Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Organizing the Exercise Equipment: What About the Yoga Mat?

cat on yoga mat

When I last wrote about organizing exercise equipment, I covered the ball and the weights. But what about that foam roller, and the yoga mat?

That's a challenge I have myself - and I don't need a traditional yoga mat bag because the mat never leaves my house; it just goes down on the living room floor as needed. Well, I just read a great answer today - use an umbrella stand! You'll need to be careful to pick one that's the right size, of course - but what a neat idea.

A really nice tall wastebasket could work well, too - or maybe even a laundry hamper. (This one would look lovely in my living room. I never did have cheap taste. Sigh.)

Confession: I have two yoga mats - the type you normally see, and the futon-style mat shown above. That latter one will stay out so my cat can continue to enjoy curling up on it.

3 comments:

Louise said...

Is your yoga mat the type that rolls up? An umbrella stand would be great for that!

I found a mat that folds accordian-style. This has two advantages. One, it is rectangular and flat when folded, so it fits into a flat space. This is very flexible, storage-wise.

Two, the dirty side only touches itself, and the clean side touches itself. So, no matter how grubby the floor is, the top of my mat stays clean. Rolled mats get dirtier because the two sides contact each other.

I have a cabinet right next to my exercise space that fits the flattened mat perfectly. I find that having it stored right where I use it helps motivate me to exercise AND to put the mat away afterwards.

Jeri Dansky said...

Louise, my mat is indeed the type that rolls up. That's why the umbrella stand idea jumped out at me!

Is yours the kind with foam? Those are the ones I see folding accordion-style. I just noticed this folding mat, too.

Louise said...

Yes, mine is foam, covered with vinyl. To use on our pet-hair covered floor, I really needed something easy to clean!