Those who can afford a cleaning lady and those who can't. I'd prefer a minimal design that exposes dirt as long as there is someone to clean it up a couple times a day.

p.s. - in the photo above the floors look dirty.

I just moved to a house with beautiful floors...and I am freaking out because I can see all the dust that would be hidden with carpet. I would prefer to know that it's there, so I can clean it, but knowing it's there just seems stressful as well. I would still never trade the hardwood flooring for carpet.

How about a balance? Clean on a regular basis but don't freak out over dirt everyday. I have dark hardwood floors, which is particularly problematic in the kitchen. After spending the first 6 months frantically cleaning them every couple of days I realized it was just part of having the dark floors. I try to sweep every other day, but recognize that those other spots might have to wait until the weekend or when I have more time.

Definitely want to see it. Particularly in the kitchen.

I have two boys under 4 and I definitely prefer to see the grime so I can get to it. (and trust me, little crawly babies and toddlers are often wanting to be picked up/nursed/danced with/comforted, so whatever is on your floor WILL be on you.) Also, mottled or dark counters and flooring in places like the kitchen and bathroom drive me nuts, since those are the two places that (ahem, esp. with three males in the house) I definitely WANT to see the yuck asap. That said, there is a lot of white in our house (walls, chairs, couch) and it all stays *relatively* clean without hired help.

and that floor looks immaculate.

I want to see it. That's why I have snow white kitchens and baths. I clean the kitchen and then go over it again with a bleach solution. Same thing for the baths. I also have white bath towels and white kitchen towels, so I know they are clean.

I use a Roomba on my hardwood floors. It has three brushes, one filter, and a dust bin. There is no way a person could keep my floors cleaner than a Roomba. And I am amazed that everyday, it picks up a full bin of dust. Everyday. How it that possible?

I prefer to deal with it but often end up disguising it. And Allisen is right, it needs to be seen in the kitchen. Begone, black granite!

Terence Conran has never cleaned a house in his life. Just sayin'

I have a new dark hardwood floor in the living room and dining room and a new warm gray porcelain tile in the kitchen and they both show everything. I'd love to invite Sir Terrance over to see my messy floors and get his wonderful advice.

Camp # 3 - those who ignore it?

I became a sweeping maniac, too, when I installed beautiful reddish (think hair the colour of dark copper) laminate (with an almost exotic pattern that I haven't seen since) in my last house. With 3 dogs, the floors were constantly sprinkled with dog hair and little specs of dust. For that reason alone I much prefer blond-coloured flooring because the dust doesn't stand out as much. I can literally swiffer the floors twice a day but who has time for that?

As far as carpet goes - one word of advice: Dyson. I don't like the look of bare flooring, I need some rugs here and there and I know that the Dyson gets most of the dust/hair/whatever out. Vacuuming with Dyson is quick and efficient. I love that thing.

Depends on where. In the kitchen and bathrooms, where a high degree of cleanliness is important, show the dirt. In the foyer and high-traffic areas, hide it a bit.

I also have dark hardwood floors in the main living area of the house, and it is a nightmare to keep clean. Not only the dust and cat hair bunnies that mysteriously float out right as I put the vacuum away, but the paw prints and shoe prints from our house slippers show up very clearly on the satin finish.

I'll take that over carpet though, at least when I clean it I know it's clean.

Why would you want to torture yourself by making dirt visible?
I don't have the time to clean the whole house every day, so I'm not going to make myself miserable by picking materials that look dirty quickly.

I'm with HHRI.

I'm going to clean my house to a certain standard, whether it has snow white floors or mottled grey ones. Having white surfaces isn't going to make me have more hours in the day to clean, and having camouflage ones isn't going to fool me that the dirt and dust aren't there.

So I'm going to go with whatever surfaces I like looking at. Within reason.

I definitely want to see dirt in the kitchen! We stayed in a vacation home with very busy granite in the kitchen. I had to run my finders over all the surfaces to be sure they were clean. Would hate to have to live and cook like that in my real life.

I had white floors once. Never again. In the kitchen they were a nightmare, every single crumb and hair showed. I don't even mind wiping down the floor a few times a week, but a few times a day was getting on my nerves. It looked disgusting so easily. I definitely agree on surfaces that can be cleaned though, hardwood floors (just not white or too dark) and things that can be washed with water. I like to know things are clean, but I don't want to see every spot I might have missed, or dust on the floor the minute I turn off the vacuum cleaner.

since leaving carpets behind in favour of wood floors, i am constantly shocked at how much dirt i didn't know was lurking previously. i'd definitely rather be able to see it, not just for the sake of cleanliness, but also because my allergies are so much better now i can get rid of the dust!

See it and clean it. I shudder when people talk about 'hiding the dirt' though I don't have boys, so I probably don't understand what they are dealing with. I do wonder though, if those boys could actually see the dirt maybe that would make it easier to teach them to clean up after themselves?

I want to see dirt everywhere in my home so we can wash, vac or sweep it away! I also prefer no wall-to-wall carpet so we can clean to the bone, so to speak.

I knew a woman who said she liked her carpets and cupboards dark wood so it hit the dirt, but personally, I can see it anyway! I'm not fanatical or even meticulous most days about it (I have kids, construction-worker husband, hens and dogs!), but I/we do try to keep the dust and dust bunnies to a minimum.

Hide, within reason. I like my kitchen counters clean but I have black counters that show every speck of flour, which isn't "dirt" to my mind, at least the first day it is there ;) I also have a cream coloured stair runner which desperately needs to be replaced because of greying over time (professional carpet cleaning didn't do much for it). I don't even like to buy white clothes, and I do find striped and patterned t shirts hold up better over time while solid colours show both stains and fading more.
I am amazed that a dining room rug can hide toddler food and I am not sure I would want it to. I know dining table rugs are a design convention but every time I see them I wonder why on earth you would put a rug under a table where you actually eat especially with kids.

It depends on the surface.

I love white kitchens and bathrooms since you can really scrub them down and get them to shine, but plain upholstery or carpet is a lot easier to mar. It's not so much about dirt (which I consider to be a build-up of dusty, dry particles) as it is about a lifetime of wear. A light-colored fabric surface could be marred by something as slight as someone's very dark denim -- it just doesn't seem practical.

I think you have to strike the right balance between your resonable rotation of cleaning habits and the inhabitants and types of dirt in your home.

For example, pets come with mud and hair of whatever color. I have hardwood & tile floors rather than carpets so that when I clean I know they are CLEAN, not just that hair, stains and dander have migrated below the surface. But my wood and tile are close color matches to my pet's coat, so the bits of fur or mud dont show up as glaringly between the time they are deposited and the time I have the energy to clean them up.

Children tend to spill. So patterned fabrics or leathers make sense. They also make noise and may fall and bruize knees and elbows, so carpet tile may be best there, with a water-permiable backing and tile can be replaced is small areas and/or lifted to clean below it then re-laid.

There's just no one or the other answer to this questions. You have to pick the right materials for your specific household inhabitants and your cleaning style.

Deal!

I'm allergic to everything, so I don't have a choice. The place has to be clean.

We have a kitchen floor that hides dirt a little TOO well -- it is a rubber floor made of compressed multicolour rubber "pebbles" -- black, dark grey, medium grey and yellowish cream (used to be white). Personally, I'd rather see it (and have a twice weekly cleaner).

I go with easy to clean surfaces and making sure I wear my glasses when I do clean. Cleaning is as needed or once a week, whichever comes first. I'd rather be able to see dirt but not necessarily have things that make dirt really obvious. Minimal shiny stainless steel or glossy black - fingerprints are too noticeable. Some patterns look messy even after cleaning. Cleaning and tidying are not interchangeable.

I really wish I had white counter tops. The ones I have now disguise spills so well that my boyfriend claims to never see them. It drives me crazy. At least if we had white counter tops he would know he was making a mess and wouldn't have any excuse to not clean up.

I want to see it on countertops, toilets, bathtubs, and other places I come in contact regularly with my hands and are easy enough to clean daily or multiple times a day.

I don't want to see it on floors and curtains...places I'd rather not have to deal with everyday. I'm purposely planning to take out the smooth, dark engineered wood flooring in the livingroom and replacing it with distressed medium toned wood just so I cannot see and feel every piece of dust.

Whenever people make negative comments about the dogs I allow to run in and out of my home at will ( and the inevitable fur and mess they leave behind), I point out that it's nothing a broom, vacuum and mop won't take care of. If I can see the dust and fur, I can clean it...and clean it I do. I know petless people with installed carpet that never -- really, never -- get the carpets professionally cleaned. When I had carpet I had it cleaned yearly, and sometime twice a year.

Minimalism works only if things are kept pristine and wear free. In my opinion, a plain, minimally furnished apartment, home or hotel room looks grubby with even a small amount of wear. Patina doesn't jibe with that aesthetic. I like a place that looks lived in.

And Duane...twice daily? Really? That floor is immaculate.

There's a time and place for both. I don't want something that makes every single speck look obvious, because I can't clean multiple times per day. However, "disguised" dirt is still there, getting my baby's knees dirty, and irritating my asthmatic lungs. :)

A family member's beach cottage has flooring that was carefully selected to disguise sand---a textured, sand-colored vinyl floor. There, it makes complete sense. Who wants to spend their vacation noticing dirt and/or cleaning constantly?

Anything that can be easily cleaned I prefer in something that will show the dirt, but not showcase it. So, I like natural and light wood floors, and solid colored or lightly patterned sofas. Any cloth that can be washed I consider not to be an issue, but white can be bleached, which is handy.

My dad, on the other hand, adores anything that hides dirt. In my opinion, choosing all of your furnishings to be the color of dirt is just ugly, and the hall carpet in their house is disgusting. Not that one can tell... It's brown and black splotchy shag carpet. It hides everything, but is a dirt magnet. Also, when my cat decided to drag mouse guts down the hallway, they weren't very visible, but very gross when stepped in. I prefer to find gross stuff with my eyes, not my feet.

I want to see it, especially in the kitchen. My rental has the ubiquitous granite counters, and they truly hide the dirt. This is NOT good.

I prefer to camouflage dirt--it's not completely hidden but it isn't immediately visible. Try to vacuum weekly and sweep nearly every day and maintain a level of cleanliness so that there isn't a real need to hide anything. I do find that my dark gray granite countertops show more "stuff" than the lighter colored laminate I had previously so I'm a little more obsessive about wiping down the kitchen cabinets. But life happens and we don't always get to it right then.

A movie theater nearby has black toilets, and I never realized how horrible that would be to have! Every time I use the restroom there, I question whether or not they are clean, flushed, and dry, because you cannot tell at all. Awful, really! In public spaces, I like to see that things are clean!

At home, I like a little bit of help disguising dust and dirt when I'm being lazy, but still be able to tell a little when things need to be cleaned. Especially when people are coming over, I do my best to clean things (especially things they might touch or be in direct contact with) but other areas that they might see maybe don't need to be quite so perfect. The bathtub for instance, want it to look nice and clean, even if I haven't cleaned it in awhile.

I'm in "the clean as much as you can without worrying like an insane person AND opt for camo whenever possible" camp. I also live by a few maxims:

1. The color white is not your friend. It stains easily and once stained, it seems to remain so. And while you've scrubbed and sweeped the dickens out of something white, it seems to remain dirty looking even though it's clean. This can happen in a matter of days. I guess that's why Contractor Beige is so popular.
2. Black is better, but dust shows up like it's in a spotlight. But given the choice between black and white, I go with black every time.

I lived with black speckled granite countertops and I HATED them because I couldn't never see the dirt. Next I had a white laminate that was pretty beat up and showed every speck of dirt which I loved because I knew when it needed to be cleaned. A little bleach now and then kept it white. Now I have black laminate and it looks dirty and streaky no matter how clean it is.

I'd much prefer a completely white kitchen.

Floors - disguise it. I don't have kids, and what I don't clean won't hurt the cat. Having worked in food service for a few years I will NEVER grout a floor with white. I just don't have the patience to scrub the grout lines white every week and the moment of realization that your dark brown grout was once white is too painful for me to think about having again.
Everywhere else - deal with it. Especially on walls or soft surfaces, since it's harder to catch dirt and splashes by running your hands over it (as opposed to counters, which are easy), I want to be able to see anything gross that's on it. Since I got all-white bedding I've started washing my sheets every other week, which is obscenely frequent for me but I'm finding that I like. (I want to wash them every week, but I'm just a little bit too lazy.)