Best Overall Toy Cleaner: Babyganics Toy & Highchair Cleaner Spray

Babyganics topped our tests for the best toy cleaner: we liked the plant-based ingredients with no fragrances or dyes. It has a nice smell, cleans well and is affordable.

What’s not to like? Well, this cleaner does NOT disinfect.

So even though this cleaner ticks all the right boxes (no ammonia, bleach, phosphates, parabens, pthalates, etc), it isn’t the best choice if you need to disinfect toys.

Best Plant-Based Toy Cleaner: Puracy Natural All Purpose Cleaner

This non-toxic cleaner is great for toys as well as other surfaces in your home. (If it is used for toys, you should also rinse the toys after cleaning).

The scent (green tea and lime) is pleasant without being overwhelming.

We tested Puracy against a variety of old school chemical cleaners like Formula 405 as well as some new school “natural” cleaners like Method.

Puracy Natural Multi-Surface Cleaner, while not perfect at cleaning every surface or stain, scored remarkably well leaving little residue and a decent scent that doesn’t linger too long. It’s great at attacking grease and managed surprisingly well when we tried to remove older stains from countertops and stove tops.

Parents score Puracy high too, according to a dozen interviews with readers of our Baby Bargains book. Most appreciated the lack of harsh chemicals like ammonia—Puracy contains various plant extracts and no SLS or petroleum-based ingredients. Overall, they thought it cleaned well.

Some readers complained it does leave streaks on mirrors and windows and it requires a bit more elbow grease to get tough stains out. On the plus side, very few readers reported skin, eye or throat irritation and some said they could even clean without protective gloves!

Bottom line: Puracy Natural Multi-Surface Cleaner scored well with our readers as well as in reviews online. Puracy also gets good grades from eco-testing groups for its less harsh chemical ingredients.

Best Foaming Toy Cleaner: ToyLife Foaming Toy Cleaner

We know folks like foaming cleaners, so we tried a few multi-surface cleaners in this category before picking ToyLife.

Yes, this is another toy cleaner that is aimed at an audience other than toddlers and kids. However, we found it did a good job at cleaning kid toys—it is hypoallergenic; no parabens, sulfates, or alcohol.

If you use this cleaner on toys, you must rinse it off after cleaning.

The mild scent is pleasant.

Why Trust Us

We’ve been rating and reviewing products for the home and families since 1994. We do hands-on testing—we buy the products with our own money and evaluate with an eye toward safety, ease of use and affordability.

Here’s another key point: we don’t take money from the brands we review. No free samples, no sponsors, no “partnerships.” That keeps our reviews independent and unbiased!