Washing a Filthy, Smelly, Sleeping Bag
Well, I’m home from my trip to outback South Australia.
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My place in Bega New South Wales
My sleeping bag was filthy and smelly from many nights sleeping pretty rough. It was rather dirty from the red dust of the outback. Dirty inside and dusty outside. It was also rather smelly from the many warm nights that I crawled into bed in the same clothes that I’d been wearing for days. On one occasion I’d been caught in a dust storm and there was red dust and grit through everything.
The man at Barbeques Galore, who not only sell camping equipment but also are the local dry cleaning agency advised me against either machine washing or dry cleaning. He said I should follow the washing instructions.
The fella was very helpful and said that some people wash their sleeping bags in the bath.
So a good handful of Lux flakes dissolved in hot water and added to the warm bath water, a good squelching around and a soak, followed by more squelching. Pulled the plug and let the sleeping bag drain for an hour or two. Then more warm water and more squelching. Pulled the plug and let it drain.
My -5°C sleeping bag laying flat on the lawn after washing, to drain and dry.
You can imagine that a quality, -5°C sleeping bag holds a fair bit of water. When it had drained a fair bit I managed to get the sleeping bag out of the bath and onto the bath mat. Rolling up the parcel I headed for the back door, leaving a trail of drips through the house, and laid the sleeping bag flat on the back lawn to drain and start to dry.
Later in the day with a shower threatening, I got the sleeping bag draped over the rail on the back veranda where it eventually dried.
Ah! Sweet and clean again, ready for the next adventure.
