Dirty rope

You should never put a climbing rope onto the bare ground because pieces of dirt will get embedded into the sheath. Instead you should use a tarp like the blue one in this picture.

But even with care, a climbing rope will get dirty when used often. Metal from carabiners and belay devices will rub into the rope and then transfer onto your hands. It is a little bit disgusting.

So every once in a while you have to clean your rope and let it dry. For this you need a special rope brush that you slide the rope through while it is under water. Mild soap may be used, though it is not necessary.

This is the color of the water after passing 1/3rd of the rope through the brush for the very first time after one summer of use. I changed the water when it got too black.

I cleaned the rope three times - passing the entire 60m through the brush. Even after the third time, the water still turned a little gray from the all the dirt.

All of this was very fun to do in my tiny bathroom. There was also an incident related to the shower curtain rod not being a good place to hang a wet coil of rope.