Last night before class began, one of my students grabbed a spray bottle full of cleaner and a towel.  She sprayed down her mat and began to vigorously scrub.  She flipped her mat over and repeated the process.  “I am buying another mat!” she exclaimed, “One for class and one for Yoga in the Park.  Ever since Yoga in the Park, I find more and more dirt on my mat.”  The mat spray at the Community Center is an industrial cleaner and disinfectant, it is powerful stuff.  The smell of it, while not long lasting, is also unpleasantly potent.

Yoga mats get dirty and smelly.  Even if you rarely sweat while on your mat—I know, there are many who believe that it’s not Yoga if copious amounts of sweat are not involved but that is another post.  As I said, even if you rarely sweat on your mat, your mat will start to smell like the soles of your feet.  Mats need regular cleaning.  No one wants to put their nose on a mat that smells like feet.

Use a mild cleaner so your mat doesn’t start to disintegrate.  You can use a mild dish or hand soap.  Simply wash your mat down and let it hang to dry.  This method is extremely simple but it also has an ugly secret:  Residue.  Many commercial soaps leave a residue behind that will often actually attract dirt!

Here are two solutions that are easy and inexpensive to make and are not only great mat cleaners, they smell fantastic!  Now, these both call for essential oils; so, your initial price is going to feel more like an investment than a purchase.  The initial cost is higher than dish soap but the long term savings are real and I’ve yet to meet anyone that has regretted using these cleaners.  One more word about essential oils, where you buy them will mean dramatic differences in prices but usually not in quality.  If I buy through San Francisco Herb (sfherb.com), I will spend $84 to buy the 8 oz. bottles of lavender, peppermint and tea tree (melaleuca) essential oils.  As each bottle of cleaner only requires a few drops of oil, those 8 oz. bottles will last for a very long time.  If I buy 8 oz. each of those three oils through the popular dōTERRA company (doterra.com), the price would be $3,791.

(Update January 2015:  dōTERRA’s pricing has dropped significantly.  They now have 15ml bottles—that is 0.5 oz. so we need 16 of those to make 8 oz.—for about the same price as the 5ml bottles used to be.  That means we can get all three oils for only $1,290.56.  Meanwhile, San Francisco Herb’s prices have gone up slightly.  The new total from SF Herb is $85.50.)

Mat Spray

This is for daily use.  Spray your mat down with it after every practice and then wipe dry with a lint free cloth.

• 1 cup distilled water
• 3 drops tea tree essential oil
• 2 drops peppermint essential oil
• 2 drops lavender essential oil

Add to a clean spray bottle, shake and use.  If you are using a 24 oz. spray bottle, triple the ingredients above.  If you don’t have ready access to distilled water, the world won’t come to a screeching halt if you use tap water.  What if you want to use this after class at your favorite community center or studio?  Just pour some of the spray into a small pocket sized spray bottle and take it with you!

Mat Cleaner

This is for regular deep cleaning of your mat, at least once a month.  Spray your mat and wipe/scrub with a lint free cloth.

• 1 cup distilled water
• 3 drops tea tree essential oil
• 2 drops peppermint essential oil
• 2 drops lavender essential oil
• 1 tsp castile soap

You probably realize that this is the same formula as the mat spray with castile soap added.  Why castile soap?  It is tough on dirt but easy on you.  I like Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Liquid Soap (drbronner.com) but any quality castile soap will work fine.

When practicing Yoga postures, we always make sure that both sides receive equal attention.  The same should be true when you clean your mat, give both sides some love.

Jai Bhagwan!