Cleaning Bathtub Toys

I have never thought about cleaning bathtub toys....they sit in the clean water with the kiddos....but I noticed a little build up on some of Lady A's bath toys so it is time to get working on cleaning them. After all they are in the bath to get clean, it does not make sense to have them play with dirty toys.

Plug the holes for those that squirt water or have squeek holes. The kiddos might not be too happy about this but it will save you a lot of work and mold in the long run. Simply use hot glue to place a water proof seal on those toys.

Here are a couple of options to cleaning those toys that can help keep bath time a little bit easier:

• Boil them ~ place them in a pot of water and boil them in hot water. Squeeze the water in and out of the squirt and squeaky toys to get the yucky mold out.
• Place in bleach or vinegar bath ~ The bleach kills mold but if that seems a bit harsh you can use vinegar instead. Mix about 3/4 C. bleach {vinegar} with 1 gallon of water.
  
  • Let the toys soak for 5-10 minutes {or overnight if they need a little extra attention} making sure that any of the squirt and squeaky toys get some of the water mixture in them to clean the inside of them as well.
  • Squeeze them a number of times to work out the yucky.
    
  • Rinse in hot water and allow to completely dry, this would be a good time to plug up the squeeze toys if you want to.

• Place them in the dishwasher. Make sure to place them on the top shelf and only place those that you are sure can handle it. The dishwasher will sanitize them and help to kill any mold or other gunk both on the inside and out.

Just a couple of thoughts....

• If the inside of the toy is too gunky just throw it away and get a new one. The health of our little ones is not worth trying to save a couple of bucks.
• Be sure to take the toys out of the tub after every bath. Allowing them to fully dry in between baths will help keep the gunk from moisture loving mold to build up.
• Normally if it is plastic and will stand up to water I would let Lady A take it in the tub with her. From now on I will make sure to have certain toys set a side so I don't have to deep clean all of them and they will be ones that I would be fine to toss if/when they need to be.
• If you need to, use a soft brush to help clean the toys.