To the dingbat who designed our linoleum...

This is the linoleum in our kitchen:
I swear and promise that it is clean.

What?? you say-- That's clean? Sure looks dirt-streaked to me...

Yes, and therein lies the problem. Despite the glare from the flash, this linoleum not only ALWAYS looks dirty, but it has very little gloss. So, thing that are on the floor are very difficult to clean up. Stuff soaks in. Supposedly, it is "natural linoleum," which means it's pretty porous, thus supporting my claim that it's difficult to clean.

I should add this stuff is also in our bathroom. We have a nice wooden bathmat rug thing in there. Wouldn't you know that there is now that bathmat design ON the linoleum? No joke. The teeniest bit of dirt that has managed to get in between the wood has stained the bathroom floor. I'm not kidding.

So, in summation, this stuff sucks. It may be all-natural and not the most offensive of colors, but it is not user-friendly. And it always looks dirty.

After many a reading (floor canvases, thoughts of tacking linoleum on top of this stuff, etc etc), my fear of mold and nastiness creeping in between layers has gotten the best of me. So I'm off to find a few nice kitchen rugs that will hopefully cover 50% of the floor. While floor rugs are not always the most useful thing in the kitchen, it will at least be 50% less floor that looks gross.

While I would love to lighten up the kitchen, I am not so brave as to be on the hunt for white floor mats in the kitchen. I'm thinking dark brown. Not the prettiest, but sure as heck a lot better than dirt-streaked-looking floors. Ooh, or maybe red.... hmmm.