Scrabble Tiles: Cleaning Tips?

[TheAfricanQueen]

I just bought a dilapidated Scrabble game for a $1 at a yard sale today.

There seems to be some perfumey smell to tiles as well as some liquid having sloshed onto them.

When I searched the internet for how to clean the tiles, I didn't get very good results. One site stated not to use soap and water because it would remove the lettering.

My nephew found a site that suggested using bleach.

Any stamper ever play with these?

[alsmouse]

take one tile to use as a test. Try washing it with a q-tip & white vinegar. That should remove the stinky & clean it too.

[TheAfricanQueen]

Thank you, Almouse! I'll give that a go.

[GameGirlAZ D]

Hello AQ!
I am not sure this is a good idea but I thought I would throw it your way. I took my VERY worn Scrabble Game and put a handful of tiles in HOT water with plain original blue Dawn dishwashing liquid and wiped the tiles good with my hands and paper towels. They look like new. Then I thought, what about plain original Windex sprayed directly on the tiles on a paper towel. I wiped them really good on the paper towel. The dirt came off really well BUT, I like the feeling of the tiles that I washed with Dawn far more than the ones I washed with Windex. BOTH are clean and look like new.

[GameGirlAZ D]

Now that I did my little "Science Experiment" all but about 12 of my Scrabble tiles look bad. I took a picture but of course it won't copy.

[TheAfricanQueen]

Thank you Game Girl. I haven't played with my Scrabble Tiles yet. I did some more work on the owl for my niece this past weekend. Then today, we spent the day at the hospital as a friend of ours mother had a major heart attack this morning. As of this moment, she's still hanging on.

For sake of ease, I may just go this route. I'll take some before and after pics. Dawn is a terrific degreaser. When my husband and our employee does window cleaning, Dawn is what they use. It goes above and beyond many of the other dishwashing detergents.

[GameGirlAZ D]

I think I can show you the picture today.
The few on the bottom left were cleaned off with Dawn and those on the bottom right were sprayed and wiped with Windex.

[Yankee]

I kind of like the dirty ones!
But you have to finish cleaning them, to keep down cheating!

[GameGirlAZ D]

Hi Yankee!
YOU are right. I didn't think of that until I thought I had completed the experiment. Now that I have decided that I like the ones that I cleaned with Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, I had made sure they were dry and I closed the box. I guess I have more work to do. And to think, I have a new package of Scrabble tiles that I purchased from a craft store. I don't know which one. I never thought about washing the tiles in an old game. I think I have a few Scrabble Games in here.

[TheAfricanQueen]

Oh Yankee! You made laugh!