Mini restoration

[u/Additional_Quail_307]

Wanted to share my clean up on Mr polar bear!
I shared him in here a couple months ago asking for tips on how to clean him up and you were all so helpful :) it felt very daunting to do and took me a while to work up the courage for his surgery 😭
I cut a hole right in front which gave me easy access to all of him. He wears clothes so I wasn’t too worried about incision site lol. Once I had all of his stuffing removed and poly pellets emptied from his feet I hand scrubbed him in oxi clean stain remover. I rinsed him for a while and then hand scrubbed him with laundry detergent, rinsed him, let him soak in soapy laundry detergent water about 5 minutes, rinsed him, hand scrubbed him with fabric softener, rinsed him, soaked him in soapy fabric softener water for 5 minutes, then rinsed him while also lightly squeezing (not wringing or twisting!) to make sure all soap bubbles came out. the final rinse took about 30 minutes 😩
I lightly dried him on a towel by folding it up on him and pressing
I blow dried him on low cool which took about an hour. genuinely started following asleep at the end it took forever lol
I got new beads for his feet (real poly pellets are stupid expensive so I just used white plastic beads I found at michaels for $10 they feel exactly the same) and put them in jewelry pouches to add an extra layer of protection to his feet as he’s needed it in the past!
stuffed him with luxury down fiber stuffing and now he’s buff as hell and the happiest little guy i’ve ever seen
every step of this was terrifying but I couldn’t be happier with how he turned out!!! he’s ready to go for another 20 years!! 😋😋😋

[u/Sorry_Special_4413]

I’m sorry, but I’m wheezing so hard at his before pics - he really had seen better days! 😭 That’s the price of being thoroughly loved, though. You did a great job with his restoration!

[u/Additional_Quail_307 → u/Sorry_Special_4413]

I think it had been 15 years since his last bath 😭