When choosing carpets for your bedroom, it’s tempting to brush them off as an afterthought. After all, there’s the bed, the mattress, your sheets and comforter, and most likely some kind of dresser, nightstand, and a range of other bits of furniture and bedding that catch your eye first. However, while all of these things are important to varying degrees, we’d advise you not to neglect your flooring in the most intimate part of your home. The last part of your home you touch before climbing into bed will be your carpets. They’ll also be the first parts of your home you’ll greet (not counting any human or animal family members, of course) once you wake to start each new day. While there are some people who enjoy hardwood floors for bedroom floors, we prefer carpets. Here’s what to prioritize (and what you can let slide) when choosing a good carpet for your bedroom.

Durability isn’t that important (unless you have kids or cats)

Unlike your family room, your stairs, or your hallways, your bedroom isn’t going to be one of the most trafficked areas of your home in most cases. As a result, while we’re generally fans of durability, we wouldn’t recommend focusing too much on the most durable carpets when choosing a style for your bedroom. A good rule of thumb is that a bedroom carpet will last as long as you live in a home (which, per housing surveys, is around 13 years). As a result, if you’re buying a new carpet, one with 10 years of coverage in the texture retention warranty should be enough.

The exception to this rule is if you have children–young children in particular–or pets (by which we really mean cats). Young kids are likely to spend a lot of time in your bedroom, whether due to playing, snuggling, or hiding from monsters and power outages. If your cats are like ours, they might see your carpets as a giant, follow-you-everywhere scratching post. If you have little feet pattering around your home, you’ll want to keep durability in mind for the bedroom too.

It doesn’t need to be easy to clean or stain-proof (unless you often eat in bed)

Along with not overemphasizing durability, you also don’t need to focus nearly as much on ease of cleaning for a bedroom carpet as you would for carpets elsewhere in the home. Keep in mind we’re talking about carpets here and not bedsheets, comforters, or pillows, which are another story entirely.

The exception for this rule is if, like many people, you enjoy eating in bed. In that case, you’ll want to either invest in a good carpet cleaner and vacuum (see below) or consider carpets with good warranties (e.g., Mohawk SmartStrand) such as “no exclusion” policies, where things that aren’t often covered in stain warranties (e.g., cat urine, dog accidents) are covered. Also remember that there’s a difference between staining and soiling coverage in a warranty. That said, even if you frequently carry (and spill) coffee, wine, orange juice in your bedroom, you can do an awful lot with a good carpet cleaner, with or without warranty protection.

…but comfort, coziness, and softness are worth paying for

Now that we’ve covered what’s often not important when buying a bedroom carpet, here’s what is, at least in our books. Comfort, coziness, and softness. All three words describe the same idea–you want your carpets to be inviting to your feet. This is a somewhat intuitive idea that’s easy to overlook. Whether or not you spend time sitting or lying on your bedroom floor, unless you have a habit of walking around in your bedroom in shoes, you’re going to feel the carpet every time you’re not in bed. The better it feels, the better you’ll feel about your room.

It doesn’t matter if you choose a synthetic carpet fiber or a natural one; there are comfortable and uncomfortable carpets in both. What matters more is carpet pile and fiber length; longer fibers and higher piles are typically more comfortable. This means friezes over saxonies or berbers, if you’re looking at carpet styles. However, more plush carpets typically need better carpet cleaners and vacuums to clean them. We’ll cover our recommendations in this area in a moment. But before getting there, there’s one more overarching idea we want to share.

Above all, look for a sense of safety and warmth

This is perhaps the most important point to keep in mind, and you’ll notice it’s closely related to our last suggestion. At a core level, a bedroom is a place we need to feel safe, calm, warm, and welcoming. It’s the most intimate part of our homes where we do the most intimate things. You want a carpet that reflects that, or at least is in harmony with your life patterns. If that’s a low-pile, plain-colored berber, that’s just fine. If it’s a high-pile carpet with one inch fibers, that’s fine. It just has to be a carpet that honors your hideaway from the world.

…and don’t forget a decent carpet cleaner and vacuum

While you don’t need special carpet cleaners or vacuums to keep up with most bedroom carpets, we still recommend choosing buy-it-for-life machines whenever possible, whether to save the environment, your wallet, or simply your time spent shopping for appliances. If you just want one carpet cleaner for the rest of the time you own your home, you only really need a Bissell 86T3 Big Green. We’ve reviewed it repeatedly (e.g., here and here), and we know it works, and it’s going to get any stains out.

When choosing a vacuum, look for one that will clean every carpet in your house and every carpet you could think of getting in the future (i.e., a range of styles and piles) while lasting for decades. For us, that means a vacuum like the Miele Complete C3 Soft Carpet or the Miele Compact C2 Electro+. Either will be comfortable with carpets from low- to high-piles, bare floors, and everything in between. The Soft Carpet has a reputation for cleaning carpets that other vacuums simply get stuck in or shred, and the Electro+ offers most of the power on a slightly smaller budget.

You can buy the Bissell 85T3 Big Green carpet cleaner here on Amazon. You can buy the Miele Complete C3 Soft Carpet here or buy the Miele Compact C2 Electro+ here.

Canadians can buy the Miele Soft Carpet here, the Compact Electro+ here, and the Bissell Big Green here.

If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home cleaning tools by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.