Spring Clean Your Fitness Gear

This year in Houston we had a sort of brief and delayed spring, followed already by summer! Nonetheless, I’m bringing you a three part series about spring cleaning your fitness gear (today), spring cleaning for healthy eating, and one more extra-important fit spring cleaning tip that you might never have done before.

I’ve written before about how to clean your workout gear and how to make some DIY shoe fresheners, but this post is about a once- or twice-a-year deeper clean for your fitness gear.

Declutter Your Workout Clothes

First, let’s declutter our workout clothes.  I’m a huge fan of the Konmari method for organizing, which starts with taking out every item of a certain category and putting it all in one big pile.  So, I invite you to take out all of your workout clothing – tanks and other tops, leggings, crops, sport bras, socks, accessories like hats or sweatbands, and sneakers – but not your “athleisure” clothing that you wear on brunch-and-not-yoga Sundays, just the stuff that you actually sweat in.

Once your pile is ready, take out the things that you love to wear and put them back in your drawer or closet. Take everything else and bag it up to donate!

If you’re not ready to live a life you love (are you sure?!), make sure you don’t put anything back into your drawer that’s too dingy, stretched out, or full of holes for you to wear it…you really won’t need those clothes “someday”.  As a compromise, why not just keep the things you love that feel great to wear, plus one full extra outfit of your no-longer-favorites that can live in the trunk of your car so you’re always ready to work out?  (You can also use your dead socks to make some shoe fresheners!)

Deep Clean Your Workout Clothes

Now that you’ve sorted out your favorite keeper clothes, give them a quick refresh to remove any gym odors and other funk that might be hanging around.

1. While stretchy clothes should normally be washed in cold water to avoid damaging their fibers, at least once or twice a year I cheat and wash all of my workout clothes in hot water to make sure all bacteria and oils are gone.
2. For stubborn spots or smells, I use a splash of Bac-Out, an enzyme cleaner that eats organic compounds, directly on the mess.  (It’s also great for pet and baby messes.)
3. For dingy or yellowed clothes (hey, gray socks!), I use an oxygen bleach according to the package’s directions.
4. For yellow underarm stains left by the aluminum in your deodorant (gross, right?), I’ve had success using the peroxide, dish soap/castile soap, and baking soda method like it’s described in this post.
5. For extra backup, I dry my clothes in the sun.  While humid Houston weather might not leave them “meadow fresh”, the sun still does its job of brightening and removing the last traces of mystery mess.

Some general laundry tips for your workout clothes:

• Never use fabric softener on wicking fabrics! By coating the fabric, you’re basically “clogging its pores” and making it act more like a plastic bag that keeps the sweat against you rather than pulling it away to keep you cool, dry, and comfortable.
• Sport detergents with Febreze just make you smell like stink + air freshener to everyone else. I’m sorry to break it to you this way, but Febreze doesn’t clean your clothes, and the odor-blocking benefits both fade away when you get warm and only work within a small radius (like enough to keep you, the wearer, from noticing).  Mean trick, isn’t it?
• If the 5-step process for deep cleaning above doesn’t work, or if you notice that your skin breaks out every time you wear a certain item, just get rid of that piece! Synthetic fibers hold in the stink after a while, especially if it has baked in by sitting for days before getting washed.

Deep Clean Your Workout Shoes

I have never put shoes in the washing machine, but I know some people love to do it!  One day I’ll be brave, try it, and report back.

Meanwhile, here are some things that I do do to deep clean my workout shoes.

1. Wash or replace the removable insoles – I either throw them in a delicates bag and wash them (but line dry to avoid melting the glue) or just replace them altogether.
2. I use these tips to clean the rest of the shoe – whitening the laces, soles and trim is so satisfying, and it doesn’t take much effort.
3. Good old sunshine can really help here, too! In fact, it’s not a bad idea to let your shoes rest in the sun once a month if you do really sweaty sports (like running) or classes (like Zumba), or if you’re not a fan of socks.

Declutter Your Fitness Equipment

That box of tangled stretchy bands from the infomercial that you’ve never managed to use? Adios!

The ab thing your friend gave you when she was moving that has an inch of dust on it? Pass it along so it can gather new dust with a new friend.

If you’re not using it, and you haven’t used it in two years, sell it or give it away.  Keep it simple.

While we’re at it, the same goes for gym memberships…if you haven’t used yours in over a year, freeze or cancel it.  If that sentence makes you sad, challenge yourself to use your membership at least one a week for the next 6 weeks!

Deep Clean Your Fitness Equipment

Whatever you have left after your purge, let’s clean and sanitize it!  These tips are for home use, not for a gym where the sweat and grime can get a leeeetle bit beyond these tips.

For hard equipment (weights, kettlebells, and anything made of hard, non-porous plastic), clean with a microfiber cloth and a spray that’s 4 parts water, 1 parts white vinegar, and 1 part dish soap.  Then, sanitize with a disinfecting wipe or spray of your choice and let it dry – don’t wipe off that sanitizer or it won’t do its job.

For porous equipment like natural rubber (check your dumbbells to see what they’re made of! bleaching or using alcohol on rubber can ruin it), stability balls, yoga mats, the handles on your treadmill/elliptical trainer, and stretchy bands, clean with the same mixture as above (water, vinegar, and dish soap), but add an extra wipe with plain water afterward to remove the vinegar scent.  Sanitize by spraying or wiping with a mix of 4 parts water to 1 part vinegar and let it dry.  Hooray, your gear now smells like vinegar!  Oh, wait…remove that smell the next day by wiping your equipment with water or placing it in the sun for about 30 minutes.

Wait, I didn’t add any essential oils to my homemade cleaners!  That’s because many of them will interfere with your cleaning process…so feel free to scent away, but if you’re not an essential oils pro, stick to lavender or tea tree and avoid all citrus oils, as they can break down both hard and soft plastics.

Freshen Your Home Gym

If you have a home gym space that’s not-so-fresh, leaving a bowl of white vinegar in the room will remove the odor!  For maintenance, a bowl of ground coffee stashed in a corner will do the same thing (and smell better than the vinegar)…just be sure to replace it every month to avoid mold.

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What are your favorite cleaning tips for workout clothes and equipment? Or what do you need help cleaning?  Leave a comment and let us know!