My Tips: Keeping your yoga mat fresh

I go to yoga about 1-2 times a week, and I have a cheap purple mat that I drag to and from class with me in my snazzy yoga mat bag. However it has been HOT lately and my yoga class does not have air conditioning- therefore turning an already challenging yoga session into a brutal, sweaty mess (or if the glass is half full, I am getting discount hot yoga classes!). Because of the increase in sweaty-ness, my yoga mat has kind of started to smell.

Yuck.

I had never washed my yoga mat before- I always just sprayed it with Febreze! However, I am thinking I needed something more drastic, so I googled some eco-friendly (and cheap!) cleaning solutions and I found one that just needs water and one secret ingredient:

Vinegar!

You just need to make a mixture of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water, pour into a spray bottle, and spray on the mat regularly. I am going to see if this helps, and if not I will be back next week with how to deep clean  a yoga mat.

First I hung the mat up in the bathroom

I used an old bottle from some cleaning product and poured my mixture in and sprayed it all over

Now my bathroom smells like french fries. Lovely.

Vinegar is a great cleaning tool that people have used for years, so hopefully this will do the trick without making my mat slippery (which soap can do).

Lastly I labeled my spray bottle for future use :)

Except in retrospect, this kinda makes it seem like the spray is stanky, not the yoga mat. Which is kind of is, because I don't like vinegar. haha

Happy weekend and Namaste!!