One's first thoughts when unwrapping and laying out this rug will be: how the heck do you vacuum this thing and, what if something spills on it? This is not the most practical rug in the world but it certainly is unique and visually appealing as a statement piece. It's the old choice between practicality or fashion. We ordered this rug for our nursery after reading all of the reviews on this and similar websites, the price and return policy was enough for us to take a chance. The rug consists of strips of solid-colored taffeta-type materials which have been knotted/weaved into a base rug to give it its unique appearance. We have yet to place a pad underneath it but find that so far, due to the knots, it is NOT comfortable to walk on. . . BUT when you first look into the nursery, the rug is beautiful and completes it perfectly! The rug was shipped in plastic wrapping and we noted a strong odor upon laying it out - the odor dissipated in about a week. We also noticed that there was a lot of fray to the material which I guess considering what it is made out of, is to be expected. I read a lot of concerns about loose pieces of fabric and how they can come undone from the rug. It is true, you can just find a spot and knot/weave the loose piece back into it, no big deal, but would be tiresome if you were constantly doing it as you would be if this was placed in a high traffic area. As far as spilling or getting anything on it, there really are no stain removal instructions (… I guess you could remove the affected strips of material and try hand washing but …). We have had this for about 3 weeks now, have vacuumed it lightly with an attachment and only found that 3 pieces came off, all of which we have reattached. The initial vacuuming helped remove a lot of the loose fibers and frayed edges and puffed it up nicely. I don't think this is a rug that will be in the nursery (or our lives) forever, obviously there would be concern over placing a mobile baby in the middle of it to crawl or play. And while I don't know if this will change with a pad underneath it but, it is not the comfortable rug you want to sink your feet into while pacing the floors awaiting sleep. BUT, on the whole, it is exactly what it appears to be: a unique, delicate shag rug…. it looks GREAT but is in no means practical.