If you have kids, there’s a good chance that you’ll need to know how to clean play dough out of clothes at some point. Here’s how to do it!
When you find play dough ground into your kids clothes, things can look pretty grim. Play dough tends to dry in a way that kind of cements it to the fibres of clothing and it really looks like it will be tough to get off. I know I’ve found play dough that I thought was just kind of stuck on the surface of clothing, but when I tried to peel it away, that stuff just would not budge! Or at least, there was still a significant amount of brightly-colorer dough left on the clothing, enough to ruin it. If you’re in a similar situation and need to know how to properly clean play dough out of clothes, read on!
The Good News if You Need to Clean Play Dough Out of Clothes
Well, the good news is that even though things look pretty bad, most of the time play dough will just wash right out of clothing without a trace. Even if you miss a play dough (or the brand name, play doh) mess on your clothes and just wash things normally, it usually washes right out. That’s great, isn’t it?
There are times though, when this doesn’t work of course. And there are other times where you don’t want to take the risk. There’s always a possibility that washing a stained clothing item may result in the item not getting fully clean and you can sometimes end up accidentally setting stain permanently. We don’t want that!
How to Clean Play Dough Out of Clothes
Start out by letting the play dough fully dry on the item of clothing.
Next, take a stiff-bristled brush and try to brush off as much of the dried-on play dough as possible. Something like a grout brush is ideal, but a toothbrush used for cleaning will do a pretty good job as well.
We were playing at the neighbour’s house a few days before Halloween last year and Jack insisted on wearing his fireman costume over there. Chris had specifically told him to keep it clean until Halloween, but he just really insisted on wearing it, of course. 🙂 He looked super cute in it, so I decided to risk it. And I lost!
Of course, the play dough came out and at some point over the course of the play date, he managed to kneel on a little piece of it, which I discovered when we got home. That’s OK! I got to learn all about cleaning play dough out of clothes so I can share it with you! 🙂
So anyway, that’s how this bright pink play dough came to be on this fireman costume.
After you’ve removed as much dried play dough as possible, soak the affected area in a bowl of cool water with a bit of dish soap for about 30 minutes to get the dough to loosen its grip on the fibres of your clothing.
Next, apply a little bit of extra dish soap (like maybe a 1/4 teaspoon or less) right onto the play dough stain and toss the item of clothing right into the wash!
That’s all it takes!
That will be enough to make absolute sure that all the play dough comes out!
What a relief that is, right? 🙂
I’m not sure how I went so many years as a mom without ever knowing how to clean play dough out of clothes. I’m so glad that when the time came to learn though, the solution was so simple!
So now you know too! 🙂 I hope this information will come in handy to you the next time you break out the play dough with your kids!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.