Coir doormats are among the most popular styles. You’ve probably seen them before—they’re the brown fibrous mats at grocery and home improvement stores. However, did you know that coir requires a bit of special care? Check out these five mistakes to avoid when cleaning a coir doormat.
If you want to deep clean most doormats, you can spray them with a hose to wash away dirt and grime. Not so with a coir doormat! Coir is a natural fiber from the coconut shell, and getting it too wet can actually cause it to rot. Rot is particularly common when people soak their mats during cleaning and don’t let the mats dry properly.
Speaking of letting your mat dry in the sun, don’t leave it out too long. If you forget about your mat and leave it for several days exposed to the hot sun, the colors may fade. The fibers may also start to shrivel and weaken, which can cause the mat to shed and eventually fall apart.
Normally, you can use gentle carpet cleaners on the floor mats in your car and other kinds of carpet doormats. However, you should never use these products on coir. The chemicals in commercial carpet cleaners are for synthetic fibers, not natural ones. They’re way too strong and may cause discoloration and shedding in your coir mat.
Since coir is so bristly, you may think it’s a good idea to give it a good brush. You may even consider using something like a shoe brush. Unfortunately, brushing a coir doormat too roughly can pull apart the fibers and destroy your mat.
Beating rugs and floor mats is a pretty standard way to shake out dirt and other kinds of debris. You can usually thwack the rug against another rug or hit it with a broom. We don’t recommend doing this for coir, though. If you’re too rough with the mat, you may cause too many fibers to fall out, weakening the mat’s durability. Being too rough is definitely a mistake to avoid when cleaning a coir doormat.
If your coir doormat is starting to fall apart, it’s time to replace it with a higher-quality mat. The Personalized Doormat Company carries personalized coir doormats that you can design to show off your family’s monogram or name. Our mats use high-quality materials, so they last you a long time.
