5 Steps to Spring Cleaning Toys

I love spring…it’s a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. One thing I like to do during spring, is clean and organize our toys.

Toys seem to take over our house during the winter months, partly because we are indoors most of the time. Today I’m sharing with you the 5 steps I take to spring clean our toys.

1. Rotate Toys

While we are blessed to have many toys, the kids only play with a handful of them! I find that if I take time to put away toys and bring them back out in a few months, they are much more apt to play with them. So, I rotate our toys. I simply take a tub and fill them with toys and hide them in storage. Rarely do my kids even notice these toys are gone! They do love it when I bring the tub of toys back!

2. Donate or Sell Toys

Like I said earlier, we have too many toys. I like to go through the toys and pick out toys to either donate or sell (garage sale, Craigslist, or ebay). Bringing your child with you to donate toys is a great way to show them the blessing of giving to others.

3. Organize with Labels

If you want to keep your toy room clean, you need to organize it. I recommend having a spot for everything. I created toy bin labels (which you can get here) and found that the kids kept the toy room more organized with them.

4. Wash Stuffed Animals

Have you smelled your child’s stuffed animals lately? Probably a little dirty. Place the stuffed animals in pillow cases and throw them in the washing machine to get them squeaky clean again! If they only need a little spot cleaning, just spray them and set them out to dry. (Read below for a lavender spray recipe!) Make sure they are fully dry so no mold or bacteria grows inside of them!

5. Clean Toys (without chemicals!)

I like to clean our toys 2-3 times per year. Sometimes I place plastic toys in the dishwasher and add 2 cups of vinegar to the bottom of the dishwasher and run it on wash.

I also use homemade cleaners to clean them. Here are the recipes I use:

Lavender All-Purpose Spray:

3 cups hot water
4 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons Borax
6 drops lavender essential oil

Combine all the ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake to dissolve the Borax. Spray the toy, then wipe with a cloth.

I like to enlist my little ones to help clean the toys! 🙂 They actually think it’s fun!

Here’s another recipe I use.

All-Purpose Cleaning Wipes

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
6 drops lime essential oil
cotton cloths (you can cut up an old t-shirt for cloths)

Combine the liquid ingredients into a large glass container (like a mason jar). Then add the pieces of cloths. When you are ready to use the cloths, squeeze out the excess liquid before using. After use, wash the cloths in a washing machine and return to the jar to use again.

I like this recipe because it uses lime essential oil, which has antibacterial properties and smells great!

If you don’t have any essential oils, you can buy them at local health stores or through a distributor.

It feels wonderful to have the toys purged, organized, and clean again!