How to store a sponge?

After reading Chris Kavanaugh's story on the survival story section, I've added a couple sponges to my kit...but how do you store them? Just toss them in, in a bag, clean them first?

thanks for the help
Brad

Just toss them into a ziplock bag.

(Uh.... you're supposed to clean them??? Does that include the one I used on the cats' litter box? Ah... shucks!) <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

'Pup

Firgured so but the ones I bought are fresh out of the package. Kinda wondered about how clean they could be right now.

Scared to wash them out, then put them in a bag since they may mold. Maybe wash them, let them dry for a few days in the hot garage, then bag them up.

thanks

Your best bet would be to look around (any number of Dollar stores) and find the compressed sponges that they all seem to carry or pick up a freebe (it's an election year, I've seen them handed out as promo's) or three and use those <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />. They'll take up a lot less room in your kit and they're clean & sterile (?) when you get them. If you ever need to use them, repackaging isn't your most important issue, and when you get back to a "normal" situation, you can replace them with new ones <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

Just my two cents worth.

Troy

FYI here's a post from a while back about storing sponges...

http://www.equipped.org/ubbthreads/showt...=true#Post12746

Sponge Cloth, great !! Never knew it existed. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll go by Albertson's on the way home

Sponge cloth is a new one on me too. But you can take a little chunk of a regular sponge and shrink/seal it with your vacuum sealer (EVERYONE should have one of those things). Makes it pretty small, keeps it dry and clean, ready to pop up when it hits water...

Yea, that story about collecting water from dew got me looking for a sponge-type solution, too. Yesterday I bought "The Absorber" -- a synthetic chamois. It is tough, very absorbent, kindof a cross between a cloth and a sponge. When dry it is like a piece of lightweight cardboard. It wrings out easily. I cut a piece to include in my fanny-pack EDC kit, and plan to cut other pieces for the car kits. What's left will make a good camping towel, a use to which I've seen it applied successfully. I got the salmon-pink version to double as a signal, e.g. tied to a stick outside an improvised snow shelter.

BTW I learned about "The Absorber" at a cool site called "Keven Kelly Cool Tools" at http://www.kk.org/cooltools/ . It has sections on "Homestead" and "Outdoors" (including a review of Doug's Pocket Survival Pack!) The "Absorber" review is at http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000381.php

Disclaimer: no connections to the product or the site, but I like 'em both! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Steve

I'm using a sponge that's intended to go with a wet palette. You get it at an art store, in the painting supplies. Buy just the refills, not the whole wet-palette system (unless you paint with acrylics and want to try it). It comes as a thin sheet, about 1/16 of an inch. When you get it wet, it expands to about 1/4 inch. I don't think it shrinks back down again when it dries, like other cellulose sponges. I've cut out a piece for my kit that when folded in half fits in a Ziploc "Snack" sized bag.