They do it to keep the spirits happy:)

For the same reason they sweep the floor in the house a dozen times a day, its a cultural thing. Mother sweeps the floor, daughter sweeps the floor 10 sec after mom, a cycle that happens all day long.

I'm not Thai nor a woman, but I do like cleanliness.

I recall long ago in falang-land we had carpets on the floor. The carpets were used to trap all the dust, lint, crumbs, dead and live insects and other debris. After 5-10 years, the carpet became so nasty it had to be replaced -- at considerable expense. Since coming to live in S. E. Asia, I've come to greatly appreciate the coolness and cleanliness of tile/marble floors. I like to have a thick towel (floor mat) on the floor next to my bed so I don't get dust, lint, crumbs or other debris in the bed. Also, a towel-type floor mat in front of the kitchen sink, on the bathroom floor, and at other strategic locations.

Washing these floor mats seems to be much simpler, more economical than the old habit of replacing all the carpet in the house after it became too filthy.

It's great to live in the tropics with cool, clean marble floors. I'd never go back to the filthy carpet environment.

And I'm damn happy with the floor mats on the floor. But that's just me... to each his own.

No idea about the intention of that question, but what's a swallow ?

Well to an ornithologist it will mean a bird, but to someone in Pattaya it might mean something entirely different.

Too true uptheos.

I would go further and say it is often the difference between an '8 and a '10'

When I was in the midlle east most people wore their towels on their heads

I have never experienced this habit in the hundreds of houses, apartments and rooms I have either lived in or visited in LOS

Lived here more than 20 years, ditto.

I just kept throwing them out until there wasn't a cloth left in the house. Problem solved.