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If you have children, pets, or one of the messier hobbies, you know that the fancy rugs of your dreams are often better left in those dreams. For real life, where preventing mess and spills is impossible, consider a washable rug, which are designed to look good as new after a cycle in the washing machine (or, for some indoor-outdoor rugs, a quick rinse with a hose). To find the best available, I consulted interior designers, pet owners, parents of toddlers, and my discerning co-workers for advice on the best washable rugs. Then I tested what was far and away the most-mentioned product — the Ruggable system — in my own home.
What we’re looking for
Material
Washability requires materials that won’t shrink, pill, tangle, warp, or discolor in the washing machine. Rugs follow many of the same guidelines as clothing: Cotton and many synthetic fibers are okay in the wash; some other materials commonly used for rugs — like wool, silk, jute, or animal hide — don’t like to get wet and should be cleaned by vacuuming. Some washable rugs use specially engineered fibers and protective sealants to further protect against stains, so be sure to follow the product’s care instructions, as they’ll provide you with the best direction for keeping your rug looking like new.
Textile type
Material is one component of rug washability, and the way the fibers are held together is another. In general, rugs fall into two categories: woven and pile. Woven rugs are produced on a loom and typically have a flatter, less plush surface, while pile rugs contain densely packed fibers that are knotted to a backing fabric by hand or with a machine. There’s tons of variability within both categories — woven rugs can range from a hardy rag rug to a fluffy, long-fibered flokati area rug, for example. Both kinds of rugs can be washable, but you’ll see woven washable rugs more often, because the fibers are more tightly held together and less prone to coming loose in the wash. They’re also usually thinner and thus easier to maneuver.
Although many rugs on this list are woven, I’m not favoring one over the other. I think of a woven rag rug as the platonic ideal of a toss-in-the-wash rug, but if you prefer the look and plush feel of pile, there are also some great options.
Size range
A quandary of washable rugs is that they need to cover large spill-prone areas, but still be small and flexible enough that you can muscle them into a washing machine. The right size will depend on your washing machine (one of the retailers on this list, Ruggable, has a useful chart of the sizes of washing machines their rugs will fit), and in general, we’re favoring rugs with a wide size range, from doormats to area rugs, to fit a variety of households. Where only one size is available, we’re listing its dimensions.
Best washable rug overall
Material: Polyester with polyurethane barrier | Textile type: Woven chenille | Size: Ten sizes
Ruggable makes one of the most popular washable rugs on the market. Several experts we spoke to are fans — they are “without question the best washable rugs we use,” says Sherri Monte, co-owner of the interior-design and home-organization company Elegant Simplicity. The rugs have two parts: a washable, printed cover treated with a water-resistant polyurethane barrier that lets you wipe up smaller spills before a stain forms, made from a synthetic chenille fabric with a nubby texture that mimics a pile rug. Underneath is a black polyester and rubber pad that grips and holds the rug in place, similar to Velcro. When there’s a spill, you remove the cover, roll it up, and toss it in the wash. “As the owner of an elderly dog that occasionally pees inside, I can easily throw the whole rug in the washing machine, which keeps me from freaking out over occasional accidents,” says Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo. Lesley Suter, travel editor at Eater, has a neutral runner in her kitchen that “gets disgusting, and I’m very glad I can wash it.”
The Ruggable system works well at its intended purpose: It makes cleaning up messes and grime in heavily trafficked areas much less annoying. It’s easy to remove the cover, which is much thinner and more lightweight than a normal rug, and easier than I expected to smooth it back onto the rug pad without bubbles or wrinkles. A couple caveats: The print quality isn’t amazing, both in terms of resolution and depth of color, so I would avoid making it the focal point of a room; the rugs make more sense in high-traffic areas like kitchens and hallways.
I’d also advise against the larger sizes, beyond the 5-by-7 or 6-by-9 neighborhood, which is the largest size the brand recommends putting in a small home washing machine. Since Corsillo had already tested a smaller Ruggable runner, I tried an XL 9-by-12 foot rug in my living room, which fit in the largest industrial machine at my local laundromat but not the dryer, so it drip-dried in my apartment for three swampy days. (The brand has a helpful guide to which rug sizes will fit which washing machines.) The process of fitting 108 square feet of rug back onto the polyester and rubber pads was also time-consuming enough to undercut the convenience of washing it. Still, the smaller sizes are a worthwhile purchase if you’re looking for a non-fancy rug that can handle stains.
Best washable rag rug
Material: Cotton | Textile type: Woven | Size: 16 sizes
If you want a washable rug without the two-part system and waterproof coating of Ruggable, most of the experts we spoke to mentioned cotton rag rugs as a solid choice for a machine-washable floor cover. Rag rugs are made by tightly weaving strips of textiles (usually recycled) on a loom. They’re lightweight yet hardy, they can be thrown in the washing machine, and their marbled patterns are great for camouflaging stains. Maine interior designer Kelly O’Connell especially loves this one from Safavieh, which she says is great “for the kitchen and playrooms, where they get the most abuse.”
Best bargain washable rag rug
Material: Cotton | Textile type: Woven | Size: Two feet by two feet and 11 inches
Amory Wooden, a marketing executive at StreetEasy, house flipper, mother of four and dog owner, is a fan of rag rugs for their versatility. “The door to our backyard sees a lot of mud-filled foot traffic. While it would make the most sense to use an outdoor rug at this door, they aren’t easily washable. So instead, I use rag rugs from Ikea,” she says, which are woven from the company’s textile scraps. “It’s easy to toss them into a load of laundry and clean in a few hours. As an added bonus, we use it to mop up under the water dish from our slobbery bulldog.”
Best splurge washable rag rug
Material: Cotton | Textile type: Woven | Size: Four sizes
The downside of rag rugs is that they aren’t tremendously interesting to look at. An exception is this line from Revival, one of our favorite DTC rug brands (when she tried out the brand’s overdyed vintage Turkish rugs, former Strategist contributing editor Margaret Rhodes praised their quality). Strategist senior writer Liza Corsillo bought one of its rugs woven from denim remnants because it was “the nicest, least boring version of a rag rug that I could find.” With its geometric pattern and marled deep blues, it’s “dark without feeling heavy or sad” and could easily live somewhere more prominent than a laundry room or mudroom. It still performs its core functions as a washable rug: The pattern makes it incredible at disguising stains, and Corsillo reports that she’s washed it several times since buying it and it’s held up well.
Best organic-cotton washable rug
Material: Organic cotton | Textile type: Woven | Size: Eight sizes
These minimalist, organic-cotton rugs from Willaby were enthusiastically recommended by two of our experts: Francesca Santi, owner of Playdate Goods, a children’s store in Asheville, North Carolina, and Laura Fenton, author of The Little Book of Living Small. Santi loves that these rugs are dyed with nontoxic materials and says that the runner she has is “very soft on bare feet.” Fenton used the small cotton-rag rug in her son’s nursery. “It was very handy to be able to wash it when he was crawling (and in the spitting-up-and-exploding-diapers phase of life),” she says.
Best patterned washable cotton rug
Material: Cotton | Textile type: Woven | Size: Five sizes
Joinery’s lightweight, machine-washable rugs have a simpler, more grown-up pattern than many other hard-wearing rugs, and can also be used as blankets or as a nice-looking couch cover to protect against pets. Singer-songwriter Melaena Cadiz works from home, so finding the right mix of form and function was important: “We have a toddler and, needless to say, have lots of mishaps, so we wanted practical but beautiful rugs,” she says. Joinery fit the bill and, “They’re awesome for folks with kids and pets.”
Best washable rug for kids’ rooms
Material: Cotton | Type: Pile | Size: Multiple
Washable rugs from Lorena Canals for nurseries are an industry favorite — interior designers Devin Shaffer, Cathie Hong, and Becca Casey all recommend them — because they’re super-soft, come in a variety of cute patterns, and most important, have a reputation for durability. “They’re easy to incorporate into many design styles, machine washable, and soft enough to be placed in a nursery,” says Shaffer. Lamb likes that their low pile gives them a “cozier texture than most washable options on the market,” and the brand’s washable wool line “has some beautiful, colorful options that would brighten up any playroom and encourage imagination.”
Best washable rug for repelling pet hair
Material: 85 percent cotton; 12 percent polyester; 3 percent other clothing fibers | Textile type: Woven | Size: Ten sizes
If you spend hours every week cleaning up pet hair, consider a rug with a dense weave. “The tightly woven surface prevents pet hair from getting embedded into the surface,” Matt Clayton, the founder of Pet Hair Patrol. Galina Holechek, an interior designer in L.A., recommends the brand Hook & Loom, also mentioned by Lamb, because it has some “pretty fantastic machine washable rugs in the flat-weave eco-cotton line,” which include a ton of marled patterns in natural hues you can color-match to your pet to disguise fur. (Holechek mentions that the rugs are also hardy enough for areas with lots of foot traffic.)
Best indoor-outdoor washable rug
Material: Polypropylene | Textile type: Woven | Size: 11 sizes
Indoor-outdoor rugs are often made of polypropylene (a form of plastic), which makes them incredibly easy to clean — they can be hosed down — and resistant to staining. Interior designer Andrew Howard recommends Dash and Albert indoor-outdoor rugs for their designs, like this tattersall plaid option. If a plastic rug sounds less than eco-friendly, Casey recommends Dash and Albert’s line of indoor-outdoor rugs made from recycled plastic.
Best washable rug tiles
Material: Nylon, PET, and nylon blends | Textile type: Woven | Size: 19.7-inch-by-19.7-inch tiles
Monte, who has a young son and a golden retriever, recommends using carpet tiles as an alternative to a traditional rug — if a mess is limited to one or two tiles, it saves you the hassle of washing the entire rug. She especially likes these Flor carpet tiles, which are easy to clean, durable, and come in a range of styles and finishes.
Some more products we’ve written about
Our experts
• Melaena Cadiz, singer-songwriter
• Becca Casey, interior designer
• Matt Clayton, founder of Pet Hair Patrol
• Laura Fenton, author of The Little Book of Living Small
• Galina Holechek, interior designer
• Cathie Hong, interior designer
• Andrew Howard, interior designer
• Melissa Maker, home-organization YouTuber
• Sherri Monte, co-owner of Elegant Simplicity
• Kelly O’Connell, interior designer
• Margaret Rhodes, former Strategist contributing editor
• Francesca Santi, owner of Playdate Goods
• Devin Shaffer, interior designer
• Haleema Shah, producer at Today, Explained
• Lesley Suter, travel editor at Eater
• Amory Wooden, marketing executive at StreetEasy and house flipper
Additional reporting by Liza Corsillo.
Update on May 29, 2024: Swapped Ruggable’s discontinued Samira pattern for the similar Alessia pattern as best overall; updated prices and checked stock for all other products.
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