Dry cleaning......

It cannot have escaped eagle-eyed readers that I haven't yet mentioned the C-word.

You know..... that thing.

I'll give you a clue.....

Yes Christmas.  Here we are a full week into December and I haven't referenced the impending season.

Well, buckle up buttercups as I'm about to go full on festive.  I'll gloss over the fact that I put our tree and decorations up on 1st December, purely for health reasons, as I suffer from SAD and need as much light at this gloomy, light-starved time of year as is humanly possible. 

I'm now fully immersed in Christmas preparations, aided by volumes of lists (including the grandiosely named 'December Master List'.

Looming large on my list(s) is preparing a doll's house for our little granddaughter (aka Gigglefidget).   She's two and a half and the time has come for her to have a doll's house here, at Nanny and RaRa's house.  So I'm doing a makeover on a children's Chad Valley house, which we picked up for a song on FB Marketplace.  I'm completely redecorating it, and customising wooden furniture sets.

I've decided to populate it with Sylvanian animals, rather than people, who will be engaged in a variety of different comedic scenarios each time Gigglefidget visits.  So I bought a job lot of them from Ebay, complete with loads of costumes etc.  However as they've been pre-loved they need a good spruce up to clean and disinfect them.

Now I have to hold my hands up here and admit I'm a Sylvanian virgin.  I don't think my daughter ever had any, so I'm not au fait with their foibles.

Obviously I've Googled how to clean the little buggers but advice is mixed.  Some sites say they should be dry-cleaned (ie carefully brushed and wiped with a dry cloth).....other suggest the Sylvanian equivalent of a wire brush and dettol, immersing them in hot water for 30 minutes and giving a gentle scrub with an old toothbrush.

Having ascertained that the dry-cleaning route wasn't going to remove some over-enthusiastic 'colouring-in', I decided I had no choice but to resort to a more 'invasive' method.

And right there was a dilemma.  I had to choose one of the many animals to 'volunteer' as a guinea pig, to undergo experimental cleaning.

I won't go into detail about the selection process..... I'm still traumatised by it.  But in the end a daredevil pup with fanciful green and purple 'tattoos' was chosen for the trial.

So.

First try..... baby shampoo in lukewarm water.  Soaked for 10 minutes.  Wiped with soft cloth.  Rinsed.

Result - No effect.

Second go..... mild detergent in hand-hot water.  Soaked for 30 minutes.  Gentle scrub with sponge. Rinsed.

Result - No effect.

Third go..... biological clothes washing liquid in HOT water.  Soaked for 1 hour.  Good going over with an old toothbrush.  Rinsed.

Result - Small improvement.

*sigh*

The pup is still soaking in the last solution (4 hours and counting) but I'm not hopeful that the remaining felt tip marker/crayon will ever surrender.

On the plus side, all the flocking is still there, so they're obviously more resilient than I was led to believe.  Thankfully, I have a lot to choose from, so the merely grubby ones should brush up just fine and the tattooed ones will just have to be 'modified' in some way.

Obviously, if any of you have experience in deep cleaning Sylvanians then step up and share your wisdom.  I really don't want to have to subject any more of them to spurious experimentation.

And NO.... I won't be replicating any of the above scenarios in Gigglefidget's doll's house but the 'forest fr1ends' Twitter account is VERY funny, if completely unsuitable for children (and possibly some adults!) 

Forest Fr1ends on Twitter