Penny is going to have a rockstar immune system, she eats shoes and dog toys. We love germs in our house and I don't mind if other kiddos bring theirs to our play room, I actually kind of like it. Between hosting a baby play group and having 12+ kids over during our bible study any given week, there are plenty of children coming in contact with Penny's toys. Germ-loving aside, it is good to give the high-traffic toys a good cleansing every once and a while, especially as we start to approach cold and flu season.
White vinegar is my choice cleaner for things Penny may or may not put in her mouth. If I were just cleaning a Lego set or bucket of blocks, I might just do it in the sink... but I'm dealing with a bucket of toys plus roughly 400 pit balls, so I need to pull out the big guns (a.k.a. the bathtub)
Here's how we do:
Disinfecting Bubble Bath for Toys
- 2 laundry baskets
- 4-5 towels
- Mild dish soap (same kind you would use to wash pacifiers, bottles, or breast pump parts)
- White distilled vinegar (like half the bottle)
- Bathtub with shower head
- Bed or floor surface for drying
Tips:
- Not too many bubbles, just enough for a little sudsies.
- For stubborn toys that float (like the pit balls), use the hamper to dunk and soak them in large groups. Or stir the whole bath with a large toy beach shovel.
- Dry everything on the bed: cover bed with towels, set up pillows and hampers around the edges, them dump toys in the middle and hand dry with extra towels. I also let them sit there with the overhead fan on high to make sure they were really dry before I returned them to their homes in the play room.
I've heard you can also put some toys in the dishwasher, but I've never tried it. What are your go-to routines for mass cleaning?
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