I tried Ruggable's machine-washable and shockingly affordable rugs — and I'm a fan
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I love rugs. I adore how they brighten a room. How they seem to soften jarring sounds. How they bring together whatever decor you have in place. Also: a great rug, smartly placed, provides that just-right pop of color you never knew you needed. It's one of the many reasons to appreciate Ruggable's affordable, washable rugs.
Because, while I do love the design element that rugs bring, I never feel like they're quite clean. So while you can vacuum a rug, over and over and over again, you can't really (to my mind, at least, as a lifelong allergy sufferer and clean freak) make a dent in what lies beneath the surface. They're where dander, fur, hair, dust and other nasties come home to roost. Ultimately, a stained rug is a stained rug. A dirty rug is a dirty rug. And no matter how often, how rigorously, you vacuum the thing, its pores are still clogged.
The answer is, of course, a rug you can wash. But those used to be confined to the bathroom: Shaggy little area rugs that soak up moisture and go right into the washer. Certainly, nothing you'd put out where you eat dinner or have post-work cocktails with adult humans.
Enter Ruggable. It purports to be the solution: It combines a "low-pile and lightweight" rug cover, which is both removable and washable, with a nonslip rug pad, "made of the same latex-free material used in yoga mats." You can mix and match the rug covers. And when you spill pasta sauce or olive oil or coffee on them, you just pop them in the wash by simply peeling off the cover.
That wasn't a typo. You just remove the cover from the pad and wash it in your machine, using mild detergent.
To wit: My new favorite — the 5'×7' Cherry Red number for just $209.
Well. Almost.
Listen, I'm a fan. First off, Ruggable has endless options, in terms of design and sizing. You can find a rug to fit any room configuration, and you can search based on color, pattern, or style. Meaning, no matter how picky you are, how oddly your space is laid out, you'll find something that works. I wanted to bring out the red in my kitchen, so I chose the cherries. It's a winner.
(They're also a purchase you can feel good about: Both the classic and cushioned rug pads are made up of a 100 percent recycled polyester surface.)
However, all that choice comes at a cost. The rugs are eminently affordable. They're eminently versatile. Aesthetically, they rule. But then again, if you want something juicy and thick, the kind of rug that simply enfolds your feet like that proverbial cloud of softness, you're out of luck. Ruggable rugs look great. But havens of plush softness, they're not. At most, they're decorative statement pieces that also protect your floors. The rugs are fairly thin, even when paired with the rug pad.
But, yes, washing them is great, particularly for germaphobes like myself. There's something innately satisfying about running a rug through a wash cycle, because you see the filth go away in real-time, without the use of carpet-cleaning chemicals that makes your eyes water. But not every stain is created equal. The aforementioned tomato sauce washed out like a dream. The oil? Well. The faint outline of pastas past is still there.
Still, if you're a design aficionado with kids and pets, both of whom stain rugs with a single-minded ferocity and dedication, Ruggable is a great option. It's cheap. It's cheerful. It's easy to clean. And most of all, you can swap out designs and update your home decor without investing in a new couch. Which you know your brood will trash quicker than you can open a jar of Rao's.
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