Cleaning a pack n play!

Several months ago, we received a used pack n play from my sister's friend. I was extremely grateful for this because pack n plays can be kind of pricey. I never thought about cleaning it until I opened it up. It was covered in stains and the thought of putting my baby on that made me cringe. I love Google when it comes to these things. I searched "cleaning a pack n play" and found a bunch of directions involving cleaning products that I didn't have and were far too expensive. Finally, I came across a small post that used only three ingredients; Laundry soap, baking soda, and vinegar. While doing a little happy dance about finding one with things I already had in my cupboard, I grabbed the pack n play and started filling the tub. Here are the directions for cleaning a pack n play:

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1 cap of laundry detergent
1/4 cup of baking soda
A splash of vinegar
Extremely hot water
A bath tub

Fill up the bath tub with as hot of water as you can get it. Add the detergent, baking soda, and vinegar to the water and mix it together. Place the pack n play into the water. After some time flip the pack n play over and let it soak some more. After about an 1-2 hours, remove the pack n play from the water and set it up outside. Spray it down with a hose and let it air dry.
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I frequently checked on it because I was worried that it wasn't going to work. There were so many stains on the pad, and I just didn't know if the recipe would work. Every time I checked it, the water was a little browner. At one point, I lifted the pad to see if it was working, and the amount of brown water that came out of it was so gross.

After about 1 1/2 hours, we took it outside and rinsed it off. The pack n play is now stain free, however, the pad is so grimy that I'm going to have to soak it again. A lot of stuff came out of it but there are still some stains on there that I'm sure will come off with another soak or two. I will definitely do this every couple of months just to keep it clean.