The discovery of world of Japandi style created a dislike in me for my current rug. I wanted something else. I was discontent and was ready to cull-and-buy. I even placed an order for a jute rug and then got it canceled. I couldn’t do it. My current rug is vintage. It was sold to me by a women lead company. They rescue and repair old rugs. Their warehouse is 3 miles from home. My rug is made of high quality wool and the mends are thick polyester yarn. It’s only been with us for 3 years. Should I throw out perfectly fine things on a whim ? I was making short lists for my next rug and getting ready to sell this one. Then, the movers finally arrived from the East Coast with our luggage and we finally rolled out our old rug in the living room. My puppy immediately clutched on to it like a child clutches her blanket. She settled on it and wouldn’t get off it for a long time. As a rescue dog, this rug was the first place she felt at home in our old apartment. To her, arrival of this rug was a sign that she was home after a long cross country journey. She calmed down and settled in. I called off my search for a replacement rug. This is it. We may not be inching towards Japandi at the rate I want, but this rug is the perfect one for our current life. We now have many dog friends who come home to play with her. A rug with pattern that doesn’t show mud stains is essential for our way of indoor/outdoor living. I sometimes see the strain in the faces of our friends when they see their kids play on our beige couch. They do not know the miracle properties of Sunbrella fabric and often think I am lying to put them at ease. I can extrapolate this stress to panic, if we had a beige wool rug. Our hot pink rug is probably what I need for this space. I am the one who cleans this house, coz patriarchy exists. I can’t get too inspired by women who have cleaners-on-call and follow their design advice. I like my rug as is. My partner and I then went on to have a very important conversation on balancing change in tastes with using the things we already own. 10 years at least, is the bench mark that we both agreed upon. Buy for the decade. Use it for the entire decade. After that, we are free to stray and think of re-decorating. Given this clarity, I dropped off our rug at the cleaners for a once-every-3-year deep clean. We got to take care of it and make it last.