# Why do straw doormats exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 8, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122 "2005-11-08T22:41:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pocelene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/0ea827/32.png) [@pocelene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pocelene)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/1 "2005-11-08T22:41:40Z")
They make such a mess, creating a trail of scratchy sock-piercing debris all over the entryway. I can understand a person buying one, unaware, because I’ve seen them in the store and thought about it. But who would make the same mistake twice? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/2 "2005-11-08T22:54:28Z")
They’re for the strawmen in GD to wipe their feet. ---
**Author:** ![pocelene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/0ea827/32.png) [@pocelene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pocelene)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/3 "2005-11-08T23:03:17Z")
Thanks. I suspected as much! ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/4 "2005-11-09T01:20:16Z")
Hmmm…four hours too late to make that joke… I think you are supposed to use them outside, that’s where mine is. ---
**Author:** ![pocelene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/0ea827/32.png) [@pocelene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pocelene)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/5 "2005-11-09T02:23:05Z")
…and you don’t have a pile of straw around your porch, and it never gets carried inside? How would that work? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/6 "2005-11-09T03:38:30Z")
You forget your heritage. We didn’t always have those synthetic things. I remember when I was a boy, my mamma would send me out it the summer with a sling blade (some people call it a Kaiser blade, I call it a sling blade). It would go out there in the field and cut me some straw. I would inspect every blade of that straw to find the best ones I could. Then I would lay it out in the sun and check on it periodically. When the day came and it was dry, I would go out in the barn and get to weaving. About three days later, I would emerge with a straw mat much like you see at the 5 and dime today. We used it and it did shed a little. With every straw that came out on the rug, my heart lost a little something that I will never get back. I know the people that make those straw mats across the seas now probably feel the same way about what their mats. I don’t like to criticize those mats much. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/7 "2005-11-09T04:13:45Z")
Is this a “If I dream how do I know if when I awaken the straw mat will still exist?” type question, or a “If a straw mat is in a box in which nobody knows it’s in there does it exist before someone opens the box to see what’s in it?”. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/8 "2005-11-09T04:34:59Z")
> [@Harmonious Discord](#): > > Is this a “If I dream how do I know if when I awaken the straw mat will still exist?” type question, or a “If a straw mat is in a box in which nobody knows it’s in there does it exist before someone opens the box to see what’s in it?”. You aren’t breaking out the rock in a box type thing now are you? If you are, you better set your smoke alarm to “burning hair”. ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/9 "2005-11-09T04:41:10Z")
> [@pocelene](#): > > …and you don’t have a pile of straw around your porch, and it never gets carried inside? How would that work? They are good for removing gross (large) clumps of mud, gravel, rocks, etc. from boots and other deep treaded shoes. And no, the straw doesn’t really track in at all unless I am outside in socks and step on it in my sock feet on the way back in and then only a few strands stick to my socks along with all the grass and leaves I am tracking in on my socks anyway. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-straw-doormats-exist/330122/10 "2005-11-09T04:47:46Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > They’re for the strawmen in GD to wipe their feet. _snork_