How do you store your wash mediums (grout sponge/sheepskin mitt/etc)?

I

imported_hockeyplaya13

New member
How do you all store your wash media in a way that prevents them from getting dirt/debris on them? I have to store mine outside in the garage, and have yet to come up with a successful way to store them that prevents dirt/debris from getting on them or from my family accidentally moving them and placing them on a filthy shelf and whatnot. What have you found effective? I've thought about, after cleaning it, letting it dry and storing it in a ziploc bag. But then sometimes I'm in a semi-time crunch when I was my car. Ex: I'll get off work and have 3 hours until I need to be somewhere. I'll clean the truck, which takes a good hour and a half when you include the time to get the soap/buckets/mitt/hose/towels/QD all ready, and then put it all away. Then I wash the wash mitt (ironic, right?), but it wouldn't be dry by the time I had to leave for my next appointment, so I'd have to leave it there when I was out, which I really don't like doing because a) There's no place in my garage that is clean enough and protected enough from dirt/debris that I could leave it and b) since I'd have to leave it in my house, if I put it on the counter in the laundry room, someone in my family would surely move it.



EDIT: And yes, I searched. Came up with nothing but the stores people buy wash mitts from. :/
 
I just dry it the best I can than put it into a gallon ziplock bag with it 90% "zipped" and that lets the water vapor out and still keeps it clean.



- LI 85
 
after whatever wash media i use is dry, i lay it on the grit guard. then i put the lid on top of the bucket and close it...
 
+1 for the five gallon bucket with lid. Also you might want to have atleast two wash mits for your situation to not be ready for your next detail, but yet again why does it need to be anything but clean for your next detail? It is going to just get wet again.
 
BigAl3 said:
after whatever wash media i use is dry, i lay it on the grit guard. then i put the lid on top of the bucket and close it...
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....this is what I do as well although I usually just set the lid on top leaving it slightly ajar. I simply store my extra/other ones in one of my cabinets. Product applicators are a different story (I keep those in zip lock bags in my cabinets).
 
I keep everything in separate zip-lock bags (towels,wash media,wax apps,foam pads) and I keep all those organized in wall cabinets according to how often I use them and what they are.





- LI 85
 
My regular-use wash media just stay in the wash/rinse buckets. I keep the shop/garage clean enough that they don't get contaminated. I don't mean to sound :nono but I'd be a little nervous about a shop that gets so dirty that it's a problem.
 
mrclrider said:
+1 for the five gallon bucket with lid.
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I use the 2 bucket method, one with a lid and one without. I keep them stacked together, one is for water (wash media rinse) and one is for soap...



Inside my bucket with the lid, I keep everything necessary for washing the exterior of the vehicles except the rims and wheel wells. I keep 2 extremely clean mitts, 4 extremely clean grout sponges, car wash soap and wheel cleaner.



Make sure you drill 3 or 4 holes in the top of your bucket lid to prevent the wash media from smelling stanky, rotting or mold



Then I carry another set of buckets like above, one is for tire dressing sponges which are placed in a zip lock and set in the bucket. It also stores my tire dressing and rubber gloves and it has a lid with no holes. The other bucket is used for rim cleaning/rinsing and I use it for dipping my ez-wheel brushes, boars hair round brush and toothbrushes as I work around the vehicle....this bucket gets nasty dirty....
 
mine gets washed after each wash then laid out in my house for a day or two to make sure its totally dried, then put away in a rubbermaid bin with a lid on it.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I don't think storing them in the buckets would work, even if the lid was on. Last summer I stored all my MF's in a 3-drawer thing, and by the end of the summer, somehow a bunch of crap had just managed to find its way into the drawers and get all over my MF's. It was a combination of dirt and leaf "crumbs". I have no idea how it happened, since they were always shut. I think I'm going to do ziploc bags, and maybe poke a needle sized hole to ventilate. If any dirt/debris can get in, well then it deserves to lol.



Accumulator said:
My regular-use wash media just stay in the wash/rinse buckets. I keep the shop/garage clean enough that they don't get contaminated. I don't mean to sound :nono but I'd be a little nervous about a shop that gets so dirty that it's a problem.
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Man, you're still around? :P I've pretty much left the forums and dropped detailing about 2 years ago when a) I didn't have time between school/work/extra-cirriculars to do it and b) I realized I wasn't going to be able to take my car to college this year and my parents would be driving/cleaning it. Now it's mine again, and this time for good, so I'm starting back up. Of the few people I remember from a couple years ago on here, you're one of them. Good to see you're still around sharing your wisdom. :)
 
The wash mitt goes into the washer with all MF towels, etc., and then it is placed on the top of a drying rack until I use it again.
 
hockeyplaya13 said:
..Man, you're still around? :P I've pretty much left the forums and dropped detailing about 2 years ago when a) I didn't have time between school/work/extra-cirriculars to do it and b) I realized I wasn't going to be able to take my car to college this year and my parents would be driving/cleaning it. Now it's mine again, and this time for good, so I'm starting back up...
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Glad you were busy prioritizing your education and not worrying about detailing the car ;) And yeah...I'm still here :wavey
 
I am reading that most of you either hang dry or put your washing mitts or whatever you use on a rack to dry. I would be worried about dust and dirt geting embedded in the fibers of the wash mitts, that is the reason I use zip-lock bags. Aren't you guys worried about micro-marring the finish of your car when you wash it/ONR it?



After everywash I intensely wash out my sponge or throw it in the washing machine with the rest of my microfibers so it is clean and ready for the next wash. I may be a little OCD:confused:.





- LI 85
 
LICamaro85 said:
I am reading that most of you either hang dry or put your washing mitts or whatever you use on a rack to dry. I would be worried about dust and dirt geting embedded in the fibers of the wash mitts, that is the reason I use zip-lock bags. Aren't you guys worried about micro-marring the finish of your car when you wash it/ONR it?



After everywash I intensely wash out my sponge or throw it in the washing machine with the rest of my microfibers so it is clean and ready for the next wash. I may be a little OCD:confused:.





- LI 85
Click to expand...

....could be since I see you mentioned this several times already in this thread alone. ;)



Personally, while I don’t necessarily hang dry or leave my wash media out in the “open”, I’m also not that concerned about it. After rinsing out my wash bucket and media, I simply drop it back into the bucket (with a Grit guard in the bottom), wheel it back into its spot against the wall and leave the lid either off or ajar on top (the latter if I won't be using it the next day). I’m not really worried about dust or small dirt particles carried through the air that may settle on my media or my brushes for that matter (which I leave hanging on my wall or in my cabinets). Even so, I re-rinse everything (bucket, wash media, brushes) before each use simply as a precaution. The dirt/contaminants I encounter while I wash my vehicles are far more of a concern to me than dust that may be swirling in the air in my garage. …which I keep relatively clean since it is rinsed out after every wash (I clean & dry my cars inside). If my garage were a dirtier environment, it would likely be a different story.

 
After a wash, I immediately wash my mitt (now a grout sponge) & mf towels with mf detergent. The wheel mitt stays out of the wash.



I dont know how to care for my sponge. Ive thrown it in the wash 3 times now, and I know it wont survive another 2 washes.



When the wash cycle is finished, the towels go into the dryer with no softener sheets, and lint tray cleaned out.



Heres my secret for "contaminant free" wash media. I steal rolls of plastic bags from the supermarket produce section. I put a whole roll in my shopping cart, and just leave it in there when I check out.



The sponge gets a good squeeze after the washing machine, and goes into a plastic bag, with the end open. It'll take 2 days to dry.



The dry mf towels will go into a bag as well, until I can take the time to fold them and put them into dedicated rubbermaid containers, which are in the garage.



i have a towel container, wash container, and paint correction/lsp etc container.
 
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