When was the last time you cleaned your children’s favorite stuffed animal? Your child’s cherished polar bear, bunny, or teddy bear is probably swarming with dust, pollen, and other allergens. Additionally, your kids are dispersing bacteria and germs around the house if they bring their fuzzy companion with them everywhere they go, particularly if they’ve been ill. We’ll walk you through properly cleaning plush toys to keep them sanitized.
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How Often Should Plush Animals Be Cleaned?
If children sleep with or tote stuffed animals around frequently, wash them once a week. Clean soft toys once a month at the very least, especially if anyone in the house has asthma or allergies.
Stuffed animals should be cleaned and disinfected as soon as possible if you or your kid have had lice. Stuffed animals should, of course, be cleaned if they smell or appear dirty.
Things to Think About Before You Begin
For care instructions, always read the label on the stuffed animal. Certain stuffed animals, such as those filled with polyethylene pellets instead of cotton batting, should not be cleaned in a washing machine. Additionally, keep an eye out for electronic components and batteries on plush animals.
The best option is to dry clean it at home or give it a gentle hand wash if the toy is too old or breaking apart. The best course of action is to machine-wash the toy if it is safe to do so since this will eliminate more bacteria and germs than hand washing.
How to Use a Washing Machine to Clean Stuffed Animals
The majority of stuffed animals are machine-washable. But exercise caution while handling plush toys featuring sequins, caps, delicate fabrics (like sheer), buttons, other plastic accents, or eyes that are glued on.
Spot-Clean Any Stains
- Since stuffed animals are frequently a child’s best friend, stains from food, dirt, and sticky materials are commonplace. To give a spot cleaning:
- In a big basin or sink, combine water and mild laundry detergent.
- Scrub the area gently with an old toothbrush.
- Using a moist towel, dab the area to remove any soap residue.
Put in the laundry bag
To safeguard the stuffed animal, if it’s tiny enough, put it inside a mesh washing bag. Put something in the washing machine.
Use laundry detergent and wash on a delicate cycle
Super-sanitize on a delicate cycle in your washing machine instead of utilizing the sanitizing setting. Run a load on the delicate cycle and mix laundry sanitizer into your detergent to achieve this. 99.9% of the germs in the wash will be eliminated by the sanitizer. Your child won’t have to wait to be reunited with their teddy bear during the never-ending cleaning cycle, and you can be certain that the plush animal is clear of bacteria.
Let the toy air-dry
It’s preferable to let the stuffed animal air dry to avoid glue or plastic pieces melting.
- After removing any extra water, pat dry with a towel.
- In order to stop mold and mildew from growing, place the toy in an area with good ventilation.
- Use a hair dryer set to cool to expedite the process and get your child back their favorite toy sooner.
How to Clean Stuffed Animals by Hand
While hand washing isn’t as effective at disinfecting plush toys as using a washing machine, it is still the best option for toys that are too delicate to be run through the machine. Toys that are packed with foam balls or plastic pellets (instead of batting) that have electronic components like music or batteries should be hand-washed or dry-cleaned.
Take out all batteries and give stains a quick clean
- Take out the batteries
- Use electrical tape to seal off any exposed electrical spots.
- Spot-clean the toy with a moist, soapy cloth to get rid of spots and dirt. (Laundry detergent or dish soap both work.)
- Using a different cloth, rinse the soap, taking caution not to use too much water.
Clean and Soak
To clean soft toys that don’t require batteries, add a drop of mild detergent to cool water in a bowl, tub, or large container. To soak the toy, you need to use enough water. Move the plush animal around in the soapy mixture after submerging it. Rinse out any soap residue and extra water.
Let It Air Dry
- Use a fresh towel to pat dry the plush animal.
- To ensure complete air drying, place the toy in a well-ventilated area. Before putting the batteries back in, let the plush animal air dry fully.
- Try using a cool-setting hair dryer to expedite the drying process.
How to Dry Clean Your Home’s Stuffed Animals
Put the plush animal into a bag
Fill a plastic bag with your plush toy. If you don’t have a zip-top plastic bag, you can still use a recycled plastic shopping bag as long as it’s securely tied.
Incorporate Baking Soda
After lightly dusting the plush animal with baking soda, seal the bag firmly. To disperse the baking soda, shake the bag for two or three minutes. After that, to completely eliminate scents and oils, let your stuffed animal to remain in its baking soda bath for around half an hour.
Tumble-Dry
Take the plush animal out of the plastic bag and shake off any extra baking soda. Then, wrap the animal in a pillowcase, put the covered stuffed animal in your dryer, and use the tumble dry option.
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