Short cuts to dealing with the doh

JustEllaBella shares some her her play-doh tips and tricks for easy, hassle free fun.

Play-doh is a favourite in our house, and has been since before Aidan’s first birthday.

Honestly he just seemed to know that it was for making things and not eating and we have been tripping over moulds, rollers and dried-out projects ever since.

Play-doh is a tricky one, it can be such a hassle when it comes to cleaning and storage so I thought I would share some tips. Play-doh tips and tricks Getting it out of your carpet

• This is a regular in my life...and I find the best way to deal with it is not to deal with it. Well, what I mean is don’t use water or any solvents straight away. Instead, leave it to dry and then brush it off with a stiff brush and vacuum it up, otherwise you will end up with a gooey mess. (Once you have got most of the doh off, you can use cold water and soap to get the last bits off).

Getting it out of clothes

• It is pretty difficult to get play-doh stuck in your clothes but since kids have magical powers, it does happen. Just let it dry, scrape off the excess and wash as normal.

Cleaning up your work surface

• Use a bigger piece of play-doh to remove smaller pieces – just press down and it picks up. If you want to clean off dry pieces, scrape off the majority before using water, as water will make it dissolve into a gooey mess which is harder to clean

Creating a work surface

• A plastic table cloth put on the floor makes for a nice play area for smaller kids, it’s easy to move and pick up and works a charm for Lego and kinetic sand as well

Storing the doh

• Since my kid feels the need to mix different colours into one mass of grossness, I now take the newly bought doh and halve each colour before letting him play with it... The half he is not using goes back into the jars they came in and stacked in a Pringles container (this keeps it from getting lost and falling around in the cupboard) and the others are put in a compartment lunch box.

Restoring moisture to dry doh

• I got this one straight off the Play-doh site To restore the softness to Play-doh, try adding water one drop at a time and working it in to moisten the compound. You can also try wrapping the Play-doh compound in a damp paper towel, returning it to the container and replacing the cover. Let it sit overnight.

Eleanor Douglas-Meyers is a crafty mom from Uitenhage who writes about DIY, parenting, natural hair care, fashion, food and fun on her blog