so therefore the floor around the water dish is ALWAYS wet
Same here, before I bought these plastic trays. I used to have table mats before, but the girls managed to "bath" them with their water, so the entire floor under the mats was soaking wet. Wasn't good for the laminate at all. I was really lucky with the trays. The day I decided to do something about the wet floor, I saw them for 1 Euro in an 1-Euro-store... They're easy to clean.

Kirsten