Defeating dust and dirt

For a while now, I've wondered what to do about recurring dust and dirt on bathroom mats and rugs throughout my house. No matter how often I clean, dust and dirt remain the fourth roommate in my house. It irritates me how quickly my white bathroom mats look like they've taken a trip in a storm drain so soon after a wash.

When I lived in DC, my roommate and I had separate bathrooms and we both chose dark, solid colored bath mats to match our color schemes. Thinking that those mats would hide dust better proved wrong since the white dust was showcased even better on a dark background. Upon moving to Silver Spring into an old school black-and-white tiled bathroom floor, I chose white bath mats to match thinking that black would show the dust and dirt (DD) far worse.

Well, again, I was wrong. I know this is why offices and apartment complexes (and normal, intelligent humans) choose neutral colored or patterned rugs to hide DD best. But between white/light rugs and dark rugs, I guess I would choose dark.

And yesterday after deciding to wash the white bath mats, I solved this annoying situation for good. Everyone knows to wash whites and colors separately. I know that. But, for some reason, I believed that my Tide COLOR SAFE detergent meant that whites and colors could mingle freely without fear of marriage. Wrong again. Upon washing the white mats with the multi-green-colored runner rug from my living room, my pretty white bathmats instantly turned green.

At first I was horrified. But that soon faded. Since I happen to be in a "green" phase right now where I can't stop myself from buying anything with green in it, clothes wise and otherwise, this in my mind is a victory. I currently have a dark green coat, a dark green purse and several variations of green clothing. Obsessive, yes. But, I can't get enough of the green! And now I have pretty mint green bathmats that actually match the strange, old school green and white tiles in the bathroom. I'm also thinking that the dust won't show up as well since the light green will hide light and dark DD quite well.

Victory! Go green!