Recently my little man got sick with croup, which was pretty rough to see him not feeling good, BUT it could have been worse, so I'm counting that blessing.
Now that he is better i knew that his toys needed a major deep clean, because this kid puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, even sunglasses!
He has small baskets of plastic balls with those little holes in them, those awesome teething rings, different toy vehicles, some cell phone cases, stuffed animals and some cloth food. So as you can see there is toys of all shapes and sizes that i had to figure out how to deep clean so he wouldn't get sick again. So of course i turned to pinterest to research, because we all know how awesome it is.
I found several different way but most of them used chemicals that i don't feel comfortable using; which you probably know from my previous blog post.
I'm going to show you the ones that i liked and that i feel have cleaned the toys the best!
First i gathered all the plastic toys that dont have batteries, these are a few of what J has for reference.
So gather all toys like this and pop them into your bathtub, or sink. I like to use the tub for this purpose because its big; Let me tell ya apartment sinks aren't anything to brag about.
Fill your tub with HOT water until all the toys are covered. Next add two cups of vinegar. I like to use white vinegar for this type of thing, i don't know if other kinds work the same, but i'd assume so.
For the balls that have those little holes in them that probably have spit, mildew, 1000 different kinds of bacteria growing inside, Take your vinegar and put it in a bowl then take each item with holes and retract the vinegar into the ball and set into the bath tub with the rest. Vinegar will kill the mildew and mold, and is child safe. Let these toys sit for about 30 minutes to an hour, for me it varied on how long J's nap would be. After that's over take a towel or if you have norwex grab your enviro cloth and dry off each toy. Squirt the vinegar out of the balls with holes in them. DON'T add water to them because that will cause problems again.
Once all those toys are clean, make sure you wipe down whatever container or basket they are in. The toys rub against the sides of their homes and transfer their nasty's to it, so its important to make sure that gets cleaned as well!
next we have the cloth toys, like stuffed animals, cloth books, felt or cloth play food, etc..
Some examples
Make sure you read the tags first to see how they can be washed. Most toys can be washed in cold or mild temperature water, and can be air dryed. Those cute cloth veggies that we have can be washed and dried in our machines because their is only batting in them. If they have a squeaker or little plastic beans in them then you will want to air dry them.
Now we have just a few toys left, these are the ones that you can't submerge in water, so that means no soaking in the tub or washing in the washing machine.
like these toys
It will usually say that on the tag, but if it doesn't these toys are usually the ones you should wipe down. Toys with batteries, anything electrical (obviously! please don't electrocute yourself), hard page books, crinkle page cloth books, big items, and some stuffed animals.
For this if you dont have the amazing norwex enviro cloth, then take a rag and a spray bottle with half vinegar half HOT water, spritz on rag and wipe toys down.
I make sure to clean off all surfaces that my child has touched, as well as wash bedding, and any blankets he likes to play with.
Make sure to wipe down pacifiers, and their holders, as well as washing the changing pad cover!
It's crazy how many things babies have, and you probably don't realize it until you have to disinfect them all....
So that's it for this post until next time,
-Hannah
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