How a little camp chair care saved our caravan interior
Storing camp chairs in your van? Here’s how we mitigate against mould in our RV and deal with campfire smells.
Campfires soothed our soul amid a spate of September ‘loves me, loves me not’ weather. And on our four-day stay on the GOR tucked in our new padded moon chairs, we were deliciously warm.
But warmth came with a hidden cost – smokey smells that affected our caravan interiors once the trip was over.
To take care of them, we usually tuck our camp chairs under the awning in our or annexe at night, air them when wet, clean spills with water-based wipes as they occur and return them to their covers at the end of our trip, a good habit Brian’s instilling in the kids – and that is that, or so I thought.
Holey Smokes: How campfire smoke affects your camp chairs
We only realised we had an issue when we got home to a smokey stench inside our van last trip, where our camp chairs go. We quickly removed the offenders – our new padded moon chairs – before they smoked out our camper’s upholstery. After a day’s airing, our regular camp chairs were fine but our moon chairs still stank so we moved them into the garage by the mower till we got it resolved.
Odour Neutralisers for Caravan Upholstery
We love campfire smells but stale smoke molecules don’t belong in our van. They do break down pretty easily with odour neutralisers (usually protein enzymes) found in generic odour eating air fresheners or even vinegar, according to the webs, if you air it in a bowl with the affected furniture indoors. But air fresheners can leave a sticky residue on surfaces. And as for using vinegar, well, I don’t want smokey camp chairs in the van – why would I have them in the home?
Fabric-safe smoke smell solutions for camp chairs
To protect the chairs’ water-resistant properties I followed the care label, avoiding detergents as indicated – so upholstery shampoos were out. Fortunately, Britex makes an Aussie-made spray-on and forget ‘odour eater’ suitable for most fabrics that’s scent free. I tested the chairs for colour fastness, sprayed as recommended, airing them till they dried and it seemed to work well. Now the moon chairs were no longer smokey, we repacked them into our van for our next camp.
Mitigating moisture in your caravan
This was the perfect time to top up our DampRid moisture absorber before refitting our caravan cover. Given this limited protection on our van’s ageing seams, I use Green Goo moisture absorber as well. After two years in Melbourne, this multi-pronged strategy appears to have saved us from any nasty surprises when we’ve opened up the caravan so far. While I have been impressed with our cover’s performance, it’s starting to perish. A new one is on the cards.
