Textiles and Floors? No

When I mention textiles in conversation with others I find that most often they think I’m referring to some kind of tile flooring. The reality is that tile and textiles have no relation at all. That’s ok if you thought textiles were relative to tile flooring, most people do. It’s a common misconception and easily confused given the word “tile” is in the word textile.

A textile by definition is “A type of cloth or woven fabric.” That means you probably have lots of textiles throughout your home and didn’t even realize it. And after all, they are not hard rectangular things on the floor. Depending on how specific the person is using the word it can mean any sort of fabric or it can specifically mean woven fabrics.

Materials and objects that you have in your home that are textiles would be clothes, curtains, drapes, sheets, some shoes, non-leather furniture upholstery, carpet, rugs, towels, and many more. Surprised? I was too after I started working in the cleaning business and happened to read about “textile cleaning.” I was confused at first but quickly caught on, especially after doing a little research. Now this is a word I use professionally when referring to upholstery cleaning and rarely use the word when referring to carpet cleaning.

Swatches, another unique word, also refers to “a sample piece of material, especially fabrics or textiles.” Most of you women probably know this word because you have been given lots of these for making or choosing materials. As for us men who are not really involved in the fabric world (most of us) we need a little education before we go to a fabric trade show with you.

I know as a man, I was not introduced to this word until I met my wife. One day she went out with her mom looking at craft stuff and came back with these cool things called swatches. Or so I thought they were cool until she got them out and explained what they were. I thought swatches was some kind of desert or some hybrid watches. We had a good laugh until I said “Those are some fancy textiles” and she got confused. Then I explained what textiles were and we had another laugh.

Now you have two unique and specific words to add to your dictionary, textile cleaning. Just like Zig Ziglar put it “In a study, every case where the vocabulary increased, so did the IQ.” So learn more words, get smarter, achieve more!