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Sleeping bags for camping as much as anything else although for several years I've just used blankets . Just the principal is the same , using second hand stuff .The East German sleeping bag is probably more a collectors item to go with all the other East German stuff I collect. Incidentally the sleeping bags were only used by officers and NCO's , enlisted ranks used blankets . Now original NVA blankets are expensive but I'm still looking.

No problem with using "second hand" sleeping bags here. For years working in emergency services response (Bushfire, flood, etc.) we had teams of 5 people and camp trailers set up ready to go 24/7 365 days a year - when called out the team would grab the first camp trailer available and go. Sleeping bags were used by anyone and everyone; simply dry cleaned on return and put back in the trailers.

Good to hear it. The whole gist of this thread is how some people turn their noses up at the idea of second hand mattresses ( or bedding in general) yet will happily sleep on hotel beds used by hundreds of people each year.

I used to work in a little shop that sold - among other stuff - mattresses. The hotel opposite had to buy new ones quite regularly, because yet another guest, drunk, had peed the bed. I don't know whether all hotels are that conscientious.

I did a little search to try and find the lifespan of a hotel mattress . I thought I should seeing as I started this thread but can't find a definitive answer but interesting to hear you had regular trade from that hotel.
The average if such a thing exsists seems to be anything from three to five years but could be ten ,
http://www.traveller.com.au/everyone-as ... ses-guv2kt


I did come across this which does make for interesting reading although the main focus is on a more envoiromental mattress.
http://www.greenhotelier.org/our-themes ... -industry/

These people who find second hand mattresses objectionable, I wonder what they would think of feather mattresses?
I spent the first 8 years of my life sleeping in a feather bed, which was replenished every now and again when a few chicken were slaughtered.
I loved it as you could snuggle down in a hollow with a mound either side.
I got my first spring mattress when we joined the 20th century by moving to a house with electricity.

I have a feather duvet - but I can't imagine sleeping on a feather mattress...

I have a natural material mattress, which is way beyond the 20-year span - but I didn't actually use it for most of that time. It's latex and something else - horse hair? Straw? Can't remember. I use three protectors, though, which get washed regularly, so not too much sweat etc should be soaking in. It's terribly heavy, so turning it is a major job.

Always remember having an eiderdown as a kid , remember it as warm and how every so often one of the feathers would poke its way out and as a kid I'd pull it all the way out. Never had a feather mattress though. The mattress we use at the moment is just a regular modern one. Mother had a memory foam mattress which she found ok at first but after a while the memory meant the "dent" just stayed there and she was sort of stuck in one position. I have a mattress I use for camping ( well as long as I have the van with me) that I made out of three layers of felt carpet underlay sown into a calico cover. Bulky but I have used it in sub zero conditions.