Grippiest shelf-liner to keep a cat bed from flying off a desk?

October 11, 2023 11:43 AM

My little feline darling has a supervisory perch on my WFH desk, and sometimes when she leaps into it, the cat bed slips and swooshes out from under her and off the desk. Naturally, this is startling to everyone and terrifying to kitty. Help me prevent this from happening again by recommending your best, grippiest mat/shelf-liner/carpet mat/etc.

The cat bed is already on a square of rubbery carpet pad, and I thought that had solved the problem until this morning when an exuberant leap put the cat bed on the floor on one side of the desk, and the cat terrified on the floor on the other side.

I am not going to make holes in the desk surface for this project. Clamps or some or way to block sliding are ok if they don't stick up higher than the cat bed (~3 inches) or stick down an equivalent distance below the desk surface.

posted by janell to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

Response by poster: The tax.
posted by janell at 11:44 AM on October 11, 2023 [9 favorites]

Best answer: Is velcro an option? The kind you can stick down.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:48 AM on October 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

Best answer: IKEA STOPP is inexpensive and works very well. Use a bit of glue dabs here and there to stick the runner to the cat bed for extra stopping power.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:56 AM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: Regular velcro is probably fine, but if you need something velcro-like but even stronger then dual lock is the top of the velcro evolutionary tree (e.g. 1" pads).
posted by caek at 11:57 AM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: I would use one of those non slip mats meant for car dashboards, like this.
posted by phunniemee at 12:02 PM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: I'd use either command picture-hanging strips or nano tape.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:14 PM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: i asked a similar question a few months ago. i ended up buying some of these small clamps and clamping it to 2 edges of the desk. i think that might work for you too, if you just grabbed part of the edge of the bed.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:39 PM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: I had a cushion on a bench that kept slipping around, and I ended up spraying the bottom with Plasti Dip Super Grip Spray. Works great, no smell after ~24hours, and hasn't rubbed any sticky stuff off onto my bench. The dog can jump on/off and it doesn't go anywhere.
posted by little king trashmouth at 1:10 PM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: I bet it would work to affix a no-slip rug pad to the bottom of the cat bed.
posted by slkinsey at 1:54 PM on October 11, 2023

I have been thinking of getting a chair pad that has the non-slip material under it for my cat. This would kill 2 birds with one stone as your bed and non slippy thing.
posted by ReluctantViking at 2:01 PM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: Could carpet tape work? It's double-sided tape that's designed to stick to cloth & smooth surfaces and not leave a residue when removed.
posted by jpeacock at 2:10 PM on October 11, 2023

Best answer: We have used cork-topped shelf paper for a number of things, not just shelves. The bottom is adhesive, and the cork surface is very, very grippy without being sticky. Great for keeping vases from walking, and also just for shelves.
posted by wnissen at 3:20 PM on October 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Heavy-duty hook-n-loop (aka Velcro (tm)) is probably best.

Alternatives would include sticky pads, 3M Command strips, and a heavier-weighted anti-slip mat under the kitty bed.
posted by kschang at 3:41 PM on October 11, 2023

This wouldn't happen if you each had your own cubicle. Open plan offices are just not as great as they promised.
posted by amtho at 4:31 PM on October 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Probably velcro is better but I will hereby mention Dycem, makers of non-slip products. They make a type of non-slip mat that comes in sheets that you can cut to size/shape. It's used by occupational therapists, typically for non-porous objects so I'm not sure how it will work with cat bed. Might be worth a whirl through their website to see if this or one of their other things might suit.
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:40 PM on October 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Alien tape or the like. It works. I purchased a different brand on Amazon. I use it for a hallway carpet, to hang pictures and pretty much anything that needs to stay in place.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:54 PM on October 11, 2023

A piece of a yoga mat would do in a pinch...
posted by nkknkk at 4:45 AM on October 12, 2023