Machine washable rugs - any good??

[Horsiemummy]

Hi all,

we have stone floor downstairs and i have now bought 2 beautiful rugs to try to soften our lounge area.

sadly they last about 6 months then despite vacuuming they start to look grubby and smell a bit doggy (we share our home with large black dog and 2 cats). i have tried scrubbing by hand, hosing and beating them in the garden but they still look so grubby im embarrassed to have them in the house and end up chucking them.

so im looking at machine washable rugs, can i really just put them in the machine???? does anyone have one? are they a bit flimsy?

any experience or words of advice greatly appreciated.

A.xx

I've got a couple of the flotaki (sp?) rugs from Next I think - cream shaggy rugs like thinner sheepskin things. We got them for the same reasons as you - needed rugs but have dogs and cats.

We have had the rugs for about 4 years now, they have been washed many times in a large drum machine and survived. I'm not saying they look like new, but they are fine to use, don't smell and haven't gone all matted either

The dogs love them BTW

Think ours were £50 each for rugs about 5x5 foot.

I have a plain coloured turtle mat - not particularly decorative, I bought it for by the back door as we have dog/cat/wellied children. They do make lots of other designs though. It is brilliant - looks great after shaking outside/vacuuming/machine-washing (depending on how dirty it is) and it's the only one the dog hasn't felt the need to chew! We've had it about 2 or 3 years now. This may not be the sort of thing you want though, as it's thin, not thick and luxurious.

We've got some cheap Ikea rugs that are small and the dog uses them as a mat in which ever room we are. They're not nice luxurious rugs though.

I have a plain coloured turtle mat - not particularly decorative, I bought it for by the back door as we have dog/cat/wellied children. They do make lots of other designs though. It is brilliant - looks great after shaking outside/vacuuming/machine-washing (depending on how dirty it is) and it's the only one the dog hasn't felt the need to chew! We've had it about 2 or 3 years now. This may not be the sort of thing you want though, as it's thin, not thick and luxurious.