How to store your hiking sleeping bag

This short video shows you how to store your hiking sleeping bag – when you're hiking and at home, :

• To fit in his compression bag (very subtle technique). 
• To keep its insulating properties in time.

Introduction

Consider: The video is in France language, you can auto-translate it in whatever language you want.

Hello and welcome, here John L Goins from OutDoorSportsReview.com, and in this video, we'll see how to properly stow your hiking sleeping bag – whether it's hiking or at home when you don't use it, because it's not the same way. I will do a review to my hiking colleague video and make it clear and easily understandable for you. We will notably see how to fit it in his compression bag which is often very small and some good practices so that his sleeping bag keeps its insulating properties to the maximum in time. We start with random storage.

How to store the sleeping bag 

To store it in your rucksack, it is best to compress it as much as possible using the famous compression bag that is usually supplied with the sleeping bag when you buy it. You may be tempted to fold the sleeping bag or roll it to fit in its compression bag, but this is not necessarily the most effective technique if you want to be sure that it fits and above all, it risks damaging the lining at the level of the folds which will often be in the same place and which will create cold spots. 

The technique I recommend for storing your sleeping bag in the compression bag is a very subtle technique that requires a great deal of finesse. In a first step, it consists to open your sleeping bag if it is not already done (just open the zip), to loosen also the various settings if there are some (for example at the collar) and then you have your sleeping bag... I told you it is very subtle, you put it back like this by stuffing it gradually to the bottom. Get him into the compression bag. This way, in fact, the advantage is that the Folds will never be in the same place since you do it completely in bulk. 

There, you do it all the way, it's actually pretty easy depending on the compression bag and your sleeping bag. Necessarily manufacturers in general sell compression bags that are all small, so they can take a nice picture with a very small compression bag and even put very small and very small sizes for the sleeping bag once folded. You can see that once it's done, we're going to do it very finely, it's a very good way to get it in, and also not to damage her sleeping bag. You can also possibly do it directly with the sleeping bag closed, without opening the zip, and in that case, I advise you to start at the bottom of the sleeping bag so that the air can escape easily when you are stuffing it at the bottom of the compression bag.

Normally in this way, you will manage to fit any sleeping bag into its compression bag. But if you find it too small, you can buy a waterproof bag that will play a double role: compress and also protect from moisture. Here we see well, for example, this bag is a little larger, and it is a bag that once closed is waterproof and so it is quite convenient because it allows to store it easily and in addition, it protects from moisture.

Important to know

Now, one important thing to know is that you should keep your sleeping bag compressed as little as possible, because it may lose some of its swellings and therefore its ability to insulate you from the cold. This is true for sleeping bags made of down, like this one, but also those made of synthetic fibers, even if synthetic fibers are generally a little bit more tolerant than down at this level. When you are in a gold shelter, it is ideal to unpack your sleeping bag quickly once arrived and to spread it on your mattress so that it can return to the swelling, in addition, it will also allow you to be isolated from the cold for the night. And in the morning, it can be nice to put it away just before leaving, after breakfast, for example, having aerated it if the weather conditions allow it.

After Honestly, it's not a few more hours of compression or less that will make a big difference, it's mostly how you store it once you're not hiking – which brings me to the second point of this video.

As you have understood, you should not store your sleeping bag directly in your compression bag if you want it to remain efficient. Incidentally, take care of that when you buy a sleeping bag, whether in-store or used. 

I would not advise you to buy a sleeping bag that is already stored in its compression bag, whether it is on a shelf of a store or a seller brings you back from the back-Store, or even a sleeping bag that is pictured only compressed on a small ad.

The ideal is to store your sleeping bag in a dry and completely flat place, with nothing on it of course. Clearly, it's not very practical to store your sleeping bag flat because it takes up a lot of space. One might be tempted to hang it, by hanging it, or even to put it on a hanger, but it is not really ideal either because the lining is likely to move and shrink as time goes by. So it will no longer be well distributed and there may be cold spots. A good compromise if you can't keep it flat is to keep it in a ball without compressing it too much. I'll take it out to show you. You can just put it like this in a cupboard and it's already pretty good frankly, it's already a little compressed and besides, it takes less space than flat. Some sleeping bags have a storage bag or a storage bag that is provided with. 

This bag is much larger than the compression bag and is quite handy for storage. We see for example this one, once in the storage bag, it is not so compressed but it allows to have something that is easily " storable ". We see here, we have the storage bag, storage bag, which is quite bulky, we see it well in relation to this compression bag, it allows to store it easily. Besides, by putting it in bulk as I just did, there are no folds that create themselves there you put it in a wardrobe and it's tidy.  If you don't have a storage bag, you can take any bag, but in this case, be careful not to put it in a bag that is totally impermeable or to make sure that air can circulate. Otherwise, you can make yourself a storage bag with a cloth or net, or you can for example also put it in a bag cloth or a silk cloth if you have one.

So much for that little video, I hope it served you. If that's the case, feel free to put a little thumb in the air. You can also subscribe to the channel to be notified of upcoming videos. On this, I wish you good trekking and see you soon!