So this is where I go off about how much I am in love with Flor tiles. It’s a nasty, dirty love, probably not safe for work or appropriate for young children. Some of you have noticed these carpet squares in some of my daily photos and have asked if I like them, do I recommend them, how well do they clean up, do they taste good with peanut butter? Oh, but they are that and so much more, can clear up oily skin and enlarge your penis.

The tiles come in 20-inch squares in an endless variety of colors and textures. We bought 49 squares in Morning Coffee – Decaf to make a 12-ft square rug in the living room (pictured above). When Leta spills her beer or Chuck throws up that diaper he ate this morning, we just break out a baby wipe, and poof, the mess is gone. I am not even making this up. Have you ever tried doing that with regular carpet? You end up with a giant off-color spot right there in the middle of the floor, and you just know people are coming over and looking at it and wrongly assuming that you are the type of person who smells her underwear to see if she can wear it an extra day.

In our old house we used six of the Shirt Stripe – French Cuff tiles in the kitchen, and then when we moved into this house we decided they’d be put to better use in the office:

You would not know this, but there were once red wine stains on those tiles, stains we took care of with a single baby wipe. Does this say more about the awesomeness of the tiles or the power of a baby wipe, I don’t know, but whatcan’t a baby wipe do? Have you ever stopped to think about that for a second? Raise your hand if the first thing you do the second anything goes wrong is reach for a baby wipe, before calling 911. That’s what I thought.

Perhaps the best thing about Flor tiles is the fact that they are recyclable, and the company is very serious about being friendly to the environment. We used these tiles in Leta’s bedroom and are now using them in the basement utility room (I don’t believe they make this particular pattern any longer):

But since they’re pink and hard to match with anything I’m thinking I may send them back to Flor for them to recycle (they will pay shipping) and ordering a different color. Not sure yet, depends on how fancy I want to get with the utility room. I should probably make a decision soon, because I got an email from someone who saw a picture of these tiles in Leta’s bedroom and said that they were so ugly that if I didn’t get rid of them Leta would develop a neurological problem, and I would have no one but myself to blame. I am so glad that the Internet is here to take care of me.

from the dooce archives