I’ve been cleaning out during our self quarantine. Not just getting rid of things, but finding new ways to use what we have.

In previous pre-Corona times, I would find a project on Pinterest, go to the store for all of the supplies, and honestly never get around to doing 75% of the brilliant ideas.

Because my kids have literally baskets full of toys that they never use, I wanted to come up with a way to bring new life to them… I also know they have really enjoyed water play these past few weeks. I might not have more free time in my day, but they for sure do…

So whatever I can find to entertain them, and is free, I’m there.

As I was cleaning out the boys bathroom I found a stack of hotel soaps that the boys had never used. My mom travels a lot for business and would always bring them back the soaps because they were a perfect size for the boys… these though, they didn’t like the smell. Something easily fixed with essential oils after the soaps have been melted down.

For this project I used measuring cups as soap molds, but really you could use anything around your house that can hold hot liquids. I did spray cooking spray in the bottoms of them first, and I didn’t have a problem with any of them sticking.

Of course each soap will melt a little differently, so be careful and do small batches in the microwave at first. I did add a little water to mine after about 45 seconds and that helped with pouring.

Once I had the soap at a consistency to a pourable liquid I moved quickly to get the soap in, the toys placed so the soap was around the majority of them (enough so they don’t easily come out of the mold) and added baking sprinkles on top. You could also mix these throughout the soap if you would like. Keep in mind though the warm liquid soap does start to disintegrate the sprinkles.

How adorable is this little guy. I decided to let them sit for 24 hours to harden, but as soon as my 4 year old saw his toys on the counter he couldn’t wait to play in the tub with them. Mission accomplished.

First he pretended like he was having a tea party with his favorite Disney characters and then he washed all of the dishes with his new soap. The toys made it easy for him to hold onto the soaps and I knew he was super clean by the time he was done in the shower.

My seven year old asked if we could make other ones with some of his figurines, so we are planning on that sometime next week.

An absolutely no cost activity with supplies I already had in my house. I imagine the toys are now hanging out in the tub talking about what a great day they had in a legit Toy Story storyline. Anyone else think about their kids toys this way?