My kids made a bee line for the big LEGO pile and dove in. I was two steps behind, ready to bury my son to his chin in LEGO. Like Scrooge McDuck in a vault of gold coins, my kids tossed the brightly colored bricks in the air and their smiles widened.
My wife couldn’t bear to watch. Her mind raced with thoughts of where that LEGO had been over the course of its cross continent tour. The LEGO KidsFest is a traveling show bringing truckloads of every type of brick imaginable.
Later in the show, when she had a chance to pull one of the Master Builders off to the side, she didn’t ask anything about building, or inspiration, or creativity. No, it was about cleaning the bricks.
“Do you clean them?” Yes, came the polite response. “How exactly do you clean LEGO?” she pushed and the wondrous answers were revealed. Here’s the big secret, gang. 3 ways to clean LEGO after your gang has a playdate, or, yknow, you dump a truckload in a convention hall for kids to jump in.
For all of these cleaning methods, a mesh bag (like you might use for lingerie) is a good idea to keep all the LEGO brick collected.
Dunk it
Get a big bucket of water, drop in a splash of chlorine and dunk your bricks. You can slosh the bag of bricks in, or just let them float about individually. After stirring for a few minutes, and letting them sit for a few more, dump the bricks out (careful not to lose any down the drain) and air them out on a towel.
Washing Machine
You don’t want to let them loose in the washing machine – use the lingerie/mesh bag. Drop the bag in, put the machine on delicate, and let it do its thing. Again, dump them out on some towels and let them dry overnight, or however long it takes. Make sure you’re turning them to dump out all the water that might sit in the holes.
Dishwasher
Put the bag of bricks on the top rack and let the dishwasher go through its cycle. Again, make sure you rotate the bag and bricks when you pull it out to drain them properly and dry them out.
That’s all it takes. A little bit of chlorine or your choice of washing appliance and you can get your LEGO fresh and new and ready for the next big party.