Keeping children’s sports equipment clean.

Now here’s an untapped market that somebody could make an inordinate amount of money off of. A way to actually clean sports equipment without ruining it, and taking away completely the stench of old sweat, and bacteria. I have so far tried Lysol wipes, lemon scented and non scented, Microban 3000 (the stuff for stank ass shoes) and Febreeze of any sort of scent, and the anti bacterial version. Nothing much seems to work. I once, many  years ago attempted to run it through the wash but that ruined all of the Velcro, and the stiffness of the protective padding. I have heard of other soaking them in a mild bleach solution, and hanging them to dry over a period of days, but that’s only good in the summer (if it works at all).

I’m at a loss because as the groups of kids get older the gear smells worse and worse. These combat weeks make the studio stink so bad you can smell all that sweat soaked gear from eight feet out the door. Yikes. It’s an unholy, cloying, cling to your nostrils stink. It’s alive. A biological weapon of youth sports proportions!

Right now 8 have my daughter’s gear drying on the back deck after drenching it in anti bacterial Febreeze. Not that I noticed any lessening of the odor after she used it yesterday. Airing them out on the back deck only works briefly either. I bought an odor eater pod to go in the back but that had a reach of about one centimeter, so not great. I layered Bounce dryer sheets on the bottom of the bag to attempt to draw away some smelliness, but that failed to work too.

In more of the same old news I completed 90 minutes of wood splitting today. I am starting to see some gaps in the wood pile, so that’s encouraging. I had to bust out the metal splitting wedge a few times today because a couple of logs were very fibrous and knotty. Must have been pine with how many nubbed off limbs each log has sprouting from it. I nearly embedded the wedge entirely into the log with nary a split in sight, until with my last whack it gave way, and popped open. I was starting to get worried I had just lost my wedge on the third log I’d ever used it on.

Luckily my kids never played hockey, or football so we haven’t had much by way of smelly equipment to deal with over the years. But now that we are getting much closer to black belt territory, and my daughter is getting older, the stinky equipment phenomenon has appeared! Even the hockey skates, and soccer cleats/shin pad combo never smelled this bad. It’s a new age for us I suppose. Preteen kids and their odorous sports gear. Welcome to parenthood, where everything is sticky, it all costs money, and those smells linger and cling to everything. Enjoy!