In this day and age, if a cleaning product doesn't contain unnatural or complicated ingredients, we're suspicious of it. And we're missing out on the benefits of low-cost common products that are more versatile and effective than we ever imagined.A few years ago, my girlfriend and I made the mistake of storing a tent and down-filled sleeping bag right next to full plastic water bottles. Over time, one of the bottles failed, slowly dripping water that migrated to the tent and sleeping bag. By the time we discovered the minor flood, the tent and sleeping bag were already breeding mold and mildew.
Our first thought was to just toss the camping equipment, but then I checked in with the family cleaning expert otherwise known as my mother, and she gave us a simple folk remedy. My mom was raised during the War Years when people had to rely on what they had on hand to keep their households and belongings clean. Instead of telling us to run out and purchase the latest and greatest cleaner she said we should dilute distilled vinegar in water and use it on the equipment.
We filled a bucket with water and added a few caps of vinegar -- and just a FEW caps. Any more than that and your equipment might come out smelling like a chef salad. We wiped the tent down and put it out to dry. While it was drying, we filled our washing machine with water and added a few caps full of vinegar and pushed the sleeping bag down into it until it was saturated. Then we ran the washing machine on the most gentle setting.
We were amazed that when both the tent and sleeping bag dried, they were absolutely free of the mold and mildew and musty odor. I have since used diluted vinegar on other equipment -- including running shoes -- that picked up a bad odor. They came out good as new.
The only limit we can find to the vinegar cure is to make sure that the products you use it on are made to be cleaned with water. Other than that, try it on everything.
