How To Easily Clean A Boot Tray
This time of year, there is lots of snow and salt in many areas of the world. Salt is an essential item because it prevents you from slipping on snow and ice. We use salt liberally on our front porch, the entire driveway and the sidewalk in front of our house.
Because we use so much salt, it’s inevitable that some will end up in the house when we come inside. I vacuum the rug by the front door every other day and there is always a ton of salt that gets sucked up.
The other area in our home where lots of salt builds up is on our boot tray by the entrance. It becomes filthy rather fast and it’s not pretty to look at. Seriously. Take a look at our boot tray:
I normally wash things with a rag dipped in some soapy water, but I knew that this task would require something a bit different.
Here are the items that I used to clean the boot tray (not including the rag):
Shake It Off – There was a ton of loose dirt and salt all over the tray, so I opened up the front door and banged the tray on the wall a few times until stuff stopped falling off.
Take Out The Toothbrush – I love using old toothbrushes for cleaning! They are perfect for getting into all of those tiny crevices you wouldn’t normally be able to get into with a regular size scrubbing brush. I dipped my toothbrush in the cleaner and began scrubbing away at all of the salt marks on the mat.
I used the larger scrubbing tool for the bigger sections of the mat and used the toothbrush for inside all of the grooves. It honestly took me no more than 10 minutes to get rid of it all.
Rinse & Dry – Once all of the dirt was scrubbed off of the mat, I rinsed it under some warm water. I used the laundry room sink, since that is the largest sink in our house. Then, I simply dried it off with a rag and put it back by the front door.
Comments
Awesome job! I really need to do mine too.
You know, I am a cleaning freak but forget about the boot tray until I go to get my boots, then I forget again LOL
Deanna
I wish the rest of my house would clean up that quickly!!!
You have far more energy than I…I would have banged off the chunks then laid it in the bathtub, filled the tray with hot water, let it sit until I remembered it (or someone needed a shower) then cranked the shower on it to rinse it off! I find my beige mat doesn’t show the crud nearly as much as my old black one did. Can you put a bristly mat outside on your porch? That would keep more dirt/salt outside. A LOT!
PS a Denture brush is even better for scrubbing-not much bigger, but harder and it has a small sort of pointy end on it as well-wonderful tool! Sweet talk your hygenist next time you are in for a check-up.
Susan
oooh i hate these things,they are right there as you come in and as soon as you clean them they are dirty again (sigh).You’d think someone could invent an alternative….oh well.
Michelle; what if you put newspaper down on the boot tray? You could fold it up and throw it out every day.
deanna – i know, i forget about it all the time too. i see it as i’m walking in or out the door (on my way to do something else) and i remember it for just that moment and then i forget again. 😛
carrie – you and me both!
teachermum – your way sounds easy, but i would probably forget it in the tub until shower time and then once i showered and took the mat out, i would forget it in the bedroom or something (i shower in the master bath). this way i cleaned it and put it back right away because if i hadn’t, i certainly would have forgotten about it again!
michelle – oooh yes, an alternative would be nice. come on, inventors!
katie – hey, that’s not a bad idea! thanks for the suggestion. 😀
I take them to the coin-op car wash in the spring. They have the hooks on the wall for the floor mats, so all at once I can get them all clean with the high pressure power hose. The hose sprays out soap at the same time. Clean mats and none of the salt is in your house.
oooh, i didnt know they had those at car washes. thanks for the tip!