Keeping Bathtub Toys Clean

we live in a house well over 100 years old and for us, the only way to keep mold off is to keep all bath toys/etc OUTSIDE of the tub, sitting beside the tub/etc. I put the bath toys in a bucket beside the tub

I think putting them in a hanging basket is a good idea because it promotes better air circulation. I had the same problem from time to time, but I found if I squeeze the water out and hang them they do ok. I had a few finger pupper type, terry cloth, stuffed tub toys. These were great because they were puppets, they could be used to wash the child and they could go in the washing machine. We also liked terry cloth hand puppets.

Good luck.
Liz

You could also try washing the toys in mild soap and water with a scrub brush. Rinse well. Then, soak the toys in a mild bleach solution (1 tbsp. bleach to each gallon of water) for 20 minutes to disinfect them. Rinse well in clean water and allow the toys to dry completely.

10% bleach to water solution, i.e. one tablespoon of bleach to one gallon of water...make sure bleach solution gets inside toys that have interiors that can get wet. After cleaning with bleach solution...let bath toys dry. Bleach solution kills germs and mold.

I can't stand that problem, and just don't allow anything in the bathtub that is not a solid toy, that there has a chance of mold arising within the toy. One thing that I have found to be wonderful for the bath is Perler Beads. They have tons of different shape pegboards (horses, boys, girls, turtles...) and you put plastic beads on the pegboards and iron them together, it melts them together into a flat toy that they made. They are great in the bath! No mold, they float even, they can make just about anything...and what a bonus to have the kids making their own bath toys!
K.

Two ideas:

White vinegar.
Sunlight.

The easiest way to keep them clean is to place them in a container filled with HOT soapy water with a couple teaspoons of Clorox bleach and let them soak for about an hour. You can do this once a week and it will keep the mold from growing inside.

I had the same problem so I stopped buying the "squeaky" tub toys. The disney store has great bath toys that don't have any holes in them (no mold, they're about $10 for 4 toys). I also found great little animal play sets at Toys R Us. They are a soft rubbery-plasic. They don't squeak, but they do dry off fast and since they also don't have holes in the bottom, our tub is mold-free. I got a set of 6 dinosaurs for about $8.

If you still want to get rid of the mold in the ones you have, you could try soaking them in a bucket of bleach water. Good luck!

If you are setting them on the tub edge you might be blocking the hole that the water comes out of?...maybe lay them on their side? Or alternate toys if you bathe your child daily...that way the one set has 2 days to dry out.
Ive not had this problem of mold growing inside...how did you discover there was mold "inside"? Maybe put a small space fan in the bathroom to cirulate air for a couple hours after the bath, that will help dry out stuff.
I occasionally give my toys a bleach bath in the tub, that helps w/ mildew.
The only other option I can think of is to only use toys that do not suck up water.

Hi A.- I periodically run my daughters toys in the dishwasher- it seems to do a much better job than me cleaning them. I also got a toy holder thing (looks like a frog) that hangs on the wall and has holes in it- for some reason the dripping of the toys keeps them mold free longer than it did when i simply put them on the shelf.

I don't know any good ways to prevent it, but I soak my sons in clorox bleach, and make sure to suck some up in each one, shake it and rinse. The key is to rinse really well, but a few rounds in clean water does the trick (I make sure not to taste or smell bleach, because no matter what I do, one always ends up in his mouth before I get it out). When I rinse them I change the water a couple of times to make sure the bleach is leaving.

What I do is about once a week I fill the sink with bleach water and fill my daughters toys up with that. Shake them up a bit, squeeze them out and then rinse them with clean water a couple of times. Then I put them in the tub to dry overnight This has always worked for me.

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Take Care,
N. SAHM homeschooling 3 boys 12, 7 & 2 yrs old and married for almost 15yrs. I love to help other moms, who want to be SAHMs, reach their goals.

Hi A.. I bathed my kids in Shaklee's Basic H. It is non-toxic, biodegradable, ph balanced. It makes some bubbles, but because it ph balanced it is better than bubble bath. What I found was, it cleaned the kids and the tub and the toys. This was the first and only Earth Day product in 1970. Oprah endorsed the Get Clean products from Shaklee on her show three times last year.

Go to my website www.shaklee.net/andrea_hylen or find another distributor. All of the products are safe for your kids health AND they really clean.

This is an easy one...BLEACH!!! And only bleach. Don't worry with any of those other fancy shmancy products that have bleach in them. Just pure bleach and water!
Good luck!

Hi, A., I'm a little late responding; we were away. I hope everyone who already responded will be watching this, too. Please moms - no bleach!!! It is really bad for the environment, your health, and most of all, the health of your little ones!!! Sol-U-Mel by Melaleuca kills mold, mildew, and its spores. I wish I had known about it when my kids were little. I also wish ALL moms would check it out! Good luck. N.
saferforyourhome.com
http://www.thewhycircle.com/nkboecker

I haven't yet found a good solution. My sisters suggestion is to bleach them once a week. But to be honest up until know haven't done anything. I make sure she doesn't suck on them or drink water in hopes to stop any problem that it could cause.

I do what Teresa B does only I use a bucket. The bleach bottle should tell you what the water to bleach ratio should be. When you put them in the water, use dish-washing gloves to protect your hands and fill them. That way the bleach is getting the mold inside, too. Rinse well the same way, at least two times.

Another thing to do might be to gather them up after his bath, make sure all the water is out of them, and then put them in the fridge until his next bath. Mold doesn't like cold.

-S. Kav

I put them in the dishwasher about once a week. I have also seen bed bath and beyond sell a frog that sticks to the side of the shower, I never purchased it but the concept is that if you store the toys in the frog the holes in its back will allow you to rinse them.

You could also boil them in a large pot, squeeze the water out and let them dry. It's worked for us b/c we've been fairly consistent with boiling them. But bleach is a very good solution, too.