A bedside rug feels like a small thing until it slides under a bare foot in the dark. Its job is to stay put, and that depends on two things you can check in ten minutes a week: the backing still grips, and the edges still lie flat.

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Why rugs drift

Rubber and latex backings wear down with foot traffic and cleaning. Corners lift when the rug is washed, dried wrong, or stepped on at the same spot every night. A rug that moves a little each week can end up on the far side of the bed before anyone notices, which is why the check has to be regular.

Set a floor mark

Lay the rug where it belongs, then put a strip of painter's tape on the floor at each corner or along one long edge. The tape shows you the starting position. When the rug walks off the mark, you will see it at a glance.

Run the weekly check

Once a week, lift each corner and look at the backing underneath. Feel for crumbling, sticky patches, or a backing that has stopped gripping the floor. Press each edge flat with your hand, then step on the edge yourself to see whether it rolls. Check the rug against the tape. Clean the backing according to the label on the rug, and let it dry flat before anyone walks on it.

Decide when to replace it

Replace the rug when the backing crumbles, when an edge will not lie flat after cleaning, or when the rug no longer covers the same spot. Do not keep a rug that has lost its grip just because it still looks fine. The rug should sit where her feet land when she steps out of bed, and nowhere else.

Name the owner

Write down the name of the person who does the weekly check. It might be you, a sibling, or a non-medical caregiver who is already in the house. Whoever it is should know where the tape marks are and what a bad edge looks like. A check nobody owns is the check that gets skipped.

Write down

Keep a short list on the back of the cleaning label: the check you ran, the result, and the initials of the person who did it. Note any replacement and the reason for it. If the rug is ever part of a slip, write down what it was doing at that moment and bring that note to the physician.

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