How to clean playa dust off gear

The MOOP note is the hex: matter out of place, the bags, the bucket, the stake you meant to pull. This page starts when that sweep is done and the dust is still on everything you are about to put in a car, a garage, and a washing machine. The dust note introduced the blower and the vinegar. This is the order we use them in, from the playa to the driveway, without turning a house into a second playa.

Playa dust is fine and alkaline. It packs zippers, scratches lenses, and cakes anywhere you were sweating. Water feels like the obvious cleaner and then makes a paste that dries into a film. Vinegar is what we came back to for the film. The blower is what gets the loose flour out of a sleeping bag, a bin, and a floor mat before any liquid touches them.

We are an independent outfitter. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Burning Man Project. The event name is used so you know which week this gear is for.

The hex, before the gear

The Survival Guide asks you to line up arm's width apart and walk the camp, picking up what does not belong, before setup, during the week, and after. Before you leave, they want that grid again, shoulder to shoulder, plus a magnet bar or a rake for a final pass. Tent stakes, they say, are now the leading source of moop, and they are dangerous. Account for every lag, every rebar, every cap. A magnetic sweeper finds steel. It does not find aluminum tent stakes, glass, zip ties, or ash. Those still need eyes and a low rake of light. Thick bags hold what you pick up. A grocery sack splits.

They also ask citizens for two hours of cleanup beyond their own camp, with Earth Guardians as the people who can point you at a project. Do that while you still have a crew. A spotless car with a dirty hex behind it is a failure. Their guide is equally plain that you do not dump the bags in the towns on the way out. Leaving no trace does not end at the pavement.

Zip-tie tails, tape bits, and ash go in the bag as you find them, which should have been happening all week. The easiest moop to remove is the thing you decided not to bring. If it is already on the ground, it leaves with you. Recycle Camp takes crushed aluminum cans, and their guide is specific about the hours and about refusing plastic, tin, and steel. Miss the window and the cans come home too.

Blow it, outside, downwind

The handheld blower is how the flour leaves a sleeping bag, a shade cloth, a bin, and the floor of the car. The one we use takes a DeWalt 20-volt pack. The same blower is sold for other platforms. Match the battery to the foot. If you do not own the tools, the compatible pack and charger is the other half. Charge it before you need it on the way out. A dead blower in a windy pullout is a broom you do not have.

Goggles on. Blow downwind. Not into the tent next door, and not into your own open car if you have not thought about where the cloud lands. The concentrator tip is for a zipper track. The wider tip is for a floor mat. Shake the cot rails before you fold them or you will grind alkali into the frame until next year. Deflate the air bed and bag it so it does not become a dust balloon in the back seat. Shade cloth gets a blow and a shake, then a bag, not stuffed loose into the trunk where it sheds dust onto the highway.

Do this before you arrive at a house. A garage with the door open, or a driveway, is the right room. A hallway is how the dust moves into the place you sleep the other fifty-one weeks. If a neighbor is downwind, wait or aim somewhere else. The same manners as on playa.

Vinegar on the film, water where it belongs

Once the loose dust is gone, white vinegar in a spray bottle cuts the remaining film on bikes, bins, car panels, and skin you tolerate it on. Wipe with a rag you are willing to throw in the laundry. Do not mix vinegar with bleach. Keep it off sealed electronics and off screens. The gallon you brought is the same gallon. Label it so it never gets drunk.

The bike chain is a different job from the frame. Blow the dust off, then wipe the chain, then a fresh pass of dry lube if you are putting the bike away clean. Wet oil and the dust that is still in the links will make paste again. The frame can take vinegar on a rag. The brake pads and the rotors should not get an oily rag. If you are not sure which surface you are on, wipe dust and stop.

A hydration bladder gets a splash of vinegar water, a rinse with water you would drink, and then air, so it does not smell like a science project in June. Take it apart as far as the maker allows. The bite valve is where the smell lives. The tent floor can be pitched at home, blown, wiped, and dried completely before it is bagged. A damp tent in a stuff sack is mildew, which is a worse souvenir than dust. Seam sealer, if you need it, happens on a clean dry seam, at home, with the cure time the tube asks for. It is not a driveway emergency unless something is actually leaking.

What stays dry

Canned air, can upright so you are blowing gas and not liquid, is the blast for a camera, a lens, a goggle vent, and a charging port. Do it outside. Do not spray it on skin. Do not invert the can. The empties come home. It is not a substitute for the blower, and it is not a lung cleaner.

Power stations, phone banks, headlamps, and radios get a blow and a dry cloth, ports last, and then they sit somewhere cool. Do not rinse them. Do not leave them in a hot car "to deal with later" any more than you did on playa. If a port is packed solid, canned air and patience. A wet wipe in a USB port is how a charger dies in October.

Goggles: blow, then a vinegar wipe on the outside, then a clean soft cloth on the lens. The spare pair that stayed in a zip bag may only need a look. Foam seals can be washed and must be dry before they go back on the lens. A respirator that is clogged has done its job. Follow the maker on whether that model is single-use. We are not going to tell you to wash an N95 and trust it. When it is done, it is trash you pack out, not a mask you save for next year out of guilt.

Cloth, bags, and the cot

Shake outside, blow, then wash. A shemagh and a cotton wrap can go through a normal wash. A synthetic sleeping bag can too if the care label says so, after the loose dust is outside and not in your machine. Down that got wet is a specialist problem. We are not going to invent a dryer ritual. Read the label, and do not store any bag damp.

Costumes with glue-on bits should have been left at home. If they came, shake them outside and pick the bits out of the driveway before they go into a washer and then into the plumbing. Glitter in a load is glitter in the next load. Their guide already told you not to bring it.

The wagon's bearings pack with dust. A vinegar rinse and a dry-down is how we get another year, done outside. Shade-frame fittings get a blow, a look for bent pins, and a count against the number you left with. Ratchets get opened and knocked out so you are not storing a clenched brick of playa. Chairs and cots get the rails blown before they fold.

You, on the drive and the day after

A saline rinse with the packets and with clean water, at the end of the day and again when you are somewhere with a sink, is how the dust you breathed does not stay the whole story of the drive. Follow the packet. It is comfort for dusty sinuses, not a treatment. If breathing is hard, that was a medical tent conversation, and it is a clinic conversation at home. Do not wait on a rinse kit.

Skin that is dry gets the unscented lotion after you have actually washed, not on top of a film of dust. Feet included, if they tolerate it. The foot-care guide is the during-the-week version. This is the leftover. Drink water. Eat a real meal. Sleep in a dark room if you can. Their guide's advice about sleep and food was for the city. It is still good advice in a motel.

Sealed clean clothes were for this drive. If you wore the week home, change at the first place you can do it without dumping dust in a gas-station bathroom and leaving it for the next person. Bag the dirty layer. The bathroom is not your hex, and it is also not a trash can for wipes.

What we put away, and what we replace

• —Hex swept, stakes counted, magnet pass done, bags in the car.
• —Loose dust blown outside, downwind, goggles on.
• —Vinegar on the film. No bleach mixed in. Electronics stay dry.
• —Canned air upright, for optics and ports only.
• —Bladder rinsed and dried. Tent dry before it is bagged.
• —Chain wiped. Ratchets knocked out. Wagon bearings rinsed and dried.
• —Clothes and the synthetic bag washed only after the shake.
• —Sinus rinse with clean water. Lotion after a real wash.
• —Trash to a dump you are allowed to use. Nothing left in a town that did not agree to take it.

The departure kit is the vinegar, the bags, the magnet, and the sanitation you should have been using all week. The blower lives with the dust kit. Other festivals with the same fine dust are Dustproof Supply. The playa version of the problem is this one: the dust is alkali, the wind already did its work, and the only good souvenir is the one that is not still in your socks in November.