While we are familiar with keeping the house and furniture clean, parents and caregivers are also faced with the task of making sure that children’s toys are every so often cleaned. With the multitude of viruses that has been on a scaring trip, more of such precautions need to be in place to make sure that children stay free of such infections.
Young children are constantly touching objects around the house, crawling, lying on the ground and dropping their toys and then putting them to their mouths. What a nightmare (for the parents that is!).
With all these talks about keeping toys clean, let’s explore some of the ways it can be done.
Scrubbing
This is perhaps the most common method that is used by parents. Using warm water and mild detergent, you can use a scouring pad (the green scrubbing sponge) to scrub the dirt and dust from your children’s toys. Remember to wash it with water thoroughly to remove all traces of soap!
Sanitizing durable toys
Boiling plastics toys in water gets rid of any bacteria that can be found on them. Before doing this, check if the toys can withstand the high temperature without getting damaged.
Sanitizing electronic toys
A little more care needs to be in place when sanitizing toys that require batteries. Firstly, remove the batteries, then you can either use a wet wipe or a rag that is lightly soaked with a mixture of water and detergent to wipe down the toy. Ensure that excess water does not seep into the compartments of the toy. Once the toy is dry, wipe it down with a wet cloth (use plain water) to remove all traces of soap.
A popular sanitizing solution that is present on many websites is equal parts of white vinegar and water. This solution can be used to wipe down toys to disinfect them. As vinegar is used for cooking and general cleaning, it might be a safe option for the cleaning of toys too. Maybe you can try and let us know!
Machine-wash
Most stuffed/soft toys can usually be thrown into the washing machine with a bit of detergent and go through a gentle rinse cycle (my mother used to do this to my soft toys too!). Do not put them in the dryer though. Instead, hang them out to dry under the sun and they’ll be clean and smell wonderful soon after!
A few tips to note:
- Keep a separate cloth or sponge to clean your children’s toys. Using them for multiple purposes may transfer bacteria from one product to another.
- Clean all the toys when your child has just recovered from an illness – whether or not they have been played with. These toys would have been exposed to the viruses one way or another.
- Do wash or clean the toys in batches so that your child will have other toys to play with. No toys = no entertainment for kids; but knowing them, they might just find other ways to keep themselves occupied!
- It is also advisable to clean the toys after a playdate with other children.
Today we’ve shared some o the ways in which you could clean and disinfect your children’s toys. What are your tried and tested methods? Do comment and share with us!
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