Between regular colds, flu season, and COVID-19, it’s never been more important to up our hygiene game to keep germs at bay. There are a lot of reminders in the media about regular hand washing, wiping down surfaces, and wearing masks. But one thing that is often forgotten is children’s toys - a safe haven for spreading germs. There are many different products you can use to clean and sanitize your children’s toys, including cleaning toys with bleach, but homemade non-toxic toy cleaners are the best.
With COVID-19 being on everyone’s minds, we should take a proactive stance to keep our kids’ toys clean.
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Method #1
The Dishwasher - Our favorite method - because it’s quick and easy
The dishwasher is probably the best way to sanitize plastic toys as the heat of the water will kill off the germs. It’s also very quick and easy. According to the WHO, temperatures of 140°F to 150°F are enough to kill most viruses.
Check the packaging to see if the toy is dishwasher-safe. Most plastic toys can handle a trip in the dishwasher. But check to be sure.
Then place on the top rack of a dishwasher, If there are a bunch of small toys place them in a dishwasher-safe container.
Set the dishwasher to a normal sanitize or steam cycle with dish detergent. This method can help you sanitize your toys as quickly as your kids make them dirty… well, almost as quickly.
Method #2
kid-safe DIY sanitizing spray
Alternatively, you can easily make your own kid-safe DIY sanitizing spray.
Ingredients:
- an empty spray bottle
- a measuring cup
- distilled water
- rubbing alcohol (65%)
- essential natural oil (lemon or lavender, optional)
- a clean rag
Instructions:
Using a 1:1 ratio, pour equal amounts of water and rubbing alcohol into your spray bottle and give it a shake. If you want to give your cleaning solution a nicer smell, just add a few (3-5) drops of the essential oil. Once you’ve made your spray, spritz it on to your toys, leave it on for a few minutes and then just wipe it off with a clean dry rag. This DIY toy cleaner is non-toxic and safe for plastic toys. So don’t hold back, cause you know your kids certainly don’t.
Method #3
Force of Nature
IF you haven’t heard of FON yet, then you must be new to this channel, because I talk about it fairly often,. It’s a disinfectant that kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses, but it is non-toxic. So for me as a mom, that means that I don’t have to rinse surfaces after use, unlike most disinfectants, like Lysol and bleach. So FON is an appliance you purchase that basically turns water, vinegar and salt into a disinfectant that as powerful as bleach, and yes, it is EPA approved for use against Covid. If you want to see our video that goes into more detail about how it works, I’ll put a card above, go check it out… but to simplify, it turns water salt and vinegar into something called hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide… guys I was a chemistry minor and I’m here to tell you science doesn’t lie and this really does disinfect surfaces and it really is save to use. I’ve been using it for like 9 months and I’m still geeking out about how cool it is. So to use, I just spray it on my kids toys and throw them back in their box… that’s it. It needs to stay wet for 10 minutes, so I just let them dry back in the toy box. I love that I don’t have to rinse it. This isn’t the original FON bottle, Mine is lost. So I just use a regular spray bottle….so FON, if you ever watch this, can you please send me a new bottle…. Just kidding.. I think they are like 7 bucks.
Method #4
The last method is the bleach method. I used to never use bleach other than in laundry, but i have found that there are many great uses for bleach use with general cleaning around the home. So in order to clean and disinfect toys, you’ll want to be sure to pick out toys the are washable. I don’t recommend doing this with toys that are porous or with stuffed toys. Wipe off any dirt of dried on food with a wet cloth. Next mix ⅓ cup of bleach with 1 gallon of water and soak the toys in the solution for 6 minutes. Finally, rinse the toys well and then let them dry and they are ready for a new day of play.