Personality for a Rug?

I just got home from rehearsal (Three hours in jazz shoes---my feet hurt!) and they've given me an assignment: come up with a personality/background for my characters, Rug and Chimney Sweep.

Problem is, neither of those have lines or solos, and therefore are sort of a face lost in the crowd. One is an inanimate object that most people walk on, and one is someone who cleans chimneys but can't break out into "Chim-Chimney" from Mary Poppins.

The rug might actually be easier. They say that in Beauty and the Beast land (France, actually), castle characters became the objects of what they were. The wall was 'dull as a brick', and is therefore a brick wall, Babette was a French Maid, resulting in feather duster, someone was freakishly vain and turned into a vanity, etc.

All right. So maybe the rug was a bit of a doormat. That's easy enough...now one just has to make the personality big and perform on stage. It's sort of hard to make a shyer, quieter, stepped-on-er character show through.

As for Mrs. (Or possibly Mr. if they see my short hair and ability to stuff what hair I do have under a hat to make another guy character) Chimney Sweep...well, I'm still working on him or her. For the "Belle" sequence, I suppose he's probably just out to earn some cash by sweeping chimneys (Duh). In "Gaston", he's at the bar because...that's the hip and happening place to add excitement to him/her otherwise dull life.