How to Clean Kid Toys in Your Dishwasher (without chemicals)
Yall, this winter has been tough on Chickadee’s immune system. We are fortunate we haven’t had to deal with anything too worrisome, but the stomach bug, a runny nose that seems to never end, hand/foot/mouth, and fifth’s disease have all camped out in our house. It’s such a struggle to decide between getting out and socializing and wanting to keep her tucked away at home away from ALL those germs!
One thing I know I can do is keep germs from spreading at home. First, I can keep our house clean. I love to do this in a natural way. For example, I love using this all natural carpet cleaner to get us the constant stains a toddler leaves behind! This means constantly cleaning her toys, (since she is still putting EVERYTHING in her mouth) so that “bad germs” don’t stay around! However, I wasn’t sure how to do this at first because I didn’t want to trade bad germs for crazy chemicals made to “clean.” So what did I do? I turned to old faithful…VINEGAR.
First I loaded up all of Chickadee’s toys that weren’t wooden, covered in stickers, battery operated, or had that small hole in the bottom that would store water and put them in the dishwasher. I also put in all of her bath toys which never seem to fully “dry” and were starting to gather a stench. Instead of putting in dishwashing soap, put vinegar in the dispenser. Then run the wash on the normal setting, making sure the HEATED DRY feature is turned OFF.
When the wash is over, everything will come out fresh, clean, and germ free!
For all of those toys I couldn’t put in the dishwasher I made a mix equal parts water and vinegar and poured it in a spray bottle. Then spritzed those toys and wiped them down with a soft cloth.
It’s that easy! Clean toys & hopefully healthier kids :)
Just a small quick questions!! First time mom here haha…as far as the vinegar goes, does that mean any type of vinegar? and would the tell stick to the toys?
I use white vinegar & there will be no residual smell :)
I used to do this with my kids toys way back in the day…(got GK’s now!) I just made so much sense at the time and I wasn’t even thinking of germ free….just..the toys were on the floor alot..kicked around, even in the tub sometimes..so instead of my hand washing each and every one….drop in the dishwasher! visiting from tater tots and jello linky!
I love this post–this is excellent information! Thank you, LB!