Caring for Your Play Mat
These mats are built to be used daily, on the floor, by children. Here is how to keep one looking right for years rather than months.
When it first arrives
Every mat ships rolled. Unroll it, lay it flat in the spot it will live, and leave it. It settles on its own within a day or two — you do not need to weigh it down, iron it or put anything heavy on the corners.
If it has been in a cold delivery van, give it a warmer room and a little longer. Foam relaxes faster at room temperature.
Everyday cleaning
Vacuum it the way you would a rug. Use a normal floor setting rather than a beater bar on full power, which is harder on any printed surface than it needs to be.
Spot clean with a damp cloth. Cold or lukewarm water, a mild detergent if you need it, and blot rather than scrub. Work from the outside of a mark inwards so you are not spreading it.
Let it dry fully before anything goes back on top of it.
What not to do
- Do not machine wash it. The foam core is not built for a drum, and it will not survive the spin cycle
- No bleach, no solvents, no oxygen stain removers. They lift print colour as readily as they lift stains
- No steam cleaner and no hot water. Heat is the enemy of both the foam and the print
- Do not tumble dry it, for all of the above reasons
- Do not leave it soaking. Deal with spills while they are still on the surface
Spills, in order of urgency
Water and most drinks. Blot immediately with a dry towel, pressing rather than rubbing, then damp-cloth the area and let it dry.
Food. Lift the solids off first with a blunt edge, then blot, then damp clean. Scrubbing food into a pile surface makes it worse.
Felt tip and craft disasters. Act fast and use water first. If you reach for anything stronger, test it on a corner underneath the sofa before you use it in the middle of turn one.
Sunlight
This is the one that quietly ruins mats. Prolonged direct sun fades any printed textile, and Australian sun is not gentle about it.
If the only spot for the mat is in front of a big window, it is worth rotating it end to end every couple of months so it fades evenly if it fades at all. Closing a blind in the middle of the day costs nothing.
Storage
Roll it rather than folding it if you can — rolling avoids setting creases into the foam. Print facing outwards, stored somewhere dry and out of direct sun.
If you do fold it, expect to give it a day or two flat afterwards before it looks right again. Do not store anything heavy on top of it while it is rolled.
Floors
The non-slip backing is designed for timber, tile and laminate and should not mark them. On a newly finished or freshly oiled floor, it is sensible to lift the mat occasionally in the first few weeks and let the floor breathe, as you would with any rug.
If something goes wrong
If your mat arrives damaged or develops a fault, contact us with your order number and a couple of photos. Faults are covered, and we pay return postage on them. Full detail is on the returns page.
Minor variation in colour and print alignment is normal manufacturing tolerance rather than a fault — but if something looks wrong to you, send a photo and we will tell you honestly which it is.
More answers on our FAQs page, or see the three sizes.
