Six things, laid out plainly

I have bought bath mats for forty-odd years. This is the first time a child has ever asked to stand on one.

Six things these soft little animal mats get right that a lifetime of sensible beige ones never did, from a grandmother who went back for a second design before Thanksgiving.

Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read

Before I go one step further, you ought to know exactly whose voice this is. I am Peggy, I am 63, I live in Austin, Texas with my husband Frank, and two afternoons a week I pick up our grandson from the lady down the street who keeps him. I have kept house for forty-odd years and bought bath mats the whole time, and I never once thought one was worth a second look, never mind a letter. Well. I have changed my mind.

The mats I am writing about are from the Animal Print Bathroom Mat Collection at Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly making the ordinary things a little lovelier for a few years now. They are soft bath mats with animals on them, and some of them are cut into the shape of the animal itself. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.

I first saw them at the sitter’s. Rhonda keeps six little ones at her house, in and out all afternoon, hands washed before snack time, sneakers off at the back door, and yet her bathroom floor is dry and her mats are exactly where she put them. I had always assumed she was forever mopping. Then one Tuesday I went up with our grandson to wash his hands, and he would not come out of the bathroom until he had stood on the panda. There is an orange one in front of her bath with two pointed ears and a white muzzle, and a gray cat face by the back door, and the children take turns on them. He talked about the panda the whole way home. That Thursday I asked her about them, plainly. She has three. Read on.

The orange one, in front of our bath at home. The grandchildren call it the fox. The boutique calls it a bear. Nobody in this house minds.

Here is what forty-odd years of bath mats taught me. They come in two piles. The sensible ones, beige or white, that look like they came out of a hotel and do their job without anybody ever noticing them. And the children’s ones, bright plastic things with a cartoon on them, that look like a toy and feel like one under your feet.

A bath mat was either grown-up and dull or cheerful and cheap. I had stopped expecting one that was soft, did its job right and made somebody smile.

These are the first mats I have owned that manage all three, and having lived with them through a stormy September, two sleepovers and my daughter’s labrador, who thinks our bathroom is his whenever he stays, I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The morning they came. I opened them on the bed to have a good look, which Frank thought was very funny, until he picked up the cat.

2

It stays where you put it

The second thing I noticed at Rhonda’s, and the thing I would put at the top of the list for a busy house. Each mat has a non-slip base that helps keep it in place, and on our tiles it simply stays put. Small feet run on and off it all evening, Frank stands on it to shave, my daughter’s labrador lies on it when he thinks nobody is looking, and I have not had to bend down and straighten it once. For a woman who has spent forty years nudging bath mats back into place with her toe, that alone was worth writing about.

My turn, first thing. It was exactly where the grandchildren left it the night before.

★★★★★

Three grandkids and a Labrador through my bathroom every weekend and the mat is still where I put it on Monday. The old one ended up in the garage.

Christine B., Denison

3

It soaks up the drips

Two children out of one bath is a lot of water, and most of it used to end up on the floor. The surface on these is absorbent, and it helps keep the floor around it cleaner and drier. After bath night the little footprints stop at the mat instead of carrying on across the tiles, and I am not on my knees with a towel before I can run my own bath.

After bath night at our house. The little footprints go as far as the cat and no further.

★★★★★

Both boys out of the bath and dripping, and the floor around the mat was dry. My old one would have been wringing wet.

Susan K., Gainesville

5

Two sizes, for the tub or the sink

Every design comes in two sizes, 15.7 × 23.6 in and 19.7 × 31.5 in. The larger one is just under half the length of our tub, so it covers the floor where you actually step out. The smaller one is about as wide as a pedestal sink, which is where the panda went first, right where the little ones brush their teeth. In a house with one bathroom for the grandkids and everybody home for Thanksgiving, having the right size in the right place makes more difference than I would have guessed.

The smaller panda, in front of the sink. About as wide as the sink itself.

★★★★★

I measured before I ordered and the small one sits perfectly in front of my sink. The big one is by the tub now as well.

Jean M., Jacksboro

6

It is not only for the bathroom, and there are fourteen designs

The boutique suggests them for bedrooms as well as bathrooms, and Rhonda keeps her gray cat down by the back door. Ours has gone one better. When I went back for the panda, it ended up beside the bed in the guest room, ready for the grandchildren’s Thanksgiving sleepover, and I have been told in no uncertain terms that it is staying there. There are fourteen designs in the collection in all, the orange one, the panda and the gray cat I have, and a whale, a little fish on waves, a rabbit, teddies and more cats, all in the same two sizes and at the same price. A few have a word in the picture as well, if you like that sort of thing.

The panda, by the bed in the guest room, the week before Thanksgiving. First thing their feet touch in the morning.

★★★★★

Bought the whale for my grandson’s bedroom and the cat for my own bathroom. Both are as bright as the pictures and both stay put.

Valerie T., North Texas

These little mats, against the ones you have been making do with

You can carry on with a sensible mat nobody notices, or a plastic one nobody wants to stand on, like I did for forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

The 15.7 × 23.6 in is $45.95, down from $92.00, and the larger 19.7 × 31.5 in is $59.95, down from $120.00. Every design in the collection is the same price.

I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these are in the sale right now, and once this stock is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have spent more than $92.00 over the years on bath mats that went in the trash inside a year and never made anybody smile, so $45.95 for one the grandchildren fight over made it an easy yes.

And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.

If bath night at your house starts with ten minutes of calling up the stairs, or your bath mat has not made anybody smile in years, this is where I would start. Have a look at the designs before somebody else takes your favorite, because once this stock is gone, it is gone. And if you ever find a panda on the floor of a sitter’s bathroom in Austin, you will know where I got the idea.

Peggy

THE ANIMAL PRINT BATHROOM MAT COLLECTION

★★★★☆ 4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

From $92.00 $45.95

• Fourteen sweet animal designs
• Non-slip base, helps keep it in place
• Absorbent surface, helps keep the floor drier
• Soft and comfortable underfoot
• 15.7 × 23.6 in $45.95 · 19.7 × 31.5 in $59.95
• For bathrooms and bedrooms
• Free shipping

See The Animal Print Bath Mat Collection

Sale on now. Once this stock is gone, it is gone.