Cleaning a giant ball pit

You might be wondering…

With over 35,000 balls, how do you possibly keep that ball pit clean!?

This is a really good question, and obviously a fair one to ask any commercial facility with a ball pit for children.

We did a lot of research prior to opening Lil Monsters Playground so that we could develop what we think is the most sophisticated approach to ball pit sanitation. We complete a deep clean every month which, according to our research, is about 6x more often than our competitors.

Beyond our monthly deep clean, we also carefully monitor for damaged or discolored balls every day. If we spot an imperfection in a ball on a day-t0-day basis, it either gets hand washed and re-integrated or discarded and replaced with a new one. Plus, to be proactive, we have ‘yuck buckets’ throughout the playground where parents can toss balls that they notice could use some attention (toddlers lick the weirdest things 🫠).

Read on to learn about our 9-step monthly deep clean approach!

Step 1: gather the balls

Using plastic shovels, so as not to damage any equipment, we begin by shoveling all balls into the northeast corner of the ball pit. Concentrating them in one area will make it easier to feed them through our commercial ball washing machine.

Step 2: prepare the ball washing machine

We fill our commercial ball washing machine with a high grade sanitizing fluid that kills 99.9% of germs. Using a high grade sanitizing fluid means parents can rest assured that the balls are clean and the playground is a safe place to bring even their lil’est monsters.

Step 3: activate the UV light

Next, we wheel the ball washing machine over to the northeast corner of the ball pit and activate the UV light. The UV light kills any remaining germs that the sanitizing fluid might miss as they balls make their way through the machine. 🤜 Take that, germs!

Step 4: suck balls into the ball washing machine

Now it gets fun! We place the vacuum spout of the commercial ball washing machine in the concentrated pile of balls and start suckin’ those suckers up! It’s always a bonus when the two lil monsters who inspired the business in the first place are down to help 🥰

Step 5: watch the magic happen

We run each individual ball through the ball washing machine, then sort them into sterilized mesh bags to dry fully. As the balls go through the machine, they first get soaked in the sanitizing fluid, tossed to dry, then dumped into a tube which dispenses them out into our clean mesh bags. This step takes about 5 hours to complete, but it’s worth it knowing our ball pit is germ free!

Step 6: take a lunch break

We couldn't do this without our awesome team. They come in on their days off to help, so we’re happy to treat everyone to a yummy lunch!

Step 7: tidy & sweep up the floors

With all balls removed and in their drying bags, we collect any lost items found at the bottom of the pit, store them in our lost and found, then sweep up floors! We’ve found some pretty silly treasures at the bottom of the pit 🐓

Step 8: mop the floors

Now we mop the entire floor of ball pit, all the surrounding benches, slides, and cushion bases at the bottom of the slides with our disinfecting solution (almost done!!)

Step 9: refill the ball pit

Last step! We toss all the ✨ sparkly ✨ clean balls back into the pit for all to enjoy.

Thanks for following along. We hope to welcome you and your kiddos to our local, family-owned indoor playground here in Northern Colorado soon!