Bathroom rug replacement
1I am cheap. I don’t like to buy new things when an old one is still somewhat adequately serving its purpose. But at what point is a bathroom rug just disgusting and needs to be replaced?
I don’t consider myself to be an adequate judge of this, so I need input.
Does a bathroom rug need to be replaced after 6 months? Each year? 2 years? 5?
I really have no idea.
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Probably the answer is, “treat them like towels” – wash them in hot water and assume that you can use them until they fall apart physically.
Does it look gross? Wash it.
Is it falling apart? Replace it.
I personally use a towel. I’ll take the towel I’ve dried myself with and put that on the floor after a few uses… then the floor towel goes in the wash. Rinse, repeat.
@RiotDemon That’s a smart strategy… But I’m too in love with my Jessica Simpson branded floral bath mats… Don’t judge…
@brhfl I’m sure if I found some cool skull bath mats that look like they’d survive the washing machine, I might go for it. I gave up on mats when I had a cat that would pee on them.
@RiotDemon Ah, yes, the contractual inability to have a cat does probably save me from a lot…
When it is falling apart or even when washing it won’t get it clean, or you find one you really like and so then buy that one to replace the one you have.
If it grunts when you step on it, or is capable of moving itself under its own power, then yeah, it’s time for it to go.
@shahnm Corollary: if you can lean it against the wall and it stays there, it’s also time for it to go.
If you find yourself asking if it’s time to replace it–it is time to replace it.
@therealjrn Thats what I was gonna say.
I mean, I don’t know your kinks, but it’s probably just your feet touching the thing anyway, right?
Perspective…
So, I know you said “rug,” but @zachdecker, are you talking about wall to wall carpeting in your bathroom that is not an area rug? In the distant past, I’ve lived in rentals with carpeting in the bathroom. Not what I would have chosen.
@gregormehndel Ew. No, this is one of the batroom rugs with the rubber on the bottom.
Carpeting in a bathroom sounds like a recipe for mold.
@gregormehndel @zachdecker Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. My grandparents, way back when, had a bathroom with wall-to-wall pink carpeting. I thought it was the greatest thing then, but now as an adult, I cringe at the thought.
@gregormehndel @pitamuffin @zachdecker Bad especially when potty training little boys LOL
@zachdecker well then I’d add dump it when the rubber backing is coming off or really discolored.
@zachdecker Ok, glad to hear it. I agree w/ @Kidsandliz and others: wash it, use it up, wear it out, unless it gets ugly.
@pitamuffin Sounds groovy, but potentially gross. Clean folks can get away with something like that, which is admirable, but I have different priorities (Too ADD).
@gregormehndel @pitamuffin @zachdecker one of the houses we looked at when we were moving had a fully shag carpeted master bathroom with a black marble freestanding tub set diagonally in the middle of the room. The shag carpet fully extended up the steps to the edge of the tub. a) so gross, and b) I imagine it and the mirrored wall came from a cocaine fuelled architecture session in the early 1980s.
@gregormehndel i have carpet in my bathroom and it runs into and throughout the kitchen as well
it disgusts me on a daily basis but there’s nothing i can do. (when we moved in, our landlord - who had refinished the floors in the rest of the place - said if we stayed more than a year he’d get around to finishing the job. it’s been four.) “thankfully” it’s a really flat industrial sort of carpet and not shag or regular plush bedroom/living room type carpet, but still. he glued some peel and stick tiles to half the carpet in the bathroom 
but the floor under the claw foot tub is still just carpet. the kitchen is worse tho, because if you spill anything there’s really no good way to clean it up like if it were tile or hardwood, and i cook a lot. i just don’t get what possessed someone to do this. all these cheap ass LLs that want to ‘protect the floors’ but end up destroying them with years of staining and water damage that soaks through.
Be sure to pick one that really ties the room together.
I had an old bathmat that I put down in front of the living room window when we got our puppy St. Bernard so she would have something comfy to sleep on. She used to gather it up between her paws and suckle on it. She did that for her entire life of 13 years. We would wash it and mend it when it was falling apart. She was upset and would go behind the furniture when it was being washed until it was back where it belonged. It was almost in shreds when she died. Good memories.
I’m using bathmats we both had before we got married. Our 20th anniversary was last year. I guess I should go buy some new ones.
Cats will use the soft mat instead of the crunchy litter in their box so no mats for us. We use an old towel aka “dog towel” that gets hung up on the towel rack after showers and washed when you would rather put your feet on the floor than the towel.
This is your sign to replace the carpet.
i use the bath mats my parents always used - they are basically thick towels, and they hang over the side of the tub when not in use during a shower or bath. they get replaced weekly with the towels and everything goes to the laundromat every two weeks. those rubber backed ones are too much like actual carpet to me and gross me out - not absorbent and lots of places for bits of things to hide. not to mention putting rubber backed things in dryers is iffy depending on the dryer.
i’ve been told certain people need those rug things on the floor for various reasons but if you must use them then you should wash them often. as a housekeeper and the one that cleans my own bathroom (and all the places i’ve lived have had tiny ones so i have to do the floor by hand)…trust me on this. even if it’s just you and your s/o, it gets gnarly in places over the course of a week.