How to Clean & Disinfect Baby Toys with Vinegar

This Is the Best Way to Disinfect Toys!

It’s that time of year again! You know the time where the kids are back in school, it’s cold and miserable outside, and the number one thing being shared is germs! Once the bug gets into my house, I go into full-on cleaning mode. My house smells of bleach, vinegar, and disinfectant wipes.

I got really tired of wiping each toy with disinfectant wipes, then I saw on Facebook at one point that you can actually disinfect the toys – all of them at once – in the dishwasher! Hello, why had I not thought about this yet?

So I tried it out, and it works fantastically. Not only are the toys clean and disinfected, but my dishwasher also gets a cleaning! PLUS, think about all the money I am no saving not using a billion disinfectant wipes! This is seriously the best way to disinfect toys.

How to Clean Baby Toys with Vinegar

Things you will need:

• 1½ cups of Vinegar (You can also use cleaning vinegar, I used regular white though.)
• Dishwasher
• Plastic & Rubber toys

Things to note:

Firstly, this will only work with the hard plastic and rubber toys. If the toys use batteries, do not put them in the dishwasher or they will get ruined. On second thought, those really annoying ones probably could go in! 😉 If you don’t want them ruined though, leave them out of the dishwasher and just use the disinfectant wipes.

Load up your toys:

You can add the toys to both the top and bottom racks. As my kids are getting older, they have hardly any toys that don’t require batteries or they are too small for my dishwasher, like Shopkins. So I only use the top rack now.

The steps I first saw for this tip was just to load the dishwasher with the toys, pour the vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher and start it. However, I know that most dishwashers drain at the start of the wash, so here’s what I do:

1. Load the toys that need disinfecting
2. Start the dishwasher
3. Once the drain cycle is over (should last about 5 seconds), open the dishwasher back up and add the vinegar to the bottom of the dishwasher

I run the whole wash cycle, including allowing them to dry in there!

Enjoy Your Disinfected Toys

That’s it! The toys are disinfected and it should have only taken about 5 minutes of work! PLUS – the dishwasher gets a little cleaning too. The white vinegar will help take care of any hard water build up!

What are your favorite cleaning tips using vinegar? It really is the magical cleaner at my house!

More DIY Projects:

• DIY Carpet Stain Remover (That Really Works)
• 5 DIY Bathrobe Ideas
• DIY Heavenly Fall Air Freshener
• DIY Homemade Tub/Shower Cleaner {Picture Tutorial}
• 6 DIY Detox Ideas You Can Do at Home to Cleanse Your Mind and Body

Check out all our DIY posts here!