It's basic hygiene, people: clean your mat!

I'm going to fess up: I have never been super-fastidious about cleaning my mat.  I think in the time I've owned my current mat, a Prana Revolution, magic carpet that I love, love love -- probably a year and a half if I think about it -- I have probably cleaned it only a dozen times MAX, and probably mostly just in the beginning when I was trying to wear down its innate and oh-so-distressing slipperiness.  Yeah, hug the midline, but I felt like I was going to surf clear on out of Warrior 2, thanks so much and not very comfortable.

I use the mat a LOT and it's been a lot of places, so it's revolting, really, that I'm such a mat hygiene slacker.  That mat gets walked on all over by my sweaty little feet, by everyone else's sweaty bigger feet; I place my hands and entire sweaty body on it; I and others demo on it; it rides around in my car and hits the ground in studios and on carpets (super-gross) all over the Bay Area.  And there are many times I watch beads of sweat drip off me onto it.  And then after class, I roll it up and off I go.

Super-gross.

But I'm mending my ways.

Thanks to an ad in the sidebar of Facebook for Yogini Cleanies, botanically based wipes made of 100% sustainable renewable bamboo.  I clicked through, intrigued, and liked what I saw.  A little company started by a mom and daughter, yoginis and environmentalists.  Sweet!

Inspired, I ordered up a box of Yogini Cleanies and just tested them out recently. They smell great, which is necessary, given the above-mentioned accumulation of funk.  Since my mat is enormous, I could've used two of the wipes to really clean it.  Fortunately, I've since heard from Sunday, the mom in the mother-daughter team, that they've come out with a larger size.  Perfect!

The wipes come in little packets, like Handiwipes, making them easy to tuck into a mat bag or purse or pocket, for immediate after-class wipe-down.  That's what I'll be doing tonight after class, before I even roll that bad-boy up again.

And they work.  I am not sure it comes out quite clearly in the photo, but yeah, the wipe was no longer white when I was done.  That's quite a few foot- and hand-prints in my palm below, ewwwww.  And it's nice to get that snootfull of lemongrass scent, too,  a welcome change from feet.

As an added bonus, at least for me, Yogini Cleanies are compostable.  I have shredded up used wipes post-cleaning and thrown them into the compost, delighted to watch them break down with everything else, the yard trimmings and mown grass and coffee from the neighborhood Peet's.

So if you haven't guessed, I'm a fan.  Yogini Cleanies are easy and green, so I have no excuse to be a mat-slob.  From here out, I'll be packing these, hygiene slacker no more.

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