Cleaning Bath Toys - Greenvale,NY

I know this sounds weird but I wash my foam bath toys in my washing machine. I use a hot cycle with bleach and I never have any trouble with growth. I don't know if this will get rid of anything but it is good for maintaining clean toys. I hope you can find a solution!

- most toys are NOT dishwasher safe. They may look OK when they come out, but it is not a good idea. Furthermore, if they are toys like rubber ducks then there is still water inside them that is all yucky.
- bleach, while effective at killing germs, also kills just about everything else. Save that for situations where it is absolutely necessary and nothing else will work. The fumes from chlorine bleach are not great for you or your kids, so why use them on the toys?

The best solution I have found, in addition to the peroxide and baking soda solutions mentioned, is white vinegar. Best thing to have around the house, and super affordable. Mix some distilled white vinegar with water, wash the toys and rinse. Let them soak a while if need be.

I also use a mixture of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water in a spray bottle to clean produce, as studies have found it is more effective at cleaning produce than dishsoap and water! Also useful for spraying down toys, highchairs, etc. Kills germs, cleans, and the smell disappears in moments.

My alarm bells are going off!! Here's the deal - if you have mildew in your bathroom, you are going to have mildew in porous toys like foam and inside squirting things and inside squeaky, hollow things. Don't use them.
As far as using bleach and super hot water to clean things, that degrades the plastic or foam and not only gives off hazardous gasses, but also bits of the toy into the water of your dishwasher/washing machine/bathtub. YUK!
So what's a mom to do? Look around the house for things your kids to play with. Tupperware, funnels, cups... you get the idea. Just make sure they are easily cleanable, with no small holes or crevices to hide mold and mildew and are made to go into the dishwasher or can handle hot water.
These toys may not be the latest craze or have their favorite TV character on it, but I think kids have a lot more fun when they use their imagination. Have fun!

i don't know about foam shapes, but i tend to give my daughter's bath toy a hydrogen peroxide or bleach bath each month. just soak in a small container filled with a water/bleach mixture, and then rinse well.

I take a bucket fill with enough water to cover the toys. Add some bleach - I never measure but about 1/3 cup per gallon. Let them soak. Rinse - and when rinsing I use an old toothbrush to get into the crevices. This has worked for me & I haven't thrown any toys away.

I don't know about foam toys, but I throw all the plastic toys in the dishwasher

If you keep them in the bathroom, the humidity in the bathroom is probably causing the mildew. Don't know how to take care of foam shapes, but the hard plastic toys can be placed on the top shelf of the dishwasher in a mesh bag and cleaned that way.

I wash my kids toys in the dishwasher & it's great! They come out lookin like new! I do this once a month. I don't know if it'll work once they have mildew but it's worth a try! HTH!

I tried washing some plastic toys in the dishwasher once and a strong plastic smell came out of the steam when I opened the door. NOT safe. I recommend using Hydrogen Peroxide and water. It's safer than bleach and any other process. You can wipe with it, or make a solution in a bin. Heat and plastic release chemicals into the air that you and your children breathe in. Never heat plastic no matter what.

Hi J. you can soak them in peroxide it gets rid of the germs but not harmful as oppose to using bleach. God Luck.

wash them with a load of laundry, leave them out to dry. I wash them when I wash my body wash poof. HOT water.

I just put my sons foam toys in the dishwasher. They came out fine. I put them in with all his other toys. My theory is if they don't survive the dishwasher then they go in the garbage! LOL! I've done the soaking in bleach (b/c they were ducks and got gross inside) but other than that - everything goes in the dishwasher!

Hi J.,

Once the mildew starts, it's hard to get rid of. Here's a few thoughts... Throw the mesh bag and toys into the washing machine with your whites and some bleach. When drying, hang near a heat source like a radiator or vent. In the warmer weather, hang the bag outside in the sun.

Bleach to get rid of mildew and then use baking soda once a week to clean them.