When the Ruggable rug became a “big thing” in early 2019, I’ll admit – I was a skeptic. We have a friend with a contemporary home decorated in bright white (it’s gorgeous, and I have ZERO clue how she keeps it clean!) who raved about a small one she had as a doormat. But as a living room rug? I wasn’t sure.

It’s been 10 months since our 8×10 Ruggable Hendesi Heriz Rug in Abalone arrived and it gets a lot of traffic. Read along for the good, the bad, and whether we’d buy it again.

CLICK TO SHOP OUR RUGGABLE RUG (Hendesi Heriz Abalone in 8×10)

Why We Bought It

Our experience with our Ruggable Hendesi Heriz rug is, in a lot of ways, driven by why we purchased it in the first place. Dogs and a toddler. We had this plush grey rug in our living room that I adored, but required spending an hour or more with a carpet cleaning machine once a month to remove mud tracked in from the nearby back door, spills from the baby, and the smell of two dogs who spend their days lounging on the living room floor.

Look at that face. While adorable, also a little smelly/drooly.

What We Love

Being able to toss it into a washing machine once a month. Obviously.

To answer the most significant question we get, yes the 8×10 fits in our standard front-loading washer and yes, it does actually get it clean. Small messes we spot early, like a drips from a popsicle that was supposed to be outside comes up quickly with some water and a microfiber rag.

The rug never smells, it doesn’t slide on our floors, it’s easy to pull the two pieces apart and get them back together, and a majority of the rug shows no damage at all.

The Drawbacks

As I mentioned, it hasn’t all been perfect. There are a few things I don’t love about this rug.

1. After 10+ trips through the washing machine, the edges of the rug look a little wavy. I’m not sure if weighing down the edges during the drying process would help – we’re impatient and haven’t tried.

2. The Roomba catches the wavy edges and has caused some damage to the binding. I declared “no more Roomba in the living room” – but with dogs and a toddler, that’s really not realistic unless I want to be vacuuming daily.

3. It’s not the softest rug ever – we knew that going into it. It’s in our living room which is a high traffic area, but not one where we spend hours on the floor so I’m not incredibly concerned. I probably wouldn’t put this in a bedroom or kid’s playroom (unless over carpet). In a kitchen, living room, hallway, etc., it’s perfect though.

What we’ve learned

A few tips, if you decide to purchase a Ruggable:

• You can spot treat localized stains with a tiny drop of detergent and warm water. Better than pulling the entire rug up every time someone comes in with mud on their shoes!
• Get help when laying down a large rug. I’ve done it by myself once and it took about 20 minutes. The husband and I can do it in about 5. The trick is starting on a short side with the rug rolled up, then unrolling it. It’s hard to adjust once it’s stuck to the velcro (which is good – that’s what keeps it from slipping).
• Find a sunny spot outdoors to accelerate the drying process. We usually run ours for two dry cycles in our machine, then drape it over the backs of our patio chairs outside for an hour or two and it’s completely dry (we have the 8×10).
• Keep pets and kids away from the bottom velcro piece while the rug is off. It catches everything. Our monthly cleaning cycles are a great time for everyone in the family to go play outside!
• Vacuum or shake off the black bottom velcro piece every few months. Dog hair and dust does still collect on the outside edges, so if you’re going for totally clean, don’t forget to check there too!

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The Bottom Line

We would buy this rug again in a heartbeat. In fact, we’re about to buy a smaller one to go under the dog crate in our living room, and a mid-sized one for under my desk in our home office.

We also love, love, LOVE the subtle blues and greens of our Ruggable Hendesi Heriz Abalone Rug. It’s much more muted than it appears on the Ruggable website, and blends nicely with the rest of our decor.

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