How to Care for Your Tent: Maintenance and Cleaning Tips

As your home away from home, it’s important to take good care of your tent during camping trips. If you want to ensure that it keeps you protected against all the harsh elements and weather conditions outside, setting up, maintaining and cleaning your tent properly is absolutely essential.

Below, we’ve provided you with some great tips on how to care for your tents and shelters:

1. Take Your Time Setting It Up

Once you arrive to your campsite, you’ll probably be bursting to set up your tent and get your campsite ready to rock n’ roll. But regardless of how keen you are, it’s important to take your time when it comes to setting up your tent- especially if you’re just a beginner. Find a flat spot free of sticks, stones and other debris that could poke a hole in your tent. Also, try to avoid pitching your tent in an area with a lot of dying trees. If the trees are dying, their branches could drop on your tent without warning, and potentially cause injury to you or someone else.

2. Eat Food Outside

Although you might be used to eating the odd meal or some sneaky snacks in your bedroom at home, it’s best to enjoy food by the campfire or at a picnic table, if you want to avoid getting your tent unnecessarily dirty. You don’t want to be dealing with annoying spills and stains (that you might not even realise are there until later on). You can bring a bottle of water inside for when you get thirsty during the night, but hot chocolate, soft drinks and alcohol are best left for consuming outdoors.

3. Take Off Shoes and Other Dirty Gear Before Entering

You’ll be doing all sorts of activities out on your camping trip, and depending on where it is you venture, you’re likely to be walking over a lot of different terrains and getting your shoes and clothes absolutely filthy. Bringing dirty shoes and sweaty gear into your tent will only make it smelly and give you more cleaning work to do later on. And sharp objects like rocks can also get stuck in your shoes and cause damage to your tent’s flooring as well. That’s why it’s better to leave your shoes and sweaty jackets outside, and instead, wear thick socks at all times while you’re relaxing inside your tent.

4. Go Easy on the Zipper

Zipping up your tent whenever you come in and exit out is the best way to prevent debris and insects from outside from making their way in. However, sometimes the zipper can get stuck. If this happens, you may feel urged to yank the zipper with force. But be warned that doing so can damage the fabric that it’s caught in- and you don’t want to be dealing with a hole in your tent, which will allow everything from the outside to get in. If you find that being gentle with your zipper isn’t helping either, consider using a pair of pliers to try and pull it free. You might need to replace the zipper if it’s acting up constantly.

5. Clean it After Use

When it comes time to leave your campsite, make sure that you give your tent a quick clean before packing it away. First, give it a shake and a sweep to remove any excess dirty or debris. After that, you can spot clean extra dirty areas using a sponge, water and some mild dishwashing liquid. You should avoid using abrasive cleaners, as this can damage the tent’s fabric.

6. Let it Dry Before Packing It Away

If your tent is wet from rainfall or after being washed, you have to make sure that it’s dry before packing it away. Remember that packing your tent away while it’s wet can encourage mould growth, which you’ll have to remove. If you absolutely have to pack your tent away while it’s still wet, make sure that you unpack it to dry as soon as possible later on.

Get High-Quality Tents and Accessories from Supex Products

Heading off on an outdoor adventure? At Supex Products, we provide a wide range of tents and shelters, along with tent pegs, poles and other accessories, made to withstand against the harsh Australian conditions. No matter whether you’re going camping in the summer, winter, or anytime in-between, our products ensure to make camping in the great outdoors as easy and enjoyable as possible.

To discover our range of tents and other camping accessories, head into your nearest Supex Stockist today!