I know playdough is not super-pricey, but I’m still a cheapskate. My girls would go through a million tubes if I’d let them. Playdough is not my favorite activity, honestly. Kids+playdough≠neatness. Plus, I figure that if they’re gonna make such a mess of the playdough, they can take care of it, too. It’s called responsibility!
Between that and the fact that I’ve been in a decluttering mood lately, it was time to go through the playdough. That bug seems to hit the second the sun comes out in spring and when my life feels out of balance. For me, my brain is all tied to my house; when my brain feels cluttered, the easiest solution is to declutter my house, and then somehow my brain seems less scattered.
years and years ago, I came across this site. This person is a GENIUS! I’ve used this hack so many times.
She advises you to break the play doh into pea-sized pieces (if I bother at all, we used the extruder. Much less time-consuming. Or if it was too hard to go through the extruder, we just crumbled it. 2 of ours were that far gone.) Then we sprayed a spray bottle of water into the bag and shook the bag up to evenly coat. Then we waited a few minutes (more like a few hours, I got distracted), and then I hand the bag to my toddlers (and watch them! No exploded playdough bags, please. Also, make sure they’re not full of a lot of air). It’s a good sensory activity for them, plus it builds hand strength.
Sometimes I spray them again and shake them up, but most of the time, they’re as good as new by the end.
And if you accidentally add too much water (done that) either mix more dry dough in or leave the bag open and check it about once an hour.
And to think, Play Doh says it can’t be done and you’ll have to buy another tub…
