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This Weekend: Spruce Up Your Home’s Unsung Hero

Carrie McBride
Carrie McBride
Carrie is a former Apartment Therapy editor and the original editor of Apartment Therapy Media's first site for kids: Ohdeedoh. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two kids..
updated May 3, 2019
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This weekend’s assignment is an easy one and, I hope, a fun one. It’s inspired by my own home and something that I recently noticed could use a spruce up — our doormats. After a winter of having snow, slush and dirt wiped off onto them (not to mention spring mud), they’re looking a bit haggard. Doormats are kind of unsung heroes in our homes. We use them every day and, when used well, they help keep our carpets, rugs and floors stay clean.

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This Weekend’s Assignment: Clean or replace your interior and exterior doormats.

This assignment is potentially very bite-sized. If you live in an apartment, you may only have one doormat. If you live in a home with front and back doors, you probably have several and perhaps some inside your doors and some outside.

Evaluate: Pick up your doormats and give them a good once over on both sides. Are they in good shape — no tears or rips — and just need a good cleaning? Or should you replace them?

Clean: If your mats have a few more seasons left in them but are dirty, it’s time to give them a good clean. Use common sense to clean them depending on their material: give them a good shake (outdoors if you can), vacuuming or a hose down (outside or in your tub). Pause to marvel at how much dirt you’re getting out! Also clean the area under and around your mats.

Replace: If a good cleaning is not going to be enough to refresh your mat, replace it with a new one with a trip to a home good store.

If you’d rather shop online, here are some good options:

In a DIY mood? Here are ideas to jazz up a basic mat:

Remember, as with all of our Weekend Projects, just do what you have the time and energy to do. This is a marathon, not a sprint!

  • Help motivate others by letting the rest of us know how things are going! Share your tips and photos of your Weekend Project work on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #ATweekendproject.
  • Check out 2017’s entire Plan for a Healthy & Happy Home to access all Weekend Project ideas, so you can pick and choose what to do this weekend.

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