Why oh why oh why do sleeping bag manufacturers think that normal people will be able to get a sleeping bag back into the storage bag that one of their compressing machines could just about squeeze it into. We don’t use sleeping bags in the caravan but every year I go away on a residential trip in February/March with a youth club I help out at. We stay in an outdoor pursuits centre, and last year I was absolutely freezing, so I decided to get a new, much heavier sleeping bag for this year. I ended up choosing a Sunncamp sleeping bag as I wanted a cotton outside rather than the more common nylon outside that my current sleeping bag has as I find the nylon very slippery. The Sunncamp one I bought seems great and I am generally very happy with it but after unpacking it to check it over when it arrived, I was completely unable to get it back in its storage bag. I rolled it as tight as I could and even with my not insubstantial body weight holding it down, it was still too big to get into the cover. Fortunately, we had a vacuum storage bag that was just the right size, so I am using it instead, but it is very frustrating that the manufacturers don’t consider the ease of getting it back in the storage bag when they make them.
Apart from when travelling, sleeping bags should not be kept tightly rolled or packed in the bag, otherwise the filling will lose its ability to expand and fluff out properly.
Ha, well, as campers we all know that things always expand to fill the space available!
I end up making new bags for all sorts of things. Sometimes we find that a bungee tied round first will compress the item sufficiently, or make a bag unnecessary. And then the unused bags can be reused for other things. Sometimes a packing cube shape is better than the round duffel bag shape too. Or what about a normal pillow case and pack your sleeping bag flat?
I get my down sleeping bag back into its own bag just fine. I don’t roll it, I zip it up & start to stuff it in, starting at one end, a bit like some folks suck in their spaghetti. Once it’s as far in as I can poke it, I sit down, get hold of the open neck of the bag with both hands & use one foot to push the rest in, then use the spring clip to hold it closed before it escapes. Far more strength in a leg than an arm. The bag is small for packing away & the technique has worked for me for 50 years.
When I was a tenter, I used a stuffed sack for my two feather and down duvets, a 7.5 Tog and a 4.5 Tog that can be joined together as a 12 Tog duvet.
It worked, however, it was hard work trying to stuff them down.
Hence I did not like the idea of having to pack and unpack the bedding every morning and night, which was one of the design must-have for the bedding to stay in situ on the dropdown bed.
If there is sufficient space, I would probably have a custom bag made by Bags for Everything, which was what I did with a tent bag for my ESVO Bedouin 340 and most recently, for a shade for my roll-out Fiamma awning as the box it came it was very tatty.
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I have just ordered a bigger bag to store it in. This has handles so should be easier to transport than the vacuum bag I have it in at the minute. Hopefully this will be a good solution!
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 19/1/2025
I get my down sleeping bag back into its own bag just fine. I don’t roll it, I zip it up & start to stuff it in, starting at one end, a bit like some folks suck in their spaghetti. Once it’s as far in as I can poke it, I sit down, get hold of the open neck of the bag with both hands & use one foot to push the rest in, then use the spring clip to hold it closed before it escapes. Far more strength in a leg than an arm. The bag is small for packing away & the technique has worked for me for 50 years.
I also stuff mine into its bag. I start with the base then sort of spiral it around the bag as it goes and haven't needed to use my foot. I was taught this method in an outdoor shop many years ago.
I also stuff them, but it's hard, especially on my fingernails!
You aren't supposed to store them stuffed either, it's just to make them as compact as possible for transport, so if you don't need to make it as small as possible don't try, it's not worth it!
I store my down bags in oversize mesh sacks so they aren't compressed all the time and can air. For travel they get stuffed into a compression sack, handful by handful. Once the tent is up it is put out to loft.
Just come across something I never knew existed, but may benefit those that struggle to repack sleeping bags! Someone was offering one on local Freegle, which brought it to my attention.
You can get 'compression bags' for sleeping bags, bit like oversize holdalls for tents and awnings, where you pack fairly loosely, then tighten the webbing compression straps to reduce the pack volume. Loads available, Google 'compression bags for sleeping bags' to see what's out there.
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Topic: Sleeping Bag Storage Bags
via mobile 19/1/2025 at 7:56pm
