Sanitizing Toys after Sickness

The dog wasn't sick, he was just extremely sympathetic.

The plague has finally left our household. I was a casualty, struck down eating popsicles and drinking gingerale for days. Once my cement-filled head could process complex thoughts and my hands were no longer permanently needed to hold a snot filled tissue my first deep thought was: this cannot happen again. It wasn't "cleaning" that needed to take place in our house it was sanitizing. Hard core sanitizing. If those germs thought they were going to hang out on a piece of plastic bacon and hitch a ride into the babies mouth the next time she felt like gnawing on something - they were wrong. We were not going on this roller coaster ride of fun again.

One roll of Dollar Store shelf liner does the trick.

I separated the toys between two laundry baskets. Those that could be washed went in one and those that couldn't went in another. I've learned over the years that soaking toys in bleach solution sanitizes them but also can penetrate tiny little holes you didn't know existed in play food and leave bits of water behind. I want to sanitize the toys not leave small stores of bleach water for the kids to find so I devised a solution that works for us and I hope for you too!

I take some plastic mesh cabinet/drawer liner from the dollar store and cut it to fit my dishwasher. Press it down over the tiny little sticky up-y things in the dishwasher. The holes will help hold it into place. Pour all the little toys that would have fallen through onto it. Add bleach where you would have put soap in the dishwasher and splash a little extra in the bottom. Run the dishwasher. Make sure you adjust the heat setting if you have "meltables" in the mix. While the dishwasher runs wipe down all of the other toys with bleach wipes. I also wipe down the outside of books (which the baby likes to "eat") and our sofas (hooray for leather). When the dishwasher is done running I dump all of the toys from it into a freshly bleach-wiped laundry basket. They usually don't dry completely during the cycle so I can shake them around in the laundry basket near our woodstove to finish them off.

And hopefully we won't see the plague again until next year.

Sweater-Wearing Laundry Basket Storage

We have a lot of laundry baskets. This is because after moving into our house in November 2010 we still aren't fully unpacked. Every new life change creates the need for us to switch our rooms around again and with room swaps come piles. What do I do when piles pile up? I buy laundry baskets at Big Lots and put the piles in them. Then I move them to another room. It's a vicious cycle. I also use laundry baskets to store toys in. They're cheap, easily moved, and easily cleaned. I spent some time recently pretty-ing up one for toy storage in our living room.

Yes, the dolls are naked. For some reason my daughter refuses to allow her dolls to wear clothes. You can dress them and she will sense that they are clothed, goes over and disrobes them. 

 I think it came out cute. Kind of looks like it's wearing a sweater.

You will need-
A laundry basket (Mine was $3 at Big Lots)
A straw
Scissors
Yarn- it works best if it has texture and is a little fluffy to fill the space (I had an old skein laying around.)

Take the laundry basket and empty all the crap out of it.

I unwound my yarn. I found it was easiest to cut off about 7 feet at a time and wind a small ball up to feed through the slats. Basically you are going to "weave" the yarn in and out of the slats. Tie a knot in around one of the corners to secure the beginning piece. It will get covered up as you go.

As you run out of yarn, cut a new long strand and tie it onto the end where you ran out. It is tempting to use a longer piece but trust me it just takes longer. And gets tangled, and leads to swearing. 

I did the top half first then went on to the bottom half. Once you are done you have a choice. Stop there and just have the woven yarn be the whole design. I decided to add some "embellishments". When I was in first grade my dad, who apparently has some very strange talents, "knitted" an Indian chief headress using yarn and drinking straws. This next part is inspired directly by that early crafting memory. Take the drinking straw and fold it in half at one end. Make a small cut with your scissors to create a "needle". 

Thread the yarn through the straw and choose the design you want to do. I did x's at each of the spots that the slats came together. Tie the knots for the ends on the inside where they don't show. Repeat at each "intersection". 

This is what my finished basket looked like. It's not the fanciest project I've ever completed but it cost me $3, matches my living room, took very little time, and if I decide I want to use the yarn for a different craft I'll just take it off the basket. I ended up using most of a standard size skein of yarn with a bit left over. Happy Crafting!