SALT LAKE CITY — As old man winter shuts the door on your backpacking season, it’s important to make sure that what you store now will bloom again in the spring — still functional, critterless and not smelling like the dead squirrel your dog just dug out of a melting spring snow pile.

Packing all your goodies into hermetically sealed space bags after being cleaned by a professional may be the solution for some. But for the average wallet, there are cheaper and easier ways to hibernate in peace knowing that your favorite camping gear is safely tucked away.

Sleeping Bags

The main enemy of a sleeping bag in storage is compression. Hang your sleeping bag in your closet to keep the filling from shifting and losing its loft. If your closet can’t handle the pressure, consider a large laundry bag or an extra-large pillowcase to store your bag and still leave it lofty and able to breathe.

Avoid mildew and a smelly bag by ensuring it's clean and completely dry before you put it away. If your bag filling is synthetic, just throw it in the washer on gentle wash, preferably by itself. If you have a down bag, wash it by hand in the bathtub. In both cases use gentle soap and make sure it gets rinsed completely — bugs love soap.

Handle the bag carefully as you move it from the washer to the dryer as this is the most sensitive time for the loft and the seams. You can dry both bags in a large commercial dryer on very low heat. Throw in four tennis balls to help fluff it up. Plan on an extended stay at the laundry mat as this may take several hours.

After drying, the bag should be opened up completely and allowed to air out for 24 hours before putting it into any type of winter storage. However, outdoorsmen should note that washing sleeping bags very often is not recommended by most manufacturers since it can shorten the life of the fill material. Usually, washing it once a year is fine.

Keep in mind that you aren’t the only one looking for a warm comfortable place to spend the winter. Store your sleeping bag inside, away from mice and bugs, in a dry area at room temperature. Dryer sheets placed inside the storage bag will help keep it smelling fresh. A lavender sachet or cedar chips will keeps bugs away.

Backpacks

Hang your clean empty backpack someplace cool and dry. While it's not critical that the backpack be stored inside, if you leave energy bar crumbs in the pockets, winter mice will find it.

Clean your backpack before storing by dumping it in a tub of soapy water and rinsing it well. Make sure it is completely dry and hang it in a place where mice will have difficulty climbing to. Hang it on a wooden peg and you won’t get a permanent crease in the haul loop.

If you live in an area with a large number of stinkbugs, consider keeping cheap stink bug traps in your storage area as the cold weather moves in and the critters seek shelter. Make one for cheap by following these instructions.

Hiking shoes

Hiking shoes are easy to store. If you have been cleaning them after every hike and keeping them dry and at room temperature when not in use, then you’re already doing most everything that you need to for storage.

Do not keep your hiking shoes out on the porch all winter. Although the mice and bugs will love you for it, the cold and lack of movement could cause the leather to crack. Instead, keep them inside and occasionally wear them.

Keep your hiking shoes in an airy spot with the laces loose and take out the inner sole. I like to powder them down with a good anti-fungal before putting them down for their long winter nap.

Note: Always dry your hikers at a normal temperature. The industrial glues holding your shoes together will degrade under high heat, shortening the life span of your favorite shoes.

Tents

Tents must be completely dry. Anything less and you will end up with green, brown and black highlights, suitable for penicillin manufacturing. Mice are not picky about whether they find their winter food in your backpack or in your tent, so clean your outside house completely. Just like your sleeping bag, store your tent loosely packed or hanging.

Hiking clothes

Clean, dry and sealed, should be your summer clothes packing mantra. This goes double for natural fibers such as wool. Bugs, and their larvae, love this stuff. While the dry cleaning process will kill them, so will putting them in a freezer for two or three days – and it’s free.

Clear plastic totes made to slide under your bed are fairly cheap and easy to see into if you have to find your favorite hiking shirt in the middle of winter. You can also use heavy plastic garbage bags, but make sure to seal them.

Note: Here are instructions for creating your own “Poor Man’s Space Bag.”

Generally speaking

Outside storage sheds, basements and attics are generally off limits for storage since they have all of the problems already mentioned, i.e., extreme temperatures, bugs, rodents and moisture.

Large plastic totes with separate freezer bags inside to divide your gear is a great way to store and organize all your other loose gear. But if any of this stuff is going to be where the freezing weather can get to it, remember, liquids will freeze. Nothing is worse than opening your treasure trove of outdoor gear in the spring and finding that your emergency stash of energy drinks have frozen and broken open, turning your other treasures into sticky, mildewed mush.

Note: Anything stored in a container with soap bars will smell like a soap bar when it comes out in the spring — and soap flavored granola is terrible.

Hugh Bouchelle is a freelance writer and Outdoor Club Adviser at Southern Virginia University. You can contact him at hugh.bouchelle@SVU.edu.

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