Nifty tips to make the most of floor mats

What you want to do is stop the dirt in your tracks — specifically, on the soles of your shoes. Use doormats at every entrance to your home, inside and out. Remember that most of the grime in your home comes from the outside, the bulk of it coming in on people's feet unnoticed.

• Choosing the right doormats will cut down on the time you spend looking for and cleaning dirt.
• People coming into the house need to walk across the doormats and, in doing so, give the dirt on their shoes the brush-off.
• The heavy-duty mats that retail stores, supermarkets and hospitals use to keep dirt at bay are a terrific choice here.
• Typically doormats can be purchased in hardware and home improvement stores.
• Doormats for outside your door are usually made of a vegetable fibre, such as coir matting, or rubber- or vinyl-backed synthetic turf.
• Inside doormat choices come in different materials, such as nylon or olefin (polypropylene) with either vinyl or rubber backing.
• The indoor variety is available in several dark, dirt-defying colours to coordinate with your particular decor.
• A doormat should be long enough so that both of a person's feet walk across it before entering the house, and the width no wider than the door itself.
• The mat should never impede the door's movement, either.

• Floor mats are also a good idea near high-traffic or spill-prone areas such as the kitchen sink, the fridge, the bath and the toilet.
• Clean-ups are much easier when all you have to do is clean a mat instead of the entire floor.
• Just think of all the stuff that gets dripped on the floor in front of the sink or the fridge, for example.

Just haul them outside occasionally and give them a good shake and also give them a once-over with the vacuum cleaner now and then.

• Hose them down and scrub them with a squirt of dishwashing liquid in warm water.
• Rinse and allow them to thoroughly air-dry before using again.
• Another method is a wet and dry vacuum or an upholstery shampoo to freshen them.
• Make sure your mats are completely dry before you put them back on the floor. Moisture caught underneath the mats could damage or warp your floors.
• When your mats get threadbare, replace them — worn mats don't do their job as well as new ones.

• Limit the number of entrances that are used. This way, you'll cut down on the places where people and pets can bring dirt in.
• And, if most people enter your house through an entrance or hall with an easy-wipe floor, a lot of grime can be quickly cleaned up and not disturb the rest of the house.

• An even better idea is to make your house a shoeless zone for everyone.
• Encourage family members, guests and friends to remove their shoes just inside the entrance.
• Provide a decorative basket or some other receptacle where people can place their shoes.
• Keep some stylish, fresh, 'house' slippers (ones that never go outside) on hand for guests if they are uncomfortable about being 'shoeless' inside your house.