green is universal

By Mary Beth Gonzalez

Sometimes I goof up with Green. I seem to do okay with buying Green food (organic and local natural foods) but I have a harder time sticking to Green stuff for my home. I like to blame it on the fact that it is harder to find Green, non-toxic products like natural carpet or rug pads, but that isn't really true anymore. I know where to find the Green stuff, I just don't always want to make a sacrifice for decor. My home decor matters to me and so sometimes I give in and buy something that isn't Green. And sometimes I suffer as a result.

You see I wanted a lush cream rug for our guest room. The room was all cream and aqua and I wanted it to feel like a private sanctuary... like living on the beach. I placed sea shells around the room and even hung a privacy sign on the guest room doorknob from Shutters - a famous Santa Monica beach hotel. But when it came to the new rug I needed to buy, I was stumped. Where was I going to find a thick, gorgeous, plush, non-toxic, cream colored rug that would make my feet feel like they were walking on sand?

Determined that I couldn't find such a rug, I just went to a local rug store. I looked at nearly a hundred rugs hung from the ceiling and touched them to feel their potential plushness. After 30 minutes, my head ached, my eyes were watering and my throat felt swollen. I left in a hurry, without a rug, and came home to take a shower and get the chemical rugness off my body and out of my head.

Dr. Blue Eyes looked up from his book and suggested that I call Green Depot - a leading supplier of Green products with a wide assortment of natural rugs. I called for samples and they were sent within days. I selected a yummy cream rug and an extra thick rug pad. They needed to be specially ordered (at a similar price to chemical laden rugs) and arrived within a few weeks. I couldn't wait to get them on the floor and complete my dream beach retreat.

I can honestly say that the rug looked and felt great on my bare feet. But it stank to high heaven. Not a chemical smell exactly but a wooly, natural, animal-type smell. Like we were putting our guests up in a barn.

After 6 months of convincing ourselves that we just needed to ride it out and the smell would go away... that Green is a bit of a sacrifice... I broke down and called Green Depot. They sent out an expert right away and sure enough, we discovered that the manufacture had sent us the wrong rug pad. I'm not sure where the goof happened... but it wasn't non-toxic and when we replaced it with one that was.

So I learned that even when buying Green, I need to be vigilant and I need to think of my family's health first over my lofty decor ideas. Fortunately, this time it all worked out in the end, and my beach dream has been completely fulfilled.

Mary Beth Gonzalez
iVillage.com
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