up to the point
(23:05):
that they like we tripped overthem some carpet. I know you
told me about it and then okay,so rug tape. I need it. But I'm
confused by it. I was going toask you this because I'm
confused. If I need to wash myrug, do I just have to replace
all this tape or why?
I have and I know that that'snot a sustainable thing. I have
(23:27):
replaced the rug tape because itgets hair stuck on it. It stops
being a sticky,okay. Okay. I'm not worried
about the sustainability of sometape. But okay.
I mean, I've I've only done likeonce a year max or something.
Like I have. Yeah, I have a spotwhere my dog or one of my rugs
curls up because it's a cheaprug and it just curls up. And so
I've been taping it down. Likeit's getting flatter. But it
(23:52):
Yeah, it's it still comes in. SoI think for the first especially
two years that I was in thishouse, I was taping it down and
Okay. It's gotten better, butall right, I should try it. It's
just like, I don't really watchit that often. But I'm like my
God, if I have to wash it andtake
the tape off and blah, blah. Butyeah, yeah, I mean, it's Yeah,
who knows? You'll probably getless I got pretty industrial
(24:15):
RockTape I wonder if there'slike less. Just if it's just
gonna have like a little tackthat just holds the corner.
Yeah, you're like double sidedtape. It's great for keeping
your keeps your bra bra thistop. Tape down your your
buttoned down and perfect. Yes.
So many uses. Yeah, so I need toget rug tape. I just haven't. I
(24:40):
don't think about it ever. Soit's like a trip on it like dang
it.
I know. I know. Rubble Rubble,so I'm not like 100% convinced
that it's more durable thanother cheapo rugs I have owned.
But I do think I do think it'sdurable. That's why I said quote
durable, I'm not sure it's likethe Erie durable. Alright. It's
(25:01):
hard to say because it's twoyears, you know, rug needs last
two years, but, but I have heardthat washing your rugs, makes
them last longer. So thatprobably can't hurt. Right?
Yeah.
I mean, that's what they saylike vacuuming? Washing? It is.
It is actually good for them.
Yeah. So that's like your denimor whatever. Right, right.
(25:23):
Yeah, so that's a pro. Two otherquick pros. And mostly, it's
mostly non toxic. And you know,this, which is nice to be able
to do the research and see,like, look at the website and be
like, Okay, I know what's goinginto this rug. Because sometimes
I feel like if you buy somethingfrom Wayfarer, that would be you
have no idea.
You know, I think there's thewhole thing about they were
trafficking children. Like,which wasn't true. But yeah, you
(25:46):
just don't know what waiverbecause it's, it's just don't.
You just don't know. It's alsoit's like, it's like Amazon.
It's like a conglomerate ofdifferent sellers.
I really hate when I open a boxof something. I bought off
Wayfair and it has theCalifornia
Yes. Warning on it. Yes. I'mlike God dammit, now I'm going
to kill myself sucked. And thenit kind of smells.
(26:09):
It's just off gassing just yeah,you just feel like horrible. I
also not the same at all, butI'm very bad at gauging sizes.
And so I'll think it's gonna bebig and it comes in and it's
like dollhouse size and I'mlike, why is this $800 Okay, I
made that mistake too manytimes. And I started measuring
(26:31):
because I've even measured andso oh my god, that's hilarious.
Okay, so the other pro last andfinal pro is that they're
relatively affordable. I don'tknow what you normally pay for a
rug. So I'm definitely sayingrelatively to talk
Facebook marketplace. Okay, sowhere you go for free or like my
(26:51):
buy nothing group?
Yeah. So they're definitely notas cheap as they come. So for a
new rug? I would say, I don'tknow people call it affordable
is really such a subjectiveterm. Right. It really is. And I
have not bought a secondRoadable rug rug because I'm
like, holy shit. It's tooexpensive.
No, yeah. I was just Googling asyou were.
(27:13):
Yeah. So an eight by 10. arearug cost between $489 $99. Yeah,
depending on the 600 bucks.
That's a lot. It is a rug.
I mean, I think even though likemy ex husband bought what the
one that's in our living roomnow that I really want to get
rid of. So I was thinking ofreplacing it with irrigable.
(27:34):
One, because especially in thedining room. Washable is great,
right? Yes. But yeah, I thinkthat one even on Wayfarer was
probably 200. And it's like asix by eight or whatever.
Right. Yeah. And actually ourold cheapo one. Well, it was
big. I think it was like nine by12. Right. That was like 300 400
bucks. So yeah, I mean, it'slike pretty comparable, but it's
(27:56):
notfree. Not definitely not free.
Not free. I was just looking onCraigslist, and there's some
rugs. Jonathan Adler, this onewas? There's a five by seven rug
bubble rug.
Oh, there you go.
That's a good way to do it.
$100. Fine. It's not the onethat I want. Right. See, that's
(28:18):
a five by seven. Yeah, butfive by seven for $100. Yeah,
that's not a bad deal. You couldtalk them down
and be like, well, you like 45?
I'm like, they're like cashonly. And I'm like when you take
50 And then like, Sure. And thenI'm like, kind of get changed
for 60. And then they hate meforever. That's how I shop on
(28:41):
Craigslist. Would you take acheck? Okay, yeah.
All right. So the cons of rugrug. Like I mentioned, they're
(29:04):
not recyclable. So this is a rugthing, right. And it's a carpet
industry thing in general, wherethey're not made to be recycled.
And I think I read on that. Ithink it was the Gaia study.
Yeah, it's like 1% of carpetinggets recycled. That's
disgusting. And I think a lot ofit is because of all of the
(29:27):
chemicals that they add, or theway that it's manufactured. I
think for irrigable it might bebecause it's made of plastic
there, which makes no sensebecause you can recycle plastic
but it but you can't not. Not inthat. I mean, we need to go into
that in our recycling season.
But I can totally when it's inthat state, you can't.
Okay, that makes sense. BecauseI mean, it's fabric, right? So
(29:50):
how the hell would you recyclethat right?
We have Yeah, fibers are reallyhard to recycle. Yeah.
So if you choose to dispose ofirrigable ROG it's going into
the land. infill. So that'swhere that's where I have a
problem with this idea that it'ssustainable, because it's like,
here's this claim that theserugs because they're washable
(30:11):
are helping lower the amount ofrugs in the landfill. But I'm
like not necessarily sure thatthat's going to happen. Like, is
that really true? You know whatI mean? Yeah. Yeah, I just don't
think that that you reallyequate that much. I mean, a big
(30:35):
reason. Okay. I will be honest,a big reason I got rid of my
last rug that might be ignitedby 12. One was because I didn't
have the energy to clean it. Soin that sense, because I
literally for it took me like,it was like a year of being
having these ambitions to go tothe stupid grocery store because
(30:56):
I think you can actually rentcarpet cleaners from the grocery
store. I don't know if you knewthis.
I did not know that. I just Ihave one. I just bought one.
Dog. I need thisone time, but But yeah, so I was
planning to do this for like afull year. I was like this
carpets disgusting. I also havea dog. It's really gross. And
then I just couldn't bringmyself to do it. So I ended up
(31:20):
selling that rug on Facebookmarketplace for like 50 bucks.
I you know what? And that, youknow, I would I have definitely
found rugs on Facebookmarketplace or like, the Buy
Nothing group. Just, I even gotone for one of my friends.
Because, like they're justgiving them away. And I think
(31:42):
that's way better than throwingit away.
Yeah, totally. And I was veryupfront. Like, this is not a
clean rug. Right. I was verylike,
please watch this. Go not feelfree
to take it. You can even barterwith me. I don't think they did
anything. They just gave me 50bucks. But But yeah, so I mean,
at least I didn't throw in thetrash. Right. But I didn't have
(32:04):
the energy to clean it. And itwas a pain in my ass. So I got
rid of it. So I mean, I guess inthat sense, rug bubble could be
saving rugs from going in the inthe landfill? Yeah. But that's
the only way that I can equatethe two, right? Yeah. But yeah,
I'm also not sure how much howmuch of a rug. How much of the
rug industry is going into that4 billion tonnes of carpet
(32:26):
waste? Yeah, in the landfill. Soyeah, that's one of the cons.
It's not recyclable. Okay, madeof plastic is the other con the
so the good trade talks about itshedding microplastics when you
wash it, right, which everythingplastic does, as we know. But
then on the other hand, some ofthe rugs are made from recycled
(32:47):
water bottles, which is cool.
The other con which isn'tnecessarily a con, but it's just
something to think about is thatit's not the only washable rug
out there. So it's justinteresting to me that these
companies are marketingthemselves as washable rugs. But
like, I got a rug that's notsustainable in any way, shape,
(33:07):
or form. I'll be honest, forCharlie's room, and before she
was born, and it's a rag rug,it's like one of those big it's
huge, but it's like a rag rug.
Made out of rags I used to makethe most my grandma actually
was yes. I know what you'retalking about. Yes. Yeah, the
little machine and I would likeroll it out. And she would pay
(33:30):
me I think a no joke. $1 anhour. She would pay me $1 an
hour to roll out rags it.
Oh, good. I love it.
But we also just spend timetogether. So that was nice. I
mean that yeah, that's the bestpart. Yeah, and I'm maybe made
like two bucks Max. But okay.
(33:54):
The time was grandma, right?
But then you know, this, thisrag rug that I got for her room
was 70 bucks. And it's lastedthe same amount of time. It's
washable. So it's like, I don'tknow. That's the other thing to
think about is like, there arewashable options out there.
They're probably not going to begood for the environment. I
mean, maybe there are some ragrugs that are but onto my
(34:17):
rating. So from one to fivegranolas we rate things products
overall washable rugs. One tofive one is not great. Five is
breaker tooth off super crunchybecause you want to crunchy
granola. So I'm reading washablerugs for all the reasons that I
just mentioned. Chewy, so it'snumber three. Okay, fair smack
(34:42):
dab in the middle. Not bad, notthe most impressive product I've
seen so far. So do I recommendrogol as a product? Yes, I
totally do. I actually do reallyrecommend it. But as a way to
have a more sustainable Lifethat's less clear to me.
(35:03):
Partially because I think in theend, it falls more on us as
consumers. So, I'm gonna usemyself as an example of your
asshole capitalistic consumer,which we all are. We bought our
rug bubble rug two years ago,right? I have since heard this.
(35:25):
I was watching this YouTuber.
She's like a Home Designer onYouTube. And I watched too many
of these people reallyjust make you feel bad about
yourself really wellthat she did because she
basically she didn't say theword basic. But in so many words
she called my rug design. Basic,no. Which is fine, like because
of your basic but subconsciouslythat has seeped into my brain
(35:50):
and made me very over thepattern of the rug that I
bought.
No, no, let them do that to you.
I know what. But so here's thething. The fact that rug bubble
is washable isn't going to stoplike my never ending itch for
(36:10):
your new hip.
Yes, it's still going to be Yep.
100%.
Yeah, so it's like, I'm just aslikely to want to move on from
that rug, because the design islike outdated because in like
two or two to four years, I tryto buy stuff that looks
relatively timeless. Yeah, andthis one is like pretty. I don't
(36:32):
know. It's nothing crazy. Andit's nothing super trendy. But
right. It's like that. Sort oflike a fake Persian rug, but
faded in spots. I don't know.
Yeah. You know what I'm talkingabout? Yes, I
don't I have one under my diningroom table currently. Okay. See,
I like it. That's one of my exhusband bought that's pink and
it doesn't know with my house,anyway. Yeah.
(36:54):
But yeah, I feel like thatdesign in two to four years is
gonna be super outdated. Yeah,if it's not already, it probably
is. I'm not that trendy. So likethat train of trends and all
that doesn't stop. So you'restill gonna
Yeah, that and that marketingcrap again, right. You're not
fulfilled. You need a new rug?
Yes. Oh, is it ternium YouTuber,got into my little brain cavity
(37:18):
and conduce me. I'm not saying Ican't fight it. Because I think
I can. But I think it just, itrequires us to be so conscious
of like, Why do I want a newrug? Why do I want a new rug?
Because I've been thinking aboutit in the back of my mind for
like months. And I never until Iwas doing all this research. I
was like, holy shit.
(37:40):
Well, then you just like, I havebeen thinking of replacing my
rugs. Because first of all, mostof them are cheap. That about it
like garage sales are unfit, youknow. Two of them. My ex
husband's, you know, and do Ilike them enough? Are
they great, right? Yeah, patchyou choose. True, though. Yeah,
(38:03):
that'sworth it. So, but then I'm like,
okay, so if I want it, I don'twant to do Rackable I think I
think you think you don't know,I think because I would want to
do and I'm just sending you alink right now to like this
Facebook marketplace when Iwould want to buy a used drug.
Oh, yeah. Okay to keep it out ofthe landfill and then find a
sustainable washing option.
(38:27):
Well, that one's really prettyYeah, but
look at the so I just sent herone on Facebook marketplace
because I was like casuallybrowsing while you're talking
just to see it's selling for$50 $20 It was listed 11 hours
ago. It has water damage worth acouple 1000 lol need gone ASAP.
(38:49):
was a beautiful rug right?
is so pretty. So you can Okay,you can see I'm saying like take
it to a cleaner but you actuallycan take those things to a
cleaner. Yes. So interesting.
That's really funny. I'm gonnabuy something that's like maybe
not water damage but like this.
(39:10):
That's like old and legit andgood.
Yeah, but batch isn't my decorand is like something you know
that because people are sodisposable about things like
rugs, furniture. So somethinglike permanent feeling. Yeah, or
just or just like not letting itget into a landfill feeling?
(39:31):
Yeah, yes. I love that. And thatyou know, I felt that way about
close to a lot of like I do alot of goodwill shopping and
stuff. Yeah, sometimes we needthat for our we're gonna have a
whole season about clothing butOh totally.
I just I get most of Charlie'sclothes and from there she's
gonna outgrow them in about 30seconds. Yes. Why bother and
(39:54):
tomorrow morally good thriftstores around here. I have a lot
of fun with Yeah,yeah. I I kind of wish I had
children just for that. Notreally. That's a silly reason to
want children. Even though it isactually yeah, yeah. And hand me
downs from your friends whenthey have something really cute.
Yes, it's you know it's cutewhen like all of your nephews
have the same onesie that getsyes
(40:17):
we have I got so many clotheshand me handed me handed down
how canI get them to meet me down to
hunted me? Down handed meso yeah, absolutely the best I'm
like please God Yes Give me allyour use clothes. Yeah so great.
Especially because they just getavocado
(40:38):
freakin point you know, I thinkthat's hippies for brown so much
in this Lastly, because theyjust got avocado all over them.
Right? And hemplove it. So yeah, so that's what
I mean, my conclusion as far assustainable rugs is like, it's
just it's on us to like hop offthat train, like buying a rug is
(40:59):
not going to. It's not going tomake us more sustainable. In
fact, if you don't need a rug,that's probably Yeah, your least
sustainable option is going andbuying a new rug. So yeah,
especially if you're just gonnathrow out your old again. I do
love the Facebook marketplacefor Yes, giving stuff away if
(41:19):
you can repurpose stuff. Yeah.
Yeah, reduce, reduce, reduce,then reuse, and recycle. Those
are options. So yep.
I love it. Okay, this is longerthan I thought it was.
I know we had a lot to say aboutrugs rug, talk. I mean, it's
such an integral part of yourhome decor. Um, you can change a
(41:39):
whole room, you know, it reallycan and change your mood about
that room and everything.
And let me tell you all of theInstagramers that I follow with
How would I describebittersweet?
Love hate.
Some of them more hate than loveand some of them more love than
hate. But anyway, um, all ofthem, man, they love their rugs.
(42:02):
And they are good at placingrug. You can look clean. I'm
like, Yeah, it's so clean.
I know. It's not clean. No, Ivacuum a lot. Yes, well,
luckily, Wine Stains don't showup on my big red carpet. There
you go. Avocado, my butt. Rightone on the other. Yeah, watch
(42:23):
out with that next taco night.
All right. Well, that's itthough. So
cool. Well, I thank you fortaking me on this journey with
you. I feel I do feel like Ilearned a lot and I am. It is
helping me really cement that. Ido want to get a used drug.
I love it. Okay, see, that'seven better. I love that so
(42:46):
much.
Yeah. Neat. I'll see withtyping in the background like
Sir taper, right?
Yeah, no, it's I mean, it's it'sfun for me. I love Craigslist,
shopping and things. But I knowsame.
I'm a huge fan. Actually, thedesk I'm sitting at I got off
Craigslist. It's like anantique. But any who's. Alright,
(43:09):
so next time, we are startingour series of homemade DIY
cleaners. Yes. So we're going totest out a couple we're going to
test them. Well, first off,we're gonna look up some
recipes, test them, researchwhether they're eco friendlier
or not. And to start cat isgoing to talk about homemade
(43:30):
window cleaner.
Oh, yeah. If you're a windexfan, right.
I feel like Windex. Every time Ispray it. I'm like,
I know. I know that job. I'llprobably start this. Well, okay.
Remind me to start the podcastoff next week talking about my
(43:51):
high school job using Windex.
Okay. Yes. Don't be like hey,what was your high school job?
And I'll be like, and how didyou use Windex and you will be
like, holy cannoli is what youwill say. Okay,
I'll remember to say that I'lltry it. I'll forget. But and
yeah, if you find a recipe, sendit to me and I'll try it too.
Okay. So listeners do us afavor. And if you like our
(44:15):
podcast take, we we ask that youtake 30 seconds and leave a five
star review. Wherever you listento podcasts, because it really
helps us a lot. And if you'retech no challenge
technologically challenged likeme. I don't know what to tell
you. Because I don't either. Idon't really know how to leave a
(44:36):
five star review. But it's notthat hard. To do that hard.
Yeah, it's not it's notyou just click it. When in your
wherever you listen to yourpodcasts. We'll be right under
the name. You should be starsand just make them all full.
Make them all yellow. Yes. Andthen we would love you always
for it. And we'lllove you anyway, but we'll be
extra.
(44:59):
All right, well, that That's allI got
all right till next time thanksTiffany
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.