How to Clean Baby Soft Toys Easily (Best Methods)

Soft baby toys or plush toys need occasional soak and scrub too just like your little one. Cleaning soft toys is easy, however, due to different material quality, some plush toys are more delicate than others. For those toys, hand-washing is highly recommended. While for stuffed animal toys, you can put light detergent in your washing machine and clean them right away.

Today we will discuss how to clean soft baby toys easily at your home. Basically, there are two ways of washing plush toys quickly and easily.

1. Machine-Wash Soft Baby Toys

You easily clean stuffed toys like teddy bears and bunnies in a washing machine. Machine-washing is the easiest way to clean soft plush toys. But for well-worn stuffed toys, there lies a risk of being torn while washing. In this case, we highly recommend parents to look out for the washing instructions on the care tag.

Here’s how you can easily wash soft baby toys in a washing machine.

• Set the machine to gentle cycle and use cold water for washing.
• Use a light detergent when washing soft toys. If you use strong detergent, the residue, later on, may cause skin irritation or damage the soft fabric of the toy.
• If the stuffed toy is big enough, put it in a mesh bag to protect exposed parts like the eyes, ears, and hands from getting torn while washing.

After washing plush toys in a machine, you can let them dry out in the sun or use a machine dryer. Please note that do not dry the plush toys on high heat settings when using a machine dryer. Set the temperature of your dryer to the lowest.

Bonus Tip: The best and fast way to dry soft baby toys is to put them in front of a humidifier or a hairdryer. Use a hairdryer to quickly dry plush toys or to make them look fluffy like new ones.

2. Hand-Wash Plush Baby Toys

You definitely don’t want to end up washing your little one’s favorite teddy bear in a washing machine. As we said earlier, some toys are more delicate than others, so they need extra care. Stuffed toys like bunnies, teddy bears, and dolls that come with electronic parts should be washed by hands.

So here’s how you can hand-wash soft baby toys:

• Find a bucket that can easily submerge the stuffed toy that you want to clean. You can also use the kitchen sink for this purpose. Put cold waters in the bucket or sink up to a level where you can easily submerge the plush toy.
• Pour some light detergent into the bucket or sink.
• Now it’s the time to give some good dips to your teddy into the solution until it soaks the water and detergent.
• Leave the toy into the solution for at least 10 to 15 minutes. In case you have a soft delicate toy, 5 minutes are more than enough.
• Now take out the toy and open the cold water to rinse any soap residue.

To dry the soft toy after hand-wash, take it out of the sink and gently press down to drain excess water. Repeat this process several times until there is no water flowing out of it.

Let the toy air dry in the sun or by means of a hairdryer (lowest heat settings).

If the soft toy comes with electronic components like a teddy bear with LED lights, there is no need to submerge it in water as it will damage the electrical circuit. Make sure you take a cloth dip in mild soap or detergent to surface-clean the plush toy.

Finally, this is how you can easily clean soft baby toys at your home without damaging the delicate outer fabric. If you know any other effective methods for cleaning plush toys, do share with us in the comments section.