I rediscovered a big basket of my old stuffed animals downstairs today and thought I might as well get them cleaned up and give them to my son to play with. All they were doing downstairs was collecting dust, pet hair, and who knows what else, so why not get some use out of them? My question was: how in the world do I clean these things?
All the tags said “surface wash only,” which sounds pretty easy, except when you try to determine exactly how to surface wash and consider how many stinky stuffed animals needed to be cleaned. So, I did what any modern mom would do…a google search for “How to surface wash stuffed animals” and browsed through what popped up.
Nearly everything I read from “regular people” said to toss ‘em in the washing machine, no matter what the tags read. So I did.
And it worked!
I tied those puppies, kitties, and monkeys up in pillowcases, tossed them in the washer and then the dryer and they all came out looking – and smelling – fabulous!
From what I read, critters with longer fur tend to not do so well in the wash, so I may, in the future, actually surface wash the bushier animals. But as for our giant collection of short-haired companions…they’re going in the washer!
Details: I washed them on the delicate cycle with All Free and Clear and then dried them on medium heat. It worked perfectly!
