The Soak

So after a few months, it was time to clean my hockey stuff. Previously, I soaked my stuff in a warm bath with a cup of bleach. This was great in getting rid of the smell and cleaning my stuff, but it ended up destroying the palms of my gloves, which was a costly replacement. After a little more research, I decided upon a borax wash. Apparently, it is advertised as a laundry detergent enhancer and all-around light cleaner. Here's the stuff:

http://www.20muleteamlaundry.com/

So I made my way to Walmart, picked up a box of borax, and dropped a cup of the powder into a half tub of warm water. I put my stuff in, let it soak for a bout 20 minutes with a few check-ups to push everything around, and rinsed it all off. I was weary about my hockey gloves, so I left them out. I might try them next time. After a rinsing, I left them hanging to drip out.

As of now, they are post-soaking and outside to dry. Initial impressions are that the smell is gone and the foam and cloth seems to have held up. Apparently, borax is easier on clothing than bleach. It forms hydrogen peroxide in water, which is a nice little anti-microbial. If this works out as planned, I think I'll have a new routine to keep everything shiny and fresh without the concern for ruining all my pads.

In other news, my flight is booked for Philadelphia. The one nice thing is that Virgin America has four direct SFO-PHL flights a day, so we should be able to travel nicely between coasts. This is mark my second flight with Virgin. The last one was a few months after they started the airline; I hope they fixed the in-flight entertainment system.