We love wooden toys because they are safe, natural, and durable, but also because they are nourishing to a young child’s senses. They feel good and, with their variety of natural colors and grains, are beautiful to behold! Not only will wooden toys provide many years of play for your children, but with proper care, they will also be enjoyed by your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap) or a vinegar solution will keep your wooden toys safe and germ-free. Vinegar has mild disinfectant properties. Be sure to avoid bleach, detergents or abrasive cleansers, which will dry out the wood, leading to cracks and breakage, and will also lighten the surface. Use a damp cloth, soft brush or a sponge to wipe clean. It is best not to submerge wood in water (and never put it in the dishwasher).
Wood needs to have its natural moisture replenished in order to prevent it from drying out, warping or cracking. The best way to keep your wooden toys hydrated and well-nourished is with a natural oil or wax, like plain mineral oil or beeswax polish, like Bee Luna Natural Beeswax Polish. Beeswax polish is not only completely non-toxic and safe for children, but it also smells like honey, further adding to the sensory deliciousness of wooden toys!
Bee Luna Natural Beeswax Polish
Like all wood, wooden toys can be affected by changes in temperature and humidity. Be careful not to leave them outside overnight or for extended periods of time. Heat, sun and humidity can all affect the appearance and shape of wooden toys, and worse, lead to cracking, swelling or breakage.
With proper care and feeding, the wooden toys you purchase for your child today will be enjoyed for generations, delighting other children and families decades after the plastic toys end up sitting in the bottom of a landfill for all time.
What are your favorite wooden toys? Leave a comment and let me know!
26 Comments
Thank you for this great little tutorial on how to care for wood! It is so helpful!
Thank you for posting this info! I spend a lot of time cleaning our wooden toys while the children play at my feet at our little Waldorf inspired preschool. I’ll see about getting some Three Beautiful Bees for our room.
Thanks, Emily. While I was teaching, Friday was always our cleaning and polishing day. As soon as the children arrived, after greeting them I would hand each a soft rag with beeswax polish. We would polish our tables, the cutting boards, wooden bowls, playstands and wooden furniture until everything was shining and glowing!
I love wooden toys too and the funny thing is – my daughter Riley (she’s 3) LOVES to play with them almost more than any other toy – and there are a lot of toys to pick from! I’m now following…can’t wait to see more! ~~Liz
Love the Dr. Bonner’s idea…thanks for that.
Our favorite wooden toys right now are stacking and nesting toys!
Great info thanks for sharing…its been a while since i saw wooden toys around…shame really..
Stopping by for SITS
Is the polish only for unfinished wood toys?
congratulations on being debt free! isn’t it the best feeling ever?! we are on baby step three, and it is taking for-ev-er. i can’t wait to be done so we can kick murphy out for good. thanks for visiting my blog. i LOVE yours. a friend of mine teaches at a waldorf school, so i know just a little bit about it. my husband makes wooden toys, specifically the little walking ducks on sticks. we are fans of natural kid toys, getting rid of the lame plastic stuff. keep up the great blogging! come back by on monday for a giveaway.
To UmmSophia,
Good question! The beeswax polish is best for either unfinished wood, or on the many Waldorf toys which are stained with vegetable dyes, like the toys from Grimm’s Spiel und Holz (like the Rainbow Nesting Bowls, and Tunnel from Bella Luna Toys), Kinderkram, Ostheimer and others. These toys have a natural, matte finish.
I wouldn’t use the beeswax polish on painted wooden toys, or wood finished with polyurethane or any other kind of hard, glossy finish. Those kinds of chemical finishes are designed to seal the wood, eliminating the need for oils or waxes, but of course, they can add toxic chemicals or heavy metals, which could be dangerous for children.
I was just going to ask about the Grimms! We have a stacking set that I recently discovered had some banana and such on it and I wanted to clean it up. I didn’t realize that I could also use the beeswax on it too.
Polishing our wooden toys is one of our favorite past times. We love how it feels. I do a lot of crafting with wood, and I joke that it is the only craft I do that actually improves my hands because of the oils and waxes I use to seal the wood.
BTW… I’m going to link on Facebook 🙂
well my son’s is his hammer…where he pretends to be a dwarf mining diamonds…or a construction worker. I think I like his little men I just got last week that are actual construction workers. I wonder if you could use grapefruit seed extract to disinfect? I use that for my wooden cutting boards.
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/grapefruitseedextract.htm
If your wooden toys have a polish over them, you can just use normal polish cleaner with a microfiber cloth. This always makes the toys super clean.
Hi, was looking at your wooden train set advertised for all ages? The people appear to be small in size. Could they pose a choking hazzard?
Do your products conform to the new testing required by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act 2008? (finishes, materials and construction)
I was thinking of using a clear polyurethane to seal the wood. You mention in another post that polyurethanes can add toxic chemicals or heavy metals. As a clear coat, it is my understanding that it is totally inert when dry and totally safe. It is used routinely on wooden highchair trays, baby cribs etc.
Thanks for any help/feedback!
What lovely toys. Great tips for caring for wooden toys too, which is something people often forget about.
Question: can I use beeswax polish on wooden baby bowls, as I know honey is not something recommended for children under 2 years old? Are beeswax and honey different enough to make the polish safe for under 2s?
Great question, Wren!
I’m happy to report that, yes, beeswax and honey are different when it comes to their being safe for babies. The danger of eating honey for babies is because of the possibility of honey containing bacterial spores that may cause botulism.
Although natural beeswax may contain the spores of Clostridium botulinum, according to the Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program, there has never been a case of infant botulism in which the disease was attributed to exposure to beeswax. Infant botulism only results for intestinal colonization by the bacteria C. botulinum. That means that the bacteria must be swallowed or ingested. It cannot be absorbed through the skin.
Furthermore, unlike raw honey, the beeswax used to make our beeswax polish, beeswax crayons, and modeling beeswax had been heated to high temperatures in production that would kill any spores. Even if a child under two were to swallow any of our beeswax products, there would be no danger of botulism.
Hope this helps put your mind at ease!
Hi, I recently acquired a lovely set of wooden figures but a few are in really bad shape, caked on dirt,maybe mold? Is there any saving this? Any suggestions on how to restore it. I’m pretty crafty and don’t mind putting in a little extra work. I believe the stamp reads holztiger
Holztiger are lovely wooden figures. I would suggest sanding very lightly with a very fine-grade sandpaper to carefully clean them, but this could remove some of the paint. You could use a little water, but don’t submerge them or let them soak. Once they are throughly dry, apply a natural oil finish. I’d recommend Tried and True beeswax polish which is an all-natural mixture of beeswax and linseed oil. Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
Hello, Sarah. I wonder whether you would advise me. I recently purchased two old Zoo Line wooden toys–a duck (whose foot was missing; I had a new one made) and a monkey. They are bare wood. It’s a bit dull and dirty looking. Could you tell me how/ whether to clean and care for them? Would Old English hurt them? Thank you!
Hi Abbey! I would suggest gently cleaning with a small amount of water and a mild dish detergent. Do not soak or submerge the toys in water. You could sand lightly with a fine gauge sandpaper if there’s no paint that would be removed. Then let the wood dry thoroughly, in the sun, if possible. When you’re sure the wood is thoroughly dry, I would recommend a coat of beeswax polish or mineral oil, which will be much less toxic for kids that Old English. Bella Luna Toys’ Tried and True Beeswax Polish is a non-toxic mixture of beeswax and natural linseed oil, and is the product I most highly recommend for finishing bare wood and unfinished children’s toys.
Hope this helps!
Hello Sarah, i am a first time mim with a 9 month old. All the toys i have are wooden and i have difficulty cleaning them when she puts them in mouth. As i have friends kids visiting too and all of them are at the stage of putting stuff in their mouths, i am worried that they might sick and was wondering how to clean and save the wooden teethers on a daily basis
Thanks for your question, Akhila. Because wood is naturally anti-bacterial, cleaning your wooden teethers with warm water and a mild detergent or soap (I recommend Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap) should be sufficient to keep your wooden teethers germ-free. I also recommended coating unpainted wooden teethers occasionally with a natural beeswax polish, such as Bee Luna Organic Beeswax Polish.
Hi Akhila,
Because wood is naturally anti-bacterial, cleaning your wooden toys with warm water, a mild soap (I recommend Dr. Bronner’s liquid Castile soap), drying them and finishing with a beeswax polish should be all you need to keep your wooden teethers germ-free. If sick children are visiting, it is best to keep that child’s toys separate from the others.
Hi,
My name is Jill and I’m a young toddler teacher. I just put together a super cute dark wooden garden bridge for my classroom. I really like it and so do the children only I’ve been noticing our hands are getting the stain on them, so my question is what should I put on the bridge to prevent this from continuing that is also safe for my toddlers.