Although we have a wet weather porch in our large tent that we remove shoes in (including our 3 year old) we also take our Dirt Trapper door mats from home (particularly useful for the smaller tents which don't have a porch). They are excellent at removing moisture and dirt from shoes and get better with machine washing. Had them over 5 years now at home and still perfect. Not cheap but given their performance they're good value.We have also just bought a foldable washing up bowl to stand just inside the tent for putting dirty footwear in.
Sorry can't advise on cleaning a carpet as we haven't needed to so far.
Last year when we had the monty with carpet, we took a old sheet to put on top the carpet simply to keep the carpet clean!! No so footwear that had been worn outside was allowed inside! This year we have the trailer tent and a ground sheet with no carpet, lol how much more we enjoyed not having worry about getting the carpet dirty!! Shoes still had to come off, but we were more relaxed about the girls eating and drinking in the tent!
------------- KIM.
2013 Season.
Upgraded from a TT to a caravan.
Loving it!
Roll on summer :-)
All shoes off at the door of the tent no matter what with ours - even on those hot sunny days!!
We have mats by the door, like others - sometimes I leave a collapable crates (on one of the big bags for life) by the door so footwear can be just chucked in there .
When we pack up I tent to get everything together inside and get the carpet up, our, shaken down and folded before all the trapsing in and out starts when the weather is bad.
When un-packing and packing up - its one adult inside the tent and one outside doing a pass the parcel so that dirt doesn't get walked in. Also use easy to slip on and off footwear - clogs - if we do need to cross the threshold. Our 3 year old is either kept inside or banned from the tent and hopefully persuaded to help.
We have a couple of those magic carpet mats for the entrances. They work really well. We also have a few of those picnic blankets from the pound shop that the put over the carpet if the weather's really bad. That way the carpet rarely gets too mucky....
We put picnic rugs over the carpet in key places and definatly no shoes on in the tent.... our kids are used to that as we have no shoes on in the house either (german custom)!!! but with 3 boys a useful one!!!! Last year I folded the edge of the carpet that was by the entrance down and under the rest of the carpet so that the immediate entrance to the tent was just groundsheet. This made it easier when doing the occasional sweep of the carpet... you could sweep all the bits onto the groundsheet bit and then swwep them into the dustpan!!!! We also lived in crocs.... very important piece of camping equipment!!!
when packing up we packed the carpet first so then it was done...we felt we were actually making packing headway that way rather than feeling we were just moving the same articles around
It is quite stressful when the carpet looks so new I am aso terrifed of spillages which is a bit silly....have found however that most things clean off quite easily!!!!
I love the look and feel of the carpet and thats just doung 2 1 nighters ,1 in the amazon in the garden and the latest in the TT, we decided to keep the footprint and carpet from our amazon for the TT.
I have a small piece of tarpaulin i'm planning to peg outside the door and a carpet off cut for inside the doorway,A folding crate just inside the doorway for shoes too.
If their is spillages i won't shout out these things happen no 1 intentionally spills their drink ,the last thing they need is here is your drink and don't spill it,bless accidents happen but i'm hoping the removal of shoes will help with general wear and tear.
Gee that sounds so loving i must have remembered to take my meds lol
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Karla-------Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.It's about learning to dance in the rain.
Quote: Originally posted by floggitt on 10/5/2010
Thought a wetvac like a vax would have no problem cleaning it up, maybe you could borrow one from a friend. Worst case pressure wash it then hang up to dry.
Have I got the wrong end of the stick...
It's bad anough taking dust pan & brush, but to take a vax & pressure washer away with you to keep the carpet clean.....what ever next?...'GLAMPING'?
I would say that further training is needed that people learn to take their shoes off before going into the tent. It does not matter if there is a carpet in there or groundsheet the same amount of mud would come into the tent and its hard work cleanign things up on site as the mud then seems to want to attach itself to everything. I love having carpet in tents one of my little luxuries and as others have siad if they do get dirty just let them dry and you can usually just brush the mud off. I have a spare piece of carpet which I use for the dog to lie on outside. It not only stops the damp from getting him cold it also helps keeping him clean by not lying in the mud. It goes without saying it would be much better if we don't have muddy conditions in the first place but in this country anything can happen
Why not just shout 'MUD' as someone enters the tent, or if it's wet hang a notice on the front,.. 'Remember Mud'..
No need for 'TRAINING', we ARE away from home on a 'Break' even if the O.H or Kids/Siblings are with us, CHILL OUT..
can they go in the washing machine ? i dont know has anyone put theres in and is it ok afterwards ,like i mentioned earlier in thread laundrette with big machines
Morrisons, were doing foldaway picnic rugs for £6.00 reduced by 50% last week!! So only £3.00 each. We have bought 2 and they are approx 1.5m x 1.5m so intend to use them as a carpeted/soft area inside the tent this season.
Hopefully we have a great summer and wont have to worry about wet and mud! ....YEAH RIGHT!!!