I had someone post a reply to a cleaning question I had and they said that they soaked wooden items in rubbing alcohol and used a chlorhexadine solution for cleaning the other items and the cage. Rubbing alcohol should evaporate fairly quickly, just dont throw any items in the cage right after you clean them. I really like the chlorhexadine but if you use a bleach solution that concentrated make dang sure that you rinse the cage out with TONZ of water as the scent of bleach sticks around for a long while.