Toys

Posted: Thu, Apr 17 2008, 4:35 pm Post subject: Toys

This might belike catching a train already pulling out of the station, but what do you do about your kids toys for pesach. Do you only leave a few, how do you clean them etc... There's no way I can tackle all of them!
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Posted: Thu, Apr 17 2008, 4:39 pm Post subject: re: Toys

I never allow food or sticky hands with toys. I just don't like it.

If all my toys had to be cleaned I would likely put most of them away to sell with the chametz.

I wipe things down with a rag or even a baby wipe.

Lego washes well in a washing machine in mesh bags. Then I lay them out to air dry in the bathtub.

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 17 2008 Posts: 3586

Check with your rav. Ours holds that toys don't need to be cleaned unless there are visible LARGE pieces of chametz on it (e.g. a pretzel). Gunk doesn't have to be cleaned. BUT he says you should not bring those toys to the table.

I'm sharing this not because you should listen to our rav's psak, but because I never would have thought it was even a shayla! Apparently it is...

(Btw, our rav is very machmir about a lot of things, and he was speaking to a yeshivish kehillah.)

Diamond Member Joined: Dec 04 2006 Posts: 2694

alwaysgrateful, dh told me just last night - this is the way the shulchan aruch paskens. we drive ourselves crazy for no reason.

Posted: Thu, Apr 17 2008, 7:06 pm Post subject: re: Toys

are you serious?! I am still in the process of washing toys! Some I put away, but the ones my kids generally use I've been washing and cleaning non-stop.

Is it clear cut in the shulchan aruch??

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

I can't even fathom washing toys. I feel like this Shocked

every time I read what some of you do for Pesach.
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Posted: Thu, Apr 17 2008, 8:02 pm Post subject: re: Toys

Wow, I wish I had read this thread before I quarantined everything of DD's. All her books and toys were gone for 2 days and she was so happy to get them (well, 20% of them) back. I'm still not bringing the rest back though. Our apartment is so small, all her toys and books are bound to get onto the table. It'll be toy cleaning probably until we get a house or larger apt.

We just took all the stuff that was non-electronic, non-furry and threw them in a soapy bath and rinsed them off with a hose.

Posted: Thu, Apr 17 2008, 8:05 pm Post subject:

I empty the bins, wash it out, and put the toys back. I buy a few new toys and thats what they play with on pesach, its usually warm so they are mainly outdoors anyways
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Diamond Member Joined: Dec 04 2006 Posts: 2694

Posted: Fri, Apr 18 2008, 11:43 am Post subject: re: Toys

ditto alwaysgrateful and squash... just not needed.

Cassandra, definitely some people do it because they just don't know and assume Pessach is crazy! lol
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Posted: Fri, Apr 18 2008, 12:02 pm Post subject: re: Toys

I'm the imamother above who posted that she just found out from her rav that toys don't need to be cleaned for Pesach.

I don't think it's ridiculous at all that people think they have to clean toys for Pesach. Think about it - kids eat chametz all the time during the year and smear it all over the toys. Kids also eat things off their toys, suck on them, etc. If you wouldn't let them eat chametz normally, why would the fact that it came from a toy make it any different?

Not only that, but if a kid gets chametz from a toy onto his hand or in his mouth, and then touches (or mouthes) something that gets put on your pesachdik table a minute later...

I don't think it's "strange" at all that people think they have to clean their toys. I think it's common sense, unless you've heard otherwise.

And everyone - please ask your own rav just to make sure...

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

Why is it common sense? I am trying really hard to think of something that is actual chametz that is sticky enough to stick to toys, and that is at least a k'zayis. I am not a neat freak by any means and toys are all over my house, including on the table, and I still don't get how there can be chometz in or on my toys. And unless you boil your toys in a pot with chametz a toy just being next to or touching chometz will not make it chometz. Your Rav said you don't have to clean them and I imagine he has a better grasp of halacha than you do, in which case you might want to rethink your "common sense" about what is chametz and what causes something else to become chametz because in all likeliness your premises are wrong.

Unless there are things like whole pretzels in your toys, in which case you should clean them, not only for Pesach, but also to avoid infestation.

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 17 2008 Posts: 3586

I'm sorry if my last post wasn't clear (I'm that imamother - sorry it was anon - it's me!). I wasn't saying that my common sense overrides what my rav said. I was just responding to the comments on this thread that said "some people do it because they just don't know and assume Pessach is crazy" or "I feel like this Shocked

every time I read what some of you do for Pesach." It's not strange to think you should clean toys.

I can think of a lot of food that would stick to toys - oatmeal, baby cereal, etc. No, it's not more than a kzayis, so you can OWN it, but you can't EAT it. And if you have an older baby or younger toddler crawling around who eats and mouths EVERYTHING, it would "seem" to make sense that you need to clean toys off. That doesn't mean I'm gonig to clean any toys this Pesach, just that I understand why people (myself included!) would think they should if they haven't heard differently.

Silver Member Joined: Dec 18 2006 Posts: 694 Location: NY

Throughout this entire Pesach-cleaning process, I keep repeating to myself, "Crumbs are not chametz." I think this is an important mantra (for me, at least). After becoming frum, I was so scared about Pesach cleaning because everyone makes such a huge deal of it. I agree, it is hard, and it is a big deal, and it is obviously extremely important. HOWEVER---crumbs are not chametz! Sticky residue on a toy is not chametz. Dust is not chametz. Deep breath, everyone.

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

Unless your kids eat oatmeal every day for multiple meals, what are the odds of oatmeal being on all or most of their toys?

Similarly, if your kids are in the habit of eating their toys and licking off the food that, don't give them oatmeal for a week before Pesach and the oatmeal will get cleaned off by them.

Personally I would not let my children play with toys that had actual edible oatmeal caked on to it because that sounds absolutely gross, but that just might be a personal sensitivity.

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 17 2008 Posts: 3586

Am I wrong in thinking that crumbs ARE chometz but are not assur to own because they're less than a kzayis? They are, however, assur to eat - "Chometz assur b'mashehu." So if you have some crumbs behind the fridge, or on a high shelf, or in a closet somewhere, it shouldn't be an issue. But if two crumbs, say, fell in your soup, that would be an issue, right? If you fed your 1-year-old a few breadcrumbs on Pesach, that would be an issue, right?

I can't speak for sanitary aspects of the gunk on the toys right now, as I don't have any little ones crawling around at the moment. But I have been to houses where I wouldn't be surprised if there was stuff on the toys - When you've got 5 kids under the age of 6, you don't always realized when one kid with gunky hands gets a hold of a toy, nor do you wash your toys regularly. (Please don't tell me you shouldn't have five kids under the age of six - this is just a scenario.)

And it doesn't have to be on ALL of the toys - only on one. And I think it's a fair assumption that there's a decent chance there might be chometz on one of them. Even pretzel or cracker crumbs stuck in the cracks...

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

I had four kids under five and I still don't think I have actual chometz caked on any of my toys. And the way to avoid this is-- look at your toys as you give them to your child and if you see that it is covered in oatmeal put it away until after yom tov. I still cannot fathom any reason to clean all your toys, unless your home is filthy, in which case you should clean your house for lots of reasons, not the least of which is Pesach.

I still contend that in most homes the notion that one has to wash every single toy is outlandish.

Posted: Fri, Apr 18 2008, 1:17 pm Post subject: re: Toys

sure there must be some level of cleanliness... my dad says "if it's not clean it cannot be kosher". For years he didn't go to the restaurants because the kosher places where known for their dirtiness, people getting sick... and thought, if they can't even keep clean, they can't keep kosher lol

Silver Member Joined: Mar 20 2007 Posts: 944

My older kids read at the table. I took out every book, and believe me, I found crumbs, stuck on gunk, all kinds of stuff on the books and in the cases. (We have 6 book cases in the dining room.) I found pieces of challah on the second to top shelf of a tall book case. (I don't normally empty that one; this year I did.) The baby has Rubbermaid bins to keep her board books in under the coffee table. I found cheerios in there. (Those are regularly emptied and wiped out.)

I found twizzler wrappers in weird places too. (My boys shove them into their pockets. I found them in the laundry room, in the front yard --- the school sent them home at dismissal before Pesach.)

I did wash all the babies toys with bleach.

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754