We started out with foam tiles, super cheap but not super soft and I couldn’t seem to keep them clean…especially in between the edges. It drove me crazy. And my son also loved to pull them apart and the tiles would end up all over the house and it became another thing to pick up off the floor when the day was done. Then I tried a mat with a fabric cover, but I found myself having to wash the cover every few days and I already had piles of laundry I couldn’t keep up with, so the search continued.