Bath Time with Mold!

Happy New Year to everyone!  New Year's is a time when people think about changing things up in their lives, purging the house of unwanted items, or starting the cleaning process.  So.....let's talk about a cleaning process that many of us never really think of!  Do your kids or grandkids LOVE bath time?  How about playing with toys.  If your kids are like mine were, you can never have 'too many" toys.  One particular toy they loved was a plastic horse that looked like a carousel rocking horse.  It was so cute but after a few baths, the inside of that horse was almost black with mold and who knows what other bacteria was inside there!  I would have to pop off the head and try to clean it out but you could never really get it all.

Some of the other toys were harder because all they had was a squeaker hold.  You can try to squeeze out the water but it never really gets the inside clean.  I've even heard of some people glue gunning the hole so the water can't get it.  But....once that water gets in it is almost impossible to clean.  I want you to think about this for a minute.  If you haven't cleaned the toy so all the mold is gone, the bacteria from it is released into the tub when they play with that toy again.  Can you say YUCK!!  I don't want bacteria in the tub with my littles.

I know some people clean bath toys with bleach.  Oh My!!  Bleach is said to get rid of mold but it actually doesn’t. It just “bleaches” the mold making it look like it's gone. I'm not sure how true that is but I just don't like the idea of soaking the toys in bleach then letting the kids bathe with them either.  No matter how you try to clean them, getting mold out from inside the toys is difficult.

One of the best ways I’ve heard of is to clean bath toys is with Vinegar and Essential Oils.

Here is how you can do it:
1. Mix 1 cup of distilled white vinegar to 1 gallon of hot water and 6 drops of Tea Tree essential oil in a clean sink or clean bucket
2. Make sure to fill each bath toy with the vinegar/essential oil/water mixture (until they are totally full)
3. Throw all of the toys in the sink (or bucket) and let them soak for at least 30 minutes or even an hour
4. Wash the outside of each toy with Thieves Hand Soap and when you rinse them make sure to squeeze out ALL of the vinegar water from inside of the toy.
5. Let them dry completely before you use them again in the bath!

Isn't that pretty simple?  You might want to do this at least once a month or more.  Depends on how many baths are taken.