Being at home all day with my kids allows me to notice how gross things can get around the house. For example, I noticed how scummy the bath toys can get, when I walked by the bathroom and found the 2 year old trying to suck the water out of the little holes in the toys made for squirting your mother or father while they bathe you. Many times I have thrown everything in the dishwasher to clean them or soaked them in diluted javel (and then rinsed them), but as I gagged at what she was doing, harsher measures were needed. A soap scum/mildew build-up could be seen on some toys that were no longer in circulation, so I hauled them all over to the sink, filled it up with straight vinegar, and squeezed the vinegar into them all and left them to soak. After about an hour, I squeezed out all of the vinegar (and watched the grime be spit out...eww) and refilled them again. I did this a couple of times and then threw them all in the dishwasher for a final cleansing, dried them out overnight, and then voila! - very clean! Then, my kids found them and brought them all back into the bath tonight...*sigh*.
