Sleeping Bag Liners

Kevin Peregoy, a Boy Scout, loves his sleeping bag liner

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If your kids are anything like mine, they get dirty when they go camping. And I mean dirty. Like something out of a Tide commercial.

And then what happens?

They probably don't wash much — or at all — before crawling into their sleeping bags.

If you're like me, you probably don't relish the idea of washing your family's bulky sleeping bags too often. But when you think about how dirty sleeping bags get trip after trip, year after year, you'll quickly get the creeps.

What's the solution?

Make a sleeping bag liner. They're an easy and inexpensive project. They act as a sheet, so all your brood's dirt will transfer directly onto them, not the sleeping bag. What's more, a liner is a snap to throw in the washer and dryer.

The liner is also the perfect solution for those steamy nights when a sleeping bag is much too hot to crawl into, and yet you want a little bit of something covering your body. Use your sleeping bag as a mattress, then crawl into a liner on top, and you should be just right — not too hot, not too cold.

Let Sleeping Scouts Lie

I first heard of these from my sister-in-law, Amy, and her scouting experiences. The first liner they had was made out of bed sheets.

One year, however, when Amy's husband was a scoutmaster, one of his scouts was from a military family. This family gave each of the boys a military sleeping bag liner, made from a slightly heavier material than a sheet. These liners held up better to the rigors of yearly camping trips.

Amy reports that her teenage son, Kevin, loves the liners:"Kevinlikes his in summer when he uses it instead of a sleeping bag. I don't think he has ever actually put his inside of his sleeping bag as a liner — he's used it as an alternative instead."