Camp Gear Has Two States: In Use, and Rotting Quietly in a Tote

Camp gear has two states: in use, and rotting quietly in a tote. The tent that got folded wet in October is the tent that smells like a basement in March. Here's the put-up routine that keeps gear from turning on you between trips.

1. Unpack it at home, not at the next trip

Everything comes out of the truck and gets opened up within a day of getting home. Tent, tarp, chairs, sleeping bags, the cooler. Ninety percent of ruined gear was ruined by being stored damp and forgotten, not by anything that happened at camp.

2. The tent: set it up, wash it, dry it completely

Pitch it in the yard or lay it flat. Sponge or soft-brush Tent & Canvas Wash over the fly, the body, and the floor — especially the floor — then rinse thoroughly with the hose. Never machine-wash a tent; it shreds the coating. Let it dry until it's dry, then another hour. Then it goes in the bag, loose, not stuffed tight.

3. Everything that smells like the fire

Chairs, packs, sleeping bags, the camp dog's bed, the hoodie you slept in: Smoke & Camp Odor Gear Rinse, sprayed or sponged on, let it work, rinse or wipe, dry outside. It goes after the smoke at the source instead of layering pine-tree scent on top of campfire. Sleeping bags dry flat in the shade.

4. The cooler ceremony

You know which one. Drain it, Cooler & Game Gear Rinse on the inside, the drain channel, and the lid gasket — that gasket is the funk's home address — rinse, and store it with the lid cracked. A cooler stored closed is a cooler you'll be scared to open in May.

5. Boots and waders

Hose the mud, Boot & Wader Wash with a brush, rinse, and hang them to dry inside and out. Waders stored wet are waders that leak next season.

6. The tote test

Before anything goes in the tote for the season: is it dry? Is it clean? Does it smell like nothing? If the answer to all three is yes, it goes in. If not, it goes back to step two. This is the whole system.

The Camp & Cabin lineup is blended in Water Valley, Mississippi, by people whose deer camp is a tent, a tarp, and a series of decisions.