Yesterday my mom gave me a bunch of toys for my daughters to have. These are old things of my niece's, so a good portion of it has just been sitting around. The biggest item is a dollhouse. It's about 3 feet tall and was sitting in the garage for who knows how long. And since everyone in the house smokes... The toys all reek! I'm throwing all the stuffed animals and soft stuff in the washer. And the plastic things, like Mr. Potato Head, are going to be soaked in the tub like I normally wash toys. But I have never had to get cigarette smell off of plastic! What is the best thing to do/use? There are a few soft things among the dollhouse furniture, but the fabric is sewn onto the plastic. What can I do to effectively clean them AND get the stink out? TIA!
I second the baking soda! I use it and it helps with lots of smelly thing, even cat pee!
I usually take things outside and hose them down using a household cleaner like Windex, Formula 409 or something of that type. Then spray it with Febreeze and let it sit in the sun for several hours. You might have to repeat the washing part if it's really bad. But this worked for me!!
I would definitely use Febreeze on the little fabric parts!!
I've also put toys on the top shelf in the dish washer. That seems to work better sometimes than soaking in the tub; just depends on what it is.
Good luck!!!
I would clean them very well, however you are used to cleaning toys. Then, I would wash a second time using baking soda and let them sit outside somewhere where they can air out for a while. Then you will have to clean them once more before your children can play with them, just to get the outside dirt off. Good luck!
How about a mixture of water, white vinegar, and Dawn? Mix it in a spray bottle and spray all over the plastic parts of the doll house, or make a small bucket of it, and scrub the plastic parts down with the mixture.
If you lived in a dry climate, I'd say to wet the whole thing down with this mixture as the fabric parts would dry quickly. However, I know it can be very humid in IN, so maybe just do a damp cloth cleaning of the fabric parts instead of soaking them.
If you have a dry, sunny day, it would be best to let it dry outside to help get rid of the smell.
If you find you can't get the smell out of the fabric parts, maybe you could replace those?
Hope this helps.
As a former smoker, the dishwasher is more efficient than the tub, and I love my shark steamer. No cleaners even needed, just nice hot steam.
