These Exact Doormats

Step 1 in keeping your floors clean is … keeping your floors clean. A shoes-off policy is ideal, but if that’s not your style, try the ultimate mat setup to keep dirt out of your home.

Every single entryway to your house needs a scraper outside and a wiper inside. What are these, you ask? Scrapers and wipers are the two main types of doormats. A ton of companies want to sell you combination mats that do a little of both; don’t take them up on it. If you’re serious about keeping dirt out of your house, you need one hyper-specialized mat for each job.

Nothing on the residential market compares to commercial mats. (And yes! I have looked at the major consumer brands, including every top-rated doormat on Amazon.) Which commercial mats to buy? I researched the hell out of this and will tell you: For outside your door you need the Mat-A-Dor, and for inside you need the Dust-Star, both by Crown Mats. The Mat-A-Dor is an absolutely outstanding scraper, and the Dust-Star an incredible wiper——check the numerical ratings on crownmats.com—and together, they will lock the filth out of your home like it never existed. Buy the longest mats you can so people will walk on them as much as possible before entering.

And enjoy the look, which isn’t actually that bad. Get the black or anthracite and consider it a charming nod to utilitarianism in your home——proof that real people live there, so to speak. (A few such touches make homes better, not worse.) And you’ll notice the difference in the cleanliness of your own every day.