These cleverly designed rugs are machine washable so I never have to worry about spills — plus they're incredibly affordable

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• Rugs are a great piece of home decor, but they can be difficult to maintain.
• Ruggable's polyester chenille rugs ($59.30+) are affordable, attractive, and thanks to an innovative two-piece system that separates the rug cover from a non-slip pad, easy to clean.
• I put together and washed a Ruggable rug in my own apartment, and the process went seamlessly.
• The company's patented "Cling Effect Technology" kept the pieces together at all times, the rug didn't slide around on my floor, and I didn't have to follow any fancy, special instructions when machine-washing and drying it.

Rugs are an essential part of home decor, providing the foundation upon which your furniture and other decor sit. However, they're a huge pain to clean: you need to bring them outside and use a host of different tools and cleaners or possibly spend a lot of money letting a professional take care of them. You start to wonder whether their aesthetic appeal is worth the inconvenience of care and maintenance.

Before you decide to put off cleaning your rug for yet another week, you might want to take a look at rugs Ruggable. It makes two-piece rug and non-slip pad systems that are easy to assemble and maintain, and most importantly, machine-washable. After trying a Ruggable rug in my own apartment, I found that enjoying a stylish rug in my home can actually be simple, not to mention affordable.

Ruggable review

After I measured out the size of rug I wanted, I scrolled through a variety of patterns and colors on Ruggable's site and decided on one that matched my apartment style. There are intricate designs and geometric prints as well as to modern ones, so finding one that matches your aesthetic shouldn't be too hard. There's also a good range of styles: 3'x 5', 2.5'x 7', 5'x 7', and 8'x 10'.

The rug covers are made up of three layers — 100% woven polyester chenille top surface, a 100% polyurethane internal waterproof barrier in the middle, and a 100% polyester knit bottom surface.

The 1/8-inch thick rug cover will come with a rug pad. This nonslip pad is also 1/8-inch thick and features Ruggable's patented "Cling Effect Technology," which is what keeps the rug cover and rug pad stuck together.

Once you unroll the cover and pad, which arrive together in a box, line them up on top of each other and attach the pieces. The rug cover's underside will stick to the rug pad's top surface, which has a texture and stickiness similar to Velcro. After the two pieces are attached, they won't fall apart if you shake it out, and you'll have to manually pull the layers apart.

Carefully lining up the edges might take a little time the first time you do it, but overall it's not too tricky. The complete process from taking the rug out of the box to fully assembling it took me all of 10 minutes.

The real test came when it was time to wash it after a couple of weeks of regular foot traffic from my roommates and our cat. I removed the cover from the pad and threw the cover in the washing machine on the cold water setting, then dried it in the dryer on low heat (medium also works well, but don't use high heat).

It was as easy and quick as washing a regular load of laundry, and the cover came out looking as good as new. Then, I just reattached it to the rug pad and the rug was ready to use again.

The rug pad is not machine-washable and should be spot treated. However, since the top of it rarely comes in contact with anything other than the rug cover, any time spent spot treating will likely be minimal.

The rugs are not extremely thick but provide enough cushion-y comfort without blocking door openings, and they're easier to move and transport since you can fold up the rug cover.

A 5'x 7' rug set averages $130, which is on par with other affordable rugs you might find on Wayfair, but the clear differences are the unique two-piece system and machine-washable quality.

Ruggable's rugs are designed for people who lead understandably busy and messy lives. Most of us don't live in the pristine settings captured by design magazines, but the convenience and style of a Ruggable rug got me one step closer to that dream.

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