I'm a Bad Pony Mom :(

[Chrissytree]

Hello ma'am, I'm from the Department of Families and Ponies, I'm afraid I'm going to have to remove these little ones from your care...

I second the canned air and Swiffer wipers suggestions! Those things are amazing!

Noooooo!!! I'll do better, I promise! Lol. They get as much ice cream and popcorn as they can eat and lemonade to drink.  Other than getting them fat and dusty I'm a great mother

[hathorcat]

I use compressed air on pony hair as well You can pick it up at places like Maplin but its expensive that way as its being sold for cleaning out computers. You can get it from Sainsburys or Amazon online much cheaper

I feel your pain on the dusting. Last time I dusted the pony room it took 14 hours off and on with assistance...I have since relocated the room to a room without a carpet (because yay that means less dust).

As for any advice, the compressed air is the best idea as dust can cause the nylon to become brittle and break therefore brushing is not always a great option (although it can take a long time for the dust to be sitting on the hair for this to happen).

Have fun?! Although once its all done and they are all shiny and beautiful it will be a wonderful feeling.

[daffodil101]

I really want to put glass doors on my billy bookcases to protect my ponies, but i'm living in a rental with my mum at the moment and she has a weird thing about glass.  So of course I want to honour her feelings and won't get doors... I'm thinking of just hanging a sheet over the bookcases held on with velcro patches.  Not the most attractive, but at least will give decent protection against dust and sunlight.

Yes cleaning ponies is such a massive job!  I'm in the process of cleaning my collection and doubles to make comparisons.  It's gonna take foreverrrrr. 

[BlushingBlue]

I have a pack of cheap white cotton gloves that I use to dust my knick-knacks, including ponies. They are a lot like these http://www.amazon.com/Size-Medium-Jewelry-Inspection-Premium/dp/B00CUN4SQC/ and I just sort of... pet the dust off the ponies while wearing them? For ponies with curly hair that I don't want to smoosh, I do an upside down gentle shake and blow maneuver. When one set of gloves gets too grubby, I just throw them in the wash.

The fluffy Swiffer dusters work just as well, but they're a lot more expensive, and once they're dirty they're done for. I usually save them for hard to reach surfaces like the tops of cabinets and ceiling fans.

Gas dusters would probably work a treat too, but please be careful with them. It's not just "air" in there, it's usually something like tetrafluoroethane. If you do all 600 at once while in an enclosed space, you could get very woozy. Also, since the chemical propellants are also powerful refrigerants, you can get frostbite if they come in contact with your skin. The stories I could tell you about my naughty little brother's friends stealing my gas dusters to waste them on getting high and burning each other...

There are "organic" air dusters too, which are truly only compressed air, but they're bulkier, noisier, and much more expensive, although they are rechargeable so you can use them over and over.

I feel like this post makes me sound like some sort of dusting fiend. Dusting was always my chore as a little girl, so I guess I formed Opinions!

I'm thinking of just hanging a sheet over the bookcases held on with velcro patches.  Not the most attractive, but at least will give decent protection against dust and sunlight.

I bought some small tension rods and hemmed curtains out of pony fabric to protect my ponies from the sun. I won't pretend that a $20 bookcase and a $5 curtain rod looks as nice as a proper cabinet, but it was simple and got the job done. Plus it was easy to pull the curtain aside if I wanted to mess with them or just have them on display.

[Lady.Arachnia]

I use my vacuum cleaner on the lowest stand with the special brush on it for using to get off pethairs from furniture and it works perfect for me! Some ponies need a little brushing afterwards but that's fine!

[Chrissytree]

I'm well into my cleaning! The make up brush has worked brilliantly and a quick brush of the hair has been fine for all of them. Strangely the dust doesn't seem to settle on the hair and some ponies are completely dust free when their neighbours are caked! Some just seem to be naturally anti-static. It seems to be a light, fine dust and easy to brush away.

I've had to give a few a proper clean - mostly white ones who've picked up actual dirt over the years. I've also got a few cancer spots, two sunny scent ponies included and flutter butter with pin dot mould on her nose. I've got varying degrees of stickiness on the usual suspects: Candy Apple and the Divine Shine ponies.

Thought you might like to see a before pic of one of the very worst...
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Snapdragon]

LOL, I feel like Fizzy Pop could be an archeological find! Perhaps from a pyramid, like in one of the rooms filled with earthly wealth!

[Artemesia's Garden]

I really want to put glass doors on my billy bookcases to protect my ponies, but i'm living in a rental with my mum at the moment and she has a weird thing about glass.  So of course I want to honour her feelings and won't get doors... I'm thinking of just hanging a sheet over the bookcases held on with velcro patches.  Not the most attractive, but at least will give decent protection against dust and sunlight.

Putting a flat sheet over a bookshelf looks fine, fold it and don't worry about the velcro.  I have glass fronted shelves and I leave them a third open on each side for air circulation with a sheet over the top to reduce the light levels.



Post Merge: May 08, 2015, 01:43:01 PM

I have a pack of cheap white cotton gloves that I use to dust my knick-knacks, including ponies... and I just sort of... pet the dust off the ponies while wearing them?

That's so cute!

[Chrissytree]

LOL, I feel like Fizzy Pop could be an archeological find! Perhaps from a pyramid, like in one of the rooms filled with earthly wealth!

lol, funny you should say that: I feel like some kind of archaeologist dusting fossils with a soft brush and watching the dust clouds form around it. Wish my room was filled with wealth... I guess my ponies are my treasure
Before I started I decided to do all the dusting outside. You can see I made the right choice!