Our welcome mat has lint, hair, and other things stuck in its bristles. As you can see from the photos, it is a very tough mat.
How can I clean this so it looks new-ish again? I tried sweeping it with a broom, but that was not very effective. I thought about rolling an adhesive lint roller over it, but there's so much lint & fuzz that I thought I'd use up too much of the adhesive tape.
Try bending the mat bristle-side out a little bit at a time. With the "fanned" part of the rug facing downward, beat the back of the mat to let the debris fall toward the floor. Do this both for the width of the rug and its length. You could also roll the mat up and strike the ground for a similar result.
Fanning the bristles opens up the space between the bristles allowing loose bristles, dirt, fibres to work free.
A vacuum cleaner can also be used but it will not work any better due to the nature of natural bristle mats to resist a strong seal near the base.
Lastly, pluck tufts of lint and balled-up fibres with your fingers from the surface and you're good to go.
In winter, put the mat face down on freshly-fallen snow for a few minutes and walk on the bottom of it. Turn it face-up and sweep the snow off it and most of the dirt will be gone with the snow.
I've always vacuumed mine, and that works well. I hang and beat it for deeper set dirt first, then make the top look nicer by running over it once with a vacuum with a beater bar (I've tried with the shop-vac, and it doesn't look as nice after).
I've also taken my mats up the local manual car wash, where there are pressure washers on those hoses in the open carports. I'll clean my car and do the welcome mats at the same time as the mats for the car. I've done sneakers (tennis shoes) that were dirty too, most of it comes out looking rather new. Naturally, if you know someone with a pressure washer, that can be just as effective. But most people have access to a car wash for a few quarters.
Another two tricks:
1) use a tough hairbrush to help dislodge hair and threads that are bound to the mat
2) use packing tape to lift off fluffies. Much cheaper than the lint roller you are trying to preserve.
Use a portable pressure washer unit. It will blast whatever crud is embedded in the mat. Point the nozzle about 2" above the mat and blast away. Within about five minutes you mat will look new. 1500+ psi of water pressure can do wonders.
