If you have kids, chances are you have some type of LEGO bricks (or their generic equivalent) in your house right now. Chances are you stepped on one (at least) barefoot while doing it Taught your child some of their first swear words.
If you think about it, these little plastic building blocks are pretty gross. They’ve likely been in their mouths, bare feet, and on the bathroom floor, and were definitely in your child’s dirty little hands. If you haven’t washed yours in a long time (or never), here’s how to clean them.
How to clean LEGO bricks, according to LEGO
For some reason, LEGO parts seem to develop this film within minutes of unboxing, which is partly sticky and partly dirty. If you bought these plastic building blocks at a flea market, flea market, or thrift store, they are almost always pre-filmed. Either way, you’ll want to wash them.
The official cleaning instructions from LEGO are pretty simple:
We recommend that you clean your LEGO® parts by hand with water no hotter than 104 ° F / 40 ° C and a soft cloth or sponge. Higher temperatures can affect the quality of the parts. You can add a mild cleaning agent to the water – then rinse well with clear water and you’re done!
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They come with me too this warning:
Please do not put your LEGO® parts in the washing machine or dishwasher and do not try to dry them in the oven, microwave or hair dryer. If the stones get really hot, they can change shape, which means they will no longer work!
They make it sound so simple.
More detailed tips on cleaning LEGO bricks
We understand why LEGO doesn’t want to provide potentially overwhelming, very detailed instructions on how to wash their bricks, but a little more information can really help. That is something that Joshua Lyon poses in a recent article for Wirecutterec.
To begin with, Lyon states that you should clean each stone individually, which means that you should separate all that are clicked together. While LEGO sells its own brick cutterwhich, according to Lyon, makes work a lot easier, you can certainly pull them apart by hand. (Though the brick cutter is $ 2.49, it can be worth it if your kids are big LEGO fans.)
From here, Lyon divides the washing process into steps based on the materials needed:
- Large plastic container: Fill this with washing up liquid, water and a whole series of Lego bricks.
- Mild dishwashing detergent: Never use anything that contains bleach to clean Lego as it will damage the bricks.
- Soft cloth or sponge: Lego recommends using one of these to scrub each brick.
- Small plastic bucket or mesh bag: Soapy water Lego bricks can be batch washed in a small bucket, or use a mesh bag to wash off all of your bricks in bulk.
- Towels: Use as many as you need to spread your Lego bricks while they air dry.
- Fan: Do not expose your Lego pieces to the extreme heat of a hair dryer. A fan is the best way to speed up the drying process.
And it doesn’t stop there: Lyon also gives instructions when cleaning large quantities of LEGO parts, restoring discolored bricks and dusting off sets on display.
