It was definitely a 70s-80s thing. They hated hardwood or tile floors. It was either carpet or shitty linoleum. I rewatched Poltergeist the other day and the whole bathroom is pink carpet. Just a mold nightmare.
I used to think I liked carpeted bathrooms. Then I realized it's just that each of the carpeted bathrooms I knew in my youth were all at houses that I enjoyed being at. My grandma's, my aunt's, my best friend's mom's, and my elderly neighbors. My kid brain associated carpeted bathrooms with some of my favorite people.
My aunt and uncle's house growing up was like that. They also didn't have a shower in the upstairs bathroom, just a bathtub. To shower you'd have to go down to the basement bathroom very far out of the way.
I learned recently that the bathroom in my early childhood home wasn't carpeted when we moved in; rather, MY DAD had it carpeted in the early 90s! When I asked my mom wtf he did that for, she said he wanted his feet to be warm when using the bathroom 🤢 why he couldn't just wear slippers idfk
My great aunt/uncle had carpet in the bathroom when I was a kid. I would go over their house exactly once a year, probably been there like 10 times in my life, and even as a <10 year old kid, I thought it was nasty.
Lasted long after that. The new build the family got in the 90s had a fully carpeted master bathroom.
It was eventually discovered that the bathroom had initially had linoleum put down, which likely assisted with preventing any water issues between the carpet and the subfloor. The house was a builder demonstration/show unit so we assumed that someone decided after the fact that the "luxury" of a carpeted master bathroom was a good selling point for other people interested in buying homes in the development.
In the UK it was common to have a little rug specifically to put under the sink & up against the toilet. or against the bath/shower in the 90's, but not an entire carpeted bathroom.
Even the toilet rugs are pretty rare now. Still occasionally have a small rug by the bath/shower though.
I never understood the logic. If you wear slippers, theres no need for any carpet in the bathroom. plus, It's much more hygienic to clean a tiled floor than put down a rug to soak up urine.
Bathroom mats are quite common in most households still. Especially for stepping out the shower and sink. Bathrooms in condos are small though so the shower mat is the toilet mat.
Yeah, i just feel like they've declined in popularity since i was a kid in the 90's. Every house used to have 3 bathroom mats in each bathroom, now its usually just one for the bath/shower.
They seem to have fallen out of favor. But as a person with a disability, and knowing that on average one person a day dies in a bathroom from slipping just in the USA, I have like ten of them. I also throw my towel on the ground after I dry myself. I have actually passed out a few times after getting out of a bath or shower and the matts likely saved my life or prevented further disability.
I still have all of them rugs and always have, sinks, toilet and next to the bath all shaped specifically and I have several changes of rugs so I can wash them every few days, I basically wash them as soon as the bath one is abit too wet, just change them all. I thought that was common!!! Feel like I gotta have the rugs to take the chill off the room.
Same convention existed in the US! Whenever I go home to visit my father—who still keeps the norms of the 90s—I wear shoes or slippers into the bathroom.
I thought this still was common! Almost every non-public bathroom I've been to has the wee pedestal and toilet mat. Definitely feels like a holdover from a previous generation though. I'd definitely prefer a full on wet room like bathrooms abroad.
I assumed everyone had a bath mat though? To step on after a shower to stop slipping.
Bath mats are still common, but if you wear slippers around the house, it's kind of unnecessary. I do my towel drying while still standing in the shower, so at most i have a few drops of water on the tile floor, when i step into my slippers and put my dressing gown on.
I'm forever in house slippers when at home. In the hot months, I switch to house sandals. Small rug outside of tub/shower, doubles for one in front of sink. Never had a bad tile floor experience.
My mom and stepdad's house was a foreclosure, and it had some wacky features, including a carpeted master bathroom with a sunken in tub. The carpet was just cut around the tub, and if you took a bath in it, the carpet would get all wet. No one in our family ever really used the tub bc it was gross. Then last year, my mom and stepdad remodeled that bathroom and put in one of those huge fancy rain showers, and tiled the floor. But yeah I have no fuckin clue what the previous owners were thinking.
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u/__-gloomy-__ 7d ago
Why do people have carpets in the bathroom? By the commode 🤢