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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
Holy Flood Batman! Have questions on wet toys...
So this morning I woke up to find my downstairs almost completely flooded by the water heater. LO thought she was in Water Park HEAVEN and was soaked head to foot while I rushed around trying to call maintenance and pick up the toys at the same time. Maintenance is already working (water shut off, and squeegee guys should be here shortly as well as a new water heater...) and I have picked everything up off the floor, wet or not.
But now I need to know about LO's toys. Hypothetically the water from the water heater is clean but it also washed out some nasty looking foam stuff with it onto the playroom floor so I'm working on the assumption that the water is not clean.:
Board Books I have already tossed ( *whimper* all twenty of them....so much money...*whimper*)
Plastic toys are spread out over the court yard area in front of my apartment. They can all get soapy water and clorox on them...and none of the electronic ones look like they were soaked completely. I'm not too worried about them walking off since the complex is gated and LO is the ONLY under 18 year old in the complex.
What about the stuffed animals? I know the smallish ones could probably go through the washer and tumble air dry in the dryer or out on the top of my car in the 100 degree heat but what about the bigger ones? The ones with electronics in them like the ones from Build-a-Bear?
The thin play room rug? The guy who rushed over to turn off the water to my apartment said that the squeegee guys would get the rug outside for me but what then? Just let it dry? Or what? I don't have any way of washing the rug where I am right now? It was really cheap so it's no real loss if I have to toss it.
Boppy pillow? It's soaked and my washer is too small not to mangle the pillow. If I were to handwash it in the bath tub would it be able to dry thoroughly outside? Prior to this I have always taken it to my parents house on visits and washed it in their HE washer and dried it on the stationary dryer rack...
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Re: Holy Flood Batman! Have questions on wet toys...
I would err on the side of caution and probably toss the stuffed animals that you cannot wash as well as the boppy. The rug you may be able to clean (rent a steam cleaner or have a company clean). Depending on how much damage you have (any furniture damaged? electronics?) I would call my homeowners or renters insurance and inquire about filing a claim depending on what your deductible is. if the baseboards got wet, I would worry about the possibility of mold growing and would probably want a professional company to come out and clean it up (ServePro is one I can think of off the top of my head).
For the board books, check out TJMaxx or Marshalls for replacements - that's where I always buy books for my DS because they are always pretty cheap and they have a good selection. So sorry to hear about the flood!
I would consider a trip to the laundramat for some of the bigger items such as the boppy and large stuff animals. Check the electronic ones to see if the electronic boxes can be removed. If not you can throw them through the wash and hope they survive, if not you were going to throw them away anyhow.
I would steam clean the rug either with a rug doctor or professionally.
Hope you can get it figured out.
The maintenance guys have already pulled up the carpet and pad beneath it. They'll replace the padding on Monday but they said the carpet itself will be fine once they take the rug doctor to it tomorrow (ran out of time today). They left the big turbo drying fans for me to use. Water heater was replaced. They also used their rug doctor and got the playroom mat taken care of and it's now drying over the balcony railing. They also said that this apartment specifically (and my neighbors walls) would be monitored for mold and that they have someone come out once a year anyway to check random apartments and they will tell him to check my apartment specifically. In the long run the mold risk doesn't really matter to me because I move in 2 weeks but it's nice to know this apartment management takes control of mold before it gets a strong hold on the building.
No furniture or electronic losses because I caught the leak about half way through the entire water heater draining. So I'm only going to lose the board books and whatever stuffed animals that I feel didn't get cleaned well enough. The furniture I got pulled away before the carpet even felt damp so that's ok. Thanks for suggesting the dry cleaners for the boppy. I never would have thought of that.
ETA: I did talk to insurance and since I'm only looking at the loss of the stuffed animals and books, I won't meet the deductible and the apartment has a handle on the clean up. Not a huge deal since now I can get all different books because LO seemed bored with what we had and the animals were mostly gifts so we had too many anyway.