Uses
In the Netherlands and parts of Belgium the carpet beater was also a common tool for parents to discipline (spank) their children, leaving a distinctive pattern on the child's buttocks. This particular form of punishment since the 1970's has rapidly grown out of fashion into extinction.
Its use in cleaning has been largely replaced since the 1950s by the carpet sweeper and then the vacuum cleaner, although they are still sold in most household stores.
In Poland, outdoor carpet hanger for beating is called trzepak (the beating place) which is a traditional place for youth as a meeting place. Since 1990s it is very rare to see anyone using trzepak for its prime function. On the newest housing developments trzepak is usually no longer installed. Some people preferred to beat carpets in winter on the snow - they laid the carpet face down and beat it. Although this method had certain advantages, for instance, possible insects would freeze to death even if they were not expelled through beating; but it left a dirty and unpleasantly looking patch on the otherwise white snow, therefore some communities forbade beating on the snow for estetical reasons.
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