By Agnes Kyotalengerire

ONE are the days when the market was flooded with mats woven from palm leaves. Plastic mats are now the in-thing.
The mats are easy to maintain since they are made using plastic. When dirty, one can easily wash and dry them without being damaged.

The mats are portable and multi-purpose. They can be used in homes, churches, mosques or outdoors like at the beach, school visitations and funerals.

They come in different designs such as the floral patterns or with pictures of churches and mosques and do not harbour insects like cockroaches because of their slippery texture.

Jackline Ssekiranda, a housewife in Mpererwe, says: “I have used plastic mats for a long time. They are durable unlike mats made using palm leaves that wear out easily.”

She says the plastic mats are easy to clean and easily dried by wind. All one has to do is to wipe it with a damp cloth or wash it with soap and water, using a sponge and hang it in the sun to dry.

After washing, the mat maintains its original texture, unlike the ordinary mats that become hard. However, Ssekiranda cautions that the mats should not be hang in the hot sun since they are made of plastic.

She says the mats can be used as carpets in the home since they come in double and triple sizes. For that purpose, she says, one should take measurements of the room before shopping for the mat.

In case one wants the mat for outdoor occasions, it is better to buy the bag mat because it folds easily into a bag and can easily be transported anywhere unlike the palm leaves mats that can only be rolled.

The mats cost sh5,000 for the medium size, sh10,000 for the double, while the triple size cost sh30,000.

The mats are available in shops around town, especially in Kikuubo and on Ben Kiwanuka Street.