Bringing Nature Inside

The door to our house is on the back side of the house. You have to walk down a long driveway before reaching some stairs that lead up to the second floor of our house. This path is extremely dirty and becomes even worse during the fall and winter season with all the rain and snow. Whenever someone comes home, they drag all the mud and leaves on the bottom of their shoes throughout our house. Which has created a major problem for B-fresh and I because we love to walk around the house barefoot.

Photo taken by me

When you walk into our home, you go down a long hallway where all the rooms are located. The hallway leads into a large living room and one other room. My room happens to be the very first room as you come to the top of the stairs. It is also where the carpet begins. The majority of mud, leaves, dirt, sticks, and any other things from outside get dropped off right in front of my door. Since 90% of the mess is in front of my door, no one else bothers to clean it up. 

Photo taken by me

I have no problem vacuuming the hallway a few times a week to keep it clean. However, that is not enough to prevent me from stepping on certain foreign objects. One week in particular finally made me realize something else had to be done about the carpet situation.

Around the outside of our house there is a bunch of vegetation. Walking down our pathway sometimes feels like you're walking down a nature trail. Some of the plants have thorns and a few of them produce burrs, which are the tiny balls that stick to your clothes. 

One week during the summer they all seemed to have bloomed at once. For almost a week straight when I would walk out of my room in the morning I would step on one of those damn things. After the third day of this happening, I had to do something. 

I sent out a mass text to all my roommates to please take their shoes off before stepping onto the carpet. They took their shoes off for about a week before going back to their old ways. I decided to put up a sign to remind my roommates to take of their shoes. Ever since I have yet to step on another burr or thorn