Biscuit sheds on everything.
The couch, my black jeans, the coffee mug I set down for 10 seconds.
And for 3 years straight, the rug in my living room.
So when washable rugs showed up everywhere, I was first in line.
Throwing the whole rug in the machine sounded like a dream with a dog in the house.
Turns out it mostly is.
But nobody told me the boring parts.
The size I wanted didn’t fit my washer, and the rug was a lot thinner than the photos made it look.
Also, a rug full of dog hair can clog the drain pump of the very washer you bought the rug to use.
Fun!
That’s not Biscuit in the photo up top, by the way.
He has never once slept that neatly.
But a flat, patterned rug under a dog who naps on it all day is exactly the setup I’m talking about, so here’s everything I’d tell a friend before they buy one.
Washable Means Thin, and With a Dog That’s Kind of the Point
Let’s get the letdown out of the way.
Most washable rugs are flat.
When HGTV’s editors tested Ruggable’s line, they said the majority of those rugs are very flat and thin, with a soft chenille feel, and made of polyester.
If you want to sink your toes into something, that’s a real downside.
Sorry.
With a shedding dog, I’ve honestly come around to it.
On my old shag rug, the hair vanished into the pile until the day I flipped the rug over to move it and found what looked like a second, flatter dog living underneath.
On a flat rug the hair sits right on top, where you can see it and where the vacuum can actually grab it.
Seeing the hair isn’t fun.
Not seeing it was worse, because it was all still there, just hiding until the worst possible moment (my sister’s visit, obviously).
There are two kinds of washable rug, and it matters which one you buy.
A two-piece rug is a thin cover that grips onto a separate pad, and only the cover goes in the washer.
Ruggable says never to machine-wash the pad.
A one-piece rug (Ruggable calls theirs All-in-One) goes in the machine whole.
The two-piece kind has one catch that HGTV ran into.
After many washes, their covers started flipping up along the border instead of lying flat on the pad, and the only fix was smoothing them back down by hand.
So if your dog does zoomies across that spot, I’d get the one-piece.
But for a big room, the two-piece has a huge advantage, and it comes down to your washer.
Measure Your Washer Before You Fall for a Size
This is the part I got wrong.
I picked my rug by the room, fell in love with an 8×10, and then found out it would never fit my machine.
Ugh.
Your washer’s capacity is listed in cubic feet.
You’ll find it on the spec sheet, in the manual, or on the sticker inside the lid.
Ruggable publishes the smallest washer each of its rug sizes needs, split by rug type, and it’s the clearest chart I’ve found anywhere.
Start with a one-piece tufted rug.
(Quick math: an 8×10 is 80 square feet of rug, and a 5×7 is 35 square feet, so they’re not close.)
A 2.4 cubic foot washer handles runners and everything up to a 4×6.
At 3.1 cubic feet you can add a 5×7.
It takes a 4.5 cubic foot machine for a 6×9, an 8×10 or the 6-foot and 8-foot rounds, and a 9×12 or a 10×14 doesn’t fit any home size on their chart.
The thin flatwoven covers are a whole different story.
A 2.2 cubic foot washer takes up to a 5×7 or a 6-foot round.
At 3.8 you’re into 6×9 and 8×10 territory, a 9×12 cover needs 4.2, and even a 10×14 goes into a 5.5.
That’s the big reason I’d buy a two-piece for a big room.
Same rug size, smaller machine.
Those minimums are for front-loaders and for top-loaders with an agitator, that tall post in the middle.
If your top-loader doesn’t have one, Ruggable says to take 0.4 cubic feet off each number.
Real life backs it up.
HGTV’s tester fit a 5×7 and a 3×5 (one at a time) into a regular top-loading washer.
Another editor doubted a 6×9 would make it into hers, and said it folds up smaller than you’d think.
The biggest sizes are where it falls apart.
Ruggable’s own care page says some of its larger sizes are too bulky for home machines and need a commercial washer at a laundromat.
If you’re picturing one giant plush rug under the whole sofa setup, picture hauling it to the laundromat too.
Every time.
The Size That Fits Your Washer Can Look Too Small in the Room
Nobody warns you about this trap.
The sizes that fit a normal washer are the small ones, and a small rug can make a whole living room look off.
Look at that room.
The rug reaches the coffee table and not much else.
The sofa and both armchairs sit off it, so the furniture looks like it’s floating around a bath mat.
Pretty room.
Wrong rug.
I see this in every other rental listing I scroll past, and no stack of throw pillows fixes it.
So measure first.
Our rug size calculator tells you what size the room actually wants.
Then hold that up against what your washer can take.
If the room wants an 8×10 and your machine is a 3.1, even the thin two-piece cover won’t go in (it needs 3.8).
So you’ve got a choice to make.
A bigger washer, a trip to the laundromat, or a rug that only ever gets spot-cleaned.
What I did in my living room: a 5×7 washable under the front legs of the couch and the chairs, and a thrifted jute runner behind the sofa where nobody walks.
It’s not magazine-perfect.
But with the front legs on the rug, the seating looks like one group instead of four strangers.
Get the Dog Hair Off Before It Goes in the Machine
Pet hair and water are a bad combo.
Consumer Reports talked to Randy Radtke, a spokesperson for the washer maker Speed Queen, who said pet hair is “definitely a challenge to remove from most fabrics,” and that once water is added, “it becomes that much more difficult.”
Wet hair clumps up.
It sticks to whatever’s in the load and to the sides of the drum, and it can clog the drain pump.
A rug your dog naps on all week holds way more hair than a pair of jeans ever will.
So I vacuum the rug first, every single time.
Ruggable’s care page says to use low suction, a high-pile setting if your vacuum has one, and soft bristles instead of a stiff spinning brush bar.
Quick heads-up on stick vacuums, though.
HGTV found that the strong cordless ones (a Dyson and a Shark with its hardwood floor tool) pulled the rug right off the pad.
A regular upright worked fine.
Kinda annoying if your stick vac is the only one you own.
Consumer Reports has one more trick, meant for pet beds and clothes.
Before washing, run the item through the dryer for 10 minutes with no heat, so the loose hair shakes off into the lint trap.
I do that with the rug cover too.
No heat is gentler than the low setting Ruggable already allows, so it can’t hurt.
And if there’s still hair stuck in the drum afterward, let the drum dry out and vacuum it with the soft brush tool.
Gross?
Yes.
Way cheaper than a repair call?
Also yes.
Wash It Cold, Skip the Softener, Dry It All the Way
The washing part is easy.
These are Ruggable’s steps, and I’d follow them for any washable rug unless its own label says something different.
- Cold water, delicate cycle.
- A mild detergent with no bleach, no oxygen brightener and no fabric softener.
- Design side facing out.
- Tumble dry on low or hang it to dry. No high heat.
Drying is where people mess up.
A damp rug goes back on the floor, slides around and starts to smell like a wet dog, which is extra rude when you own the actual dog.
Ruggable’s tip is a good one: if your rug slides after washing, it’s probably still damp, so give it another round on low.
Plan the time, too.
By Ruggable’s estimates for its one-piece rugs, runners and anything up to a 4×6 take one dryer cycle, about 45 to 60 minutes.
A 5×7 or a 6-foot round takes two cycles, about 90 to 120 minutes.
The 6×9 and 8×10 sizes (plus the 8-foot round) take three, about 135 to 180 minutes.
That’s up to 3 hours for the big one.
I start it before my second cup of coffee on a Saturday and stop thinking about it.
Or skip the dryer.
On a dry fall day I hang the cover over the clothesline like those sheets and it’s done by dinner.
Just don’t put it back on the pad until it’s bone dry, or you’ve made a damp sandwich.
Mud Season Starts at the Back Door
From October on, the back door is where the real damage happens.
Wet paws and wet leaves, plus whatever Biscuit found to roll in at the park.
Honestly, this is where washable rugs make the most sense.
A 2×3 or a 3×5 fits even the smallest washer on Ruggable’s chart, so you can wash it every weekend without planning anything.
Look at those paw pads.
All those creases carry dirt in from the yard, and it comes off on the first soft thing the dog steps on.
Make that soft thing a rug you can toss in the wash.
I keep two small ones and swap them.
One’s on the floor while the other one’s in the wash, so there’s never a day of bare tile and muddy prints.
Both came off Facebook Marketplace, still in the plastic, for $25 each.
One warning from HGTV’s outdoor test: a printed doormat on an uncovered deck held up for 2 years, but its printed stripes faded a lot.
Keep the pretty one just inside the door, not out in the rain.
And don’t forget the spot where your dog waits for you.
Biscuit’s is the window by the front door.
The rug there gets more hair than any rug in the house, because he stands on it for hours, waiting for the mail carrier.
When I’d Skip Washable and Buy Wool Instead
Hot take: washable isn’t the answer for every room.
HGTV made a point I didn’t expect.
You can buy a tufted wool rug for the same price as a Ruggable, or for less, depending on what you’re shopping for.
Wool feels the way that photo looks.
Thick and nubby and a little fuzzy.
Polyester chenille doesn’t, no matter how the listing words it.
But wool won’t go in the washer.
Even Ruggable’s own wool rugs aren’t machine washable: you vacuum them, blot spills, and let them air-dry.
So here’s where I land.
Big room, a grown dog who mostly naps, and a budget for one good rug?
Buy wool, and put a washable runner where the traffic is.
I wrote up how to tell a good wool rug from a bad one if you go that way.
Small room, a puppy, a dog who gets carsick, or a light rug you’re scared of?
Washable, every time.
And for the rest of the room, my pet-friendly living room ideas cover the couch fabrics that hide hair best.
(Spoiler: not black velvet.
I learned that one the expensive way.)
Related read: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Decorated My First Home — Instant PDF + Kindle download. Secure checkout by Stripe