Lifehacks Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people looking to bypass life's everyday problems with simple tricks. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
We have a rug at the entrance of our home. It is too much slippery, and despite putting a heavy shoe rack over it, it stills slips and it become a mess, all jumbled up. I don't understand why. we do have carpet under it. We also have the same issue with another rug in out bedroom, which slides with time.
How can I make it stop?
One simple option is "grip shelf liner". Many brands exist. The grip shelf liner in the picture below is by Con-Tact, and comes in a roll.
If you haven't used a product like this before, it's a flat flexible sheet of textured rubber, often with holes in it. The rubber provides grip, especially when pressure is applied (as when somebody is standing on it or walking over it).
You can buy a roll of this (about $5 in the United States), cut out a section slightly smaller than your rug, and place it under the rug. You could even tape or staple the shelf liner to the underside of the rug. The rubbery grip should keep the rug from sliding around, even on a carpet.
Have you tried Double-sided tape ? You need to clean both the floor and the underside of the rub/carpet before.
Otherwise a good alternative is to buy a Ribbed Entrance Mats. They are (most of the time) made in order to avoid slippery.
I don't have a proven solution, but I do understand the problem. It's caused by the "nap" of the carpet beneath, the fibres do not stand perpendicular to the carpet backing, but they all lie at a slight angle pointing in one direction. As you walk on the rug, the fibres act like a "ratchet", pushing the rug in the direction they point, and not allowing it to slip back when your foot is lifted off.
There are some products that try to solve the problem. If you put "rug grip" into Amazon you will see that you can buy a rubbery sheet that you put between the carpet and the rug. I've no experience of this but my guess is that it will reduce the effect but not stop it.
Velcro strips. You can easily remove these strips and they are cheap. ~2 USD for a 4 pack of them. It would stay in place and you could easily clean under the rug!
For reasons Lefty points out, you can't easily stop this from happening. The movement is caused by the carpet being made of fibers that stand up, but bend when pressure is applied. In doing so, the item you placed on the carpet will always seek to move in the same direction as the carpet fibers bend then you stand on them
Answers that encourage you to use something that sticks the rug to the carpet or increases the grip it has are unlikely to completely solve the problem, because the fibers will simply move the sticky backing along with the carpet. Adding things to the rug is a bit like suggesting to stop people crowdsurfing at a concert by dressing everyone in a rubber suit
Your only hope is to fasten the rug through the carpet, to the floor beneath, or do something that means the carpet fibers don't get squashed/bent over as you walk on them (such as fix a board over the carpet or cut a square of carpet out and put the rug on the floor underneath.
