Cleaning toys with vinegar: safely back to playing

by Joost Nusselder Updated on: September 28, 2020

This is the best way to disinfect toys!

It is cold and miserable outside and the most important thing that is shared are germs from the shelter, childminder, playroom or school.

Or will spring come again and you are ready for the big clean-up, when are you actually reading this? I wrote it in winter ...

The secret to proper disinfection is vinegar, and in this article I'll show you how.

You don't want to use stubborn soaps or regular disinfectant wipes, especially if you have smaller children, as the toys often go in the mouth too.

Regular cleaning products are toxic so you don't want them to put that in their mouths. And we already cleaned the floors with cleaning vinegar for our toddler and our cats.

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Clean toys with vinegar and warm water

Things You Will Need:

• some vinegar (you can also use cleaning vinegar, I also used plain white vinegar once)
• Warm water
• Viscose cloth or other cleaning cloth

Meng 1/4 cup of vinegar with 2 cups of warm water and get it over every part of your toy like that. Also scrub well in the corners because a lot of dirt remains here.

If you are using wooden toy you will want to follow these cleaning instructions, because wood is slightly more sensitive due to the porosity of the material and possibly the paints that are used.

Cleaning toys with vinegar in the dishwasher

At one point I got tired of wiping each toy with a cloth and water, and then I saw on Facebook that you can disinfect the toys in the dishwasher, all at once!

Why hadn't I thought about this yet?

And it works great.

Not only are the toys clean and disinfected, your dishwasher also gets a cleaning job, like company households here. writes.

This is seriously the best way to disinfect toys.

Pay attention to this before you put your toys in the dishwasher

First, this only works with the hard plastic and rubber toys. If the toy uses batteries, do not put them in the dishwasher or they will break.

On closer inspection, those really nasty toys could go in just fine!

But if you'd rather not mess them up to avoid an inconsolable child, get them out of the dishwasher and just use the vinegar and water disinfectant mix with a cloth.

Load your toys

You can add the toys to both the top and bottom racks.

The steps for the dishwasher

The steps I first saw for this tip were just to fill the dishwasher with toys, pour the vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher, and start it.

However, I know that most dishwashers drain at the start of the wash, so here's what I do:

1. Load the toys to be disinfected
2. Start the dishwasher
3. Once the drain cycle is complete (takes about 5 seconds), open the dishwasher again and add about 1 1/2 cups of vinegar to the bottom of the dishwasher
4. I run the entire washing program, including letting it dry!
5. Enjoy your disinfected toys

That is it! The toys are disinfected and should only take about 5 minutes of work!

PLUS - the dishwasher is also cleaned a bit.

What are your favorite vinegar cleaning tips? It is truly the magical cleanser in my house!

Lees meer: these are the best ways to clean wooden toys

Joost Nusselder, the founder of Speelkeuze.nl is a content marketer, father and loves trying out new toys. As a child he came into contact with everything related to games when his mother started the Tinnen Soldaat in Ede. Now he and his team create helpful blog articles to help loyal readers with fun play ideas.