Sensory play is an important part of aiding childhood development. It allows you to introduce your little ones to a whole new world of textures, colors, and sounds in a hands-on way! But, let’s be honest, sometimes we completely avoid letting our kids participate in sensory play because it can be messy. 

And I get it… the playdough, the slime, the glitter, those pesky stickers they can all inevitably lead to a whirlwind of chaos. But, here’s the thing: there is a way to keep the chaos to a minimum! 

If you want to integrate sensory play fun without stressing about the clean-up, you’re in luck! Today, I’m sharing some of my favorite mess-free sensory play tips and tricks, plus mess-free sensory play activities!

Mess-Free Sensory Play Tips And Tricks

Set play boundaries to contain the mess. 

Establishing play zones is a fantastic way to ensure that activities don’t spread throughout the entire house! There’s tons of easy ways to accomplish this. You could use a specific table for each task, different bins for different activities, or you can even divide the area with painters tape.

These methods allow for your little ones to easily visualize where their play boundaries are. It keeps the material contained to one area, and can even help teach the importance of containing messes! 

Contain your sensory play materials in separate bins or sensory tables. 

Life is much simpler when everything has a place, (I know moms’ around the world are nodding in agreement right now!) Organizing materials into designated bins or tables is another way to provide boundaries for different sensory play materials. 

Not only does this minimize clean-up, it’s also a fantastic way to show your little ones how to put things back where they belong. Once you’re done with an activity, just put them right back into their bins or sensory table spots! 

If you need some inspo on how to organize a playroom or on how to create a DIY sensory table, I’ve got you covered!

Take the sensory play outside. 

Moving those sensory play activities outside is such an efficient way to minimize clean-up especially if you do want to provide activities with messier bases. Your children get to enjoy their activities, and you get to enjoy not stressing about cleaning up the house! 

Plus, the fresh air and outdoor environment can totally transform an average sensory experience into something much more impactful and enjoyable. 

Be intentional about the bases you choose for sensory activities. 

Choosing the right bases for sensory play can make clean-up so much easier. If you want to avoid the mess altogether, just be a bit more conscious of what materials you use! 

Opt for bases that are dry, non-sticky, and easier to vacuum up. Things like beans, cotton balls, pasta, and rice are great examples! Or if you’re using a play recipe that has liquid bases, consider using liquids that won’t leave behind stains or residues, like water and watercolors. 

You can also always adjust materials in (most) activities for your convenience. For example, if you want your kiddos to get the benefits from playing with slime but you don’t want to deal with slime clean-up, use playdough! (...this was a sneak peek at one of the activities I have listed below!) 

Mess-Free Sensory Play Activities Your Kids Will LOVE

Float Your Boat Activity

This activity provides the same amount of fun as other water-based activities, with much less clean up! And all it is, is seeing how many coins can float in a boat before they sink. 

First, add water to a bowl (or sensory bin) and throw in some fun small toys, like fish for example! Next, make a little boat out of aluminum foil you can have your little one help with this step if you want! After that, add coins into the boat one by one. If your kids are old enough, incorporate counting each coin as you go! Just be mindful of coins, as they can be a choking hazard if left unsupervised.

Now you have an activity that’s beneficial for sensory exploration, cognitive development, and creativity and imagination, without having to clean up puddles all throughout your play area.

Discovery DIY Sensory Bag

There’s two huge benefits to sensory bags they’re quick to make and mess-free! 

Grab a gallon sized freezer ziplock bag and fill the bag up with dry waterproof materials (think of things like pom-poms, glitter, and confetti anything without sharp edges!) Add water to about the halfway mark, making sure to remove all the air before closing, and you’re done! It’s that easy. 

Kids love to manipulate the small materials around the bag, which is helpful for developing their sense of touch and fine motor skills!

Mess Less Slime Recipe

As promised, I’m giving you guys my favorite hack for creating a mess-less slime activity! It’s just as stretchy, but not nearly as sticky. It also lasts for months at a time, so your little ones can enjoy some reusable fun!  

All you need is 1 pack of Crayola’s Model Magic, and 2 tablespoons of lotion. Add one tablespoon to the model magic and mend it with your hands until it’s all blended. Repeat the process by adding in your second tablespoon, mending it together, and voila! It’s play time!

To keep it fresh, place it inside of a zip close bag or an air-tight container. 

Homemade Puffy Paint Recipe

If you’re looking for mess-free activity for a rainy day indoors, you can’t go wrong with this homemade puffy paint! This paint doesn’t drip, it’s mess-free, and saves us moms a TON of stress. 

Putting equal parts of glue and shaving cream into a bowl, add in some food coloring and mix it all together. Once you’ve mixed it, add the paint into a ziplock bag. Zip the bag up, cut a small piece of the corner off, and squeeze the paint through the opening! 

You can paint on both horizontal and vertical surfaces, how fun is that!

Letter Find Sensory Bag

I LOVE this activity because it’s mess-free, educational, and aids with fine motor muscles! If you’re working on teaching your little ones how to match uppercase and lowercase letters, I can’t recommend this activity enough.

Using a plastic zipper bag, remove the label with an alcohol swab for a clean, plain bag. With a permanent marker, randomly write uppercase letters around the bag you can place a dark piece of construction paper on the inside for better visibility! Take some craft stickers, and write uppercase letters on one side of the stick, and lowercase letters on the other side.

Now you have an easy way for kids to explore the alphabet without it seeming tiring or overwhelming.   

Magic Patterns DIY

This is a fun activity that will contain the mess, and amaze your little ones all at the same time! 

Take a piece of paper towel and either draw patterns, make dots, or write things with washable markers. Add a plain piece of paper towel (or two) on top so you can conceal the designs. Give your kid a dropper or paint brush alongside a bowl of water, and let them get to work. 

All they have to do is paint over the paper towel to magically reveal what’s underneath! 

Recycled Bottles

This activity is fantastic for working with your kids on motor skills and color sorting! Take 6 recycled plastic bottles and cut off the tops of each of them. Place each top on a piece of cardboard in a rainbow pattern, and either use hot glue or crazy glue to keep the bottles in place. 

Place dot stickers of varying colors of the rainbow on each bottle cap you can use paint if you don’t have dot stickers! Finally, place a bunch of different colored pom poms into a bowl, and have your little one pick them out and place them into their correct bottes! 

It’s easy, it’s fun, it’s mess-free, and it’s beneficial to their development! 

Play Dough Roller Stamps

This is a fun and unique way for your kids to experiment with their creativity, and play with different textures and patterns while doing so!

First, get a few recycled paper rolls opt for either aluminum foil or plastic wrap rolls since a toilet paper roll is flimsy! Then, just use hot glue to make different patterns on the paper rolls. You can do swirls, dots, lines, even your kids names! Finally, grab some playdough (here’s my homemade playdough recipe) and let your kids roll away! 

It’s great for inspiring creativity and the use of imagination!

Air Dry Play Dough

If you’re looking for a sensory play activity that will create memories to last a lifetime, look no further! These air dry play dough pieces make for a precious activity. 

Start by combining corn starch, white glue, white vinegar, baby oil, and lotion into a bowl. If you notice that it isn’t balling up because it’s sticky, add more cornstarch. Knead the mixture until it begins to harden, and then add your food coloring to your choice of clay! Now your little one can let their creativity run wild as they make all sorts of masterpieces! 

This activity is just great all across the board. You have an exciting sensory play activity, your kids get to work on their fine motor skills, it doubles as a calming sensory activity, and your family now has new keepsakes!

Why is Sensory Play Important?

Sensory play isn’t just fun for our little ones, it’s also a fantastic tool for parents, educators, and caregivers to implement into daily life! It allows kids to use their senses to learn, explore, and feed into their curiosity. 

It fosters connection, coregulation, and aids in the development of so many skills! For example, it helps with things like language development, motor skills, brain and cognitive development, creativity and connection the list goes on and on. 

It’s a great way to show your kids that learning can be a fun and enjoyable experience and half the time they don’t even realize that what they’re doing is learning! 

Isn’t it relieving to know that you can still enjoy sensory activities without having to clean up any messes?

Ultimately, the benefits of sensory play activities can totally outweigh the huge mess that kids would make when doing the activities. But, I also completely understand wanting some mess-free activities so you can get a break, too! I want to know what YOU guys think about mess-free activities! Are there any that you use that I may have missed? 

For plenty more behind the scenes of my tips, tricks, and helpful hacks, download the Mothercould in your Pocket! And for more engaging sensory activities, visit the Mothercould blog.