When I offered to show a friend how to clean a Cricut mat, I was shocked to find out that they hadn’t even realized it was possible! Yes, you can completely clean and reuse your Cricut mats. You can clean all of your personal cutting machine mats, as a matter of fact. Whether you own a Cricut or Silhouette or any other.
How To Clean A Cricut Mat
I use mostly Cricut Fabric mats, and let me tell you, cutting with felt gets those mats very full of debris really quickly. I can only run my mat through the Cricut a total of maybe 8-9 times before it needs a cleaning.
But here’s a little known fact that is a total game changer for getting full use out of those mats – you can wash the mats in soap and water without losing any of the stickiness.
In fact, they stay sticky for their lifetime so long as you keep them from getting actual dirt or sand on them. And try to be gently on the cutting. Cutting too deep can literally scar the mats and remove bits of sticky a little bit at a time.
Best Method for Cleaning Your Cutting Mats
My favorite way to clean my mats is with a brush and water only. I keep a collection of good scrub brushes on hand just for this purpose. Because while using felt, rinsing alone won’t exactly finish the job. You need a little elbow grease. And you will be surprised how much felt residue sticks to that mat. So be prepared to make a tad bit pf a mess in your sink or bathtub. And you’ll be left with a small ball of felt when you’re done.
Start by getting the mat wet.
Excuse my dirty bathtub pics. Lol! This was after cleaning about 5 mats. So you can see how messy it gets. But it’s SO worth it! I get about 30-50 uses per mat by cleaning and re-using, and keeping good care.
Start at one corner and begin gently brushing the coating of wool felt residue from the sticky coating. It may clump a bit and get stuck in your brush. Just keep moving until you’ve brushed over the entire surface.
Give it a good rinse and watch the residue simply roll right off!
I like to wash my mats in batches as I usually have a pretty large supply on hand. So I keep a towel on the floor spread out next to me. After each mat is rinsed I lay it face up on the towel, and keep stacking them until they are all clean.
To finish hang them somewhere to dry. I’m using a clothes line outside these days. But i’ve hung them from the shower rod and even in a spare closet. They dry fairly quickly.
More Cricut Mat Cleaning Tips and Tricks
If you happen to get your mats dirty, with actual dirt or dust, or your felt fibers aren’t cleaning off well enough, dish soap does a perfect job at getting those hard to clean bits off.
Keeping a toothbrush aorund as well as a bristle floor cleaning brush makes for the perfect Cricut mat cleaning tool kit.
If your mats get dinged up from over cutting and really are starting to lose their grip, spray on adhesive makes for a perfect last ditch method to get a few more uses in before throwing your mats away. Just spray a light coating over your cleaned and dried mat for instant added stickiness!
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