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Clean your Mat! Clean your Mat! That little voice in your head is telling you how to keep your Cricut Mat clean and how often to do it. You can always rely on that inner voice for help, right? I’m glad you asked because we’ll be talking about how to clean a cricut mat with baby wipes today.
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What Makes Baby Wipes The Best Choice For Cleaning Your Cricut Mat?
Baby wipes are made with a thin, soft fabric that makes them super absorbent. They easily remove dirt and grime. But what really makes them the best choice for cleaning your mat is that they can take care of both oily and water based messes.
Why Does My Cricut Mat Get So Dirty?
The majority of consumers recognize why their Cricut mats are filthy. Using your Cricut mat without a mat cover is one of the most frequent causes. The mat may pick up spills or debris that happen on its surface or from tools used on it. If left unchecked, this might get rather unsanitary.
While it’s fine to wipe off the top side of your Cricut mat with a towel while cutting with it, doing so may harm the mat and cause your project to go wrong.
When cutting, apply too much pressure on your Cricut mat. The fibers of the mat will wear away as a result of this, making it dirty soon.
How to prep your mat for cleaning
Yes, there are things you can do to make it a more effective clean. If you make a lot of paper crafts or wood projects, I would highly recommend a lint roller to pick up scraps.
I find doing general roll with the lint roller to pick up loose bits helps. If you don’t have a lint roller, some masking tape or painters tape works too.
I don’t have that many dedicated Cricut clean-up tools but here are the few I have that I love. I use these pieces for every project.
Spatula Set
The spatula out of all the Cricut brand tools is the only one I actually like. Unfortunately, it only comes in a set with the scraper. The scraper is nice too but it is no different than other branded and non-branded scrapers. I mostly use this spatula to scrape stuff off the mat and peel vinyl.
Weeding Tools
I sometimes find tweezers to be the best at weeding and just an all-around general tool for everything. Some people like to put a needle in a mechanical pencil which is not bad but that only gets the peeling started. The Cricut weeding tool though is ideal for the job.
How to clean your Cricut mat with baby wipes
Step 1: Remove any paper that is on the mat by peeling off and making sure that all paper pieces are released from the mat
Step 2: Grab a baby wipe and pull it apart (there should be a little strip that you can rip off).
Step 3: Take the baby wipe and wipe the mat in circular motions until it is somewhat clean of debris or dust on the top side of the mat If there is liquid on your mat, use a different wet wipe to dry it all out. You will want to do this so none of your Cricut projects will absorb any moisture.
How often should you clean your Cricut mat?
If you craft with your Cricut mats every day, you’ll need to clean your mats more often than someone who crafts once a week. Most Cricut mats will need cleaning after 2-4 cuts, depending on the types of materials you use.
I recommend cleaning the mat whenever you notice that the materials don’t stick as well as they used to.
You may need to clean the mats more often if you use materials that leave a lot of debris, like felt, denim, glitter vinyl, or leather. You’ll especially want to clean the mats after you cut wood material with the knife blade.
But, if you stick to smooth materials like vinyl and cardstock, you can probably get away with fewer cleanings.
How to Keep the Mats Clean
The best way to extend the life of your cutting mats is to keep them clean in the first place. Here are some of the easiest ways to keep the mats clean.
Clean the mats regularly with a lint roller or scraper. If you don’t have a Cricut scraper tool, you can use an old credit card or plastic gift card to remove scraps from your cutting mat. Simply run the edge of the card across the surface of the mat to release scrap pieces.
Always replace the plastic protector sheet. Cricut mats come with a clear protective sheet. You can keep your mat cleaner by covering the mat with the protective sheet in between projects. And, if the plastic sheet ever gets dirty, you can wipe it off with a baby wipe or a little squirt of Windex on a paper towel.
Use the right mat for the right material. Use the Light Grip mat for delicate papers, the Fabric Grip mat for fabric, and the Strong Grip mat for heavy-duty materials.
