Cleaning toys so they survive all three kids

Every toy we make will eventually be sticky. This is not a design flaw, it is childhood. The trick is cleaning them in a way that does not quietly kill the toy, because the number one cause of a “broken” musical toy in our mail is not a factory defect. It is a bath.

Plastic without electronics

Stacking rings, figures, blocks: warm water, dish soap, a rinse, air dry. That is the whole recipe. Skip the dishwasher even for solid plastic, prolonged heat warps thin parts and peels printed faces off figures, and a Little People farmer without a face is upsetting for everyone.

Anything with a speaker or a battery door

Surface only. Wipe with a cloth wrung out in soapy water, then a dry cloth. Water that gets past a button membrane corrodes contacts in weeks. If a toy took a real soaking, pull the batteries immediately, stand it battery-door-down for two days, and only then try it. Half the time this resurrection works.

Plush friends

Check the sewn-in tag first. Most of our plush that has no sound box handles a gentle machine cycle in a pillowcase and air drying. Anything that sings, vibrates or glows gets the surface treatment only. And never the hot dryer: glue, glitter and stuffing all come out different than they went in.

The storage part nobody does

Before a toy goes to the attic for the next kid, take the batteries out. A battery left in for a year leaks, and a leak eats the contacts. Thirty seconds with a screwdriver now is the difference between a hand-me-down and a landfill run later.