The Ultimate Guide To Cleaning, Storing And Taking Care Of Your Sex Toys
As some of you may have noticed, I've started doing a weekly segment on Elite Daily's Facebook Live. It's aptly titled “Burning Questions With Auntie Gigi.” Tune in Tuesdays at 4 pm EST, ya little hotties.
This week's episode focused on my favorite thing besides anal: Sex toys. Before I went live, I sent out a survey to friends and co-workers to gauge some general questions people have about sex toys.
The results I yielded suggested the following: No one has any f*cking idea how to clean sex toys.
“Is a rinse once a week enough?” one responder asked me. F*ck no, a rinse once a week is not enough. Homie, do you want a RAGING UTI or yeast infection?
I decided that the best way for me to help you would be to create a guide on sex-toy care. Who else to help in this quest but the babe of all babes, Claire Cavanah, Babeland's co-founder and co-author of "Moregasm: Babeland's Guide to Mind-Blowing Sex"? Yes, I recruited the best to have all your questions answered. I'm dope like that.
Here's our advice.
READ THE GODDAMN DIRECTIONS.
I'm just going to start with this nugget of wisdom: Don't be a f*cking idiot. This isn't your latest attempt at building at Ikea furniture. It's a sex toy. Please, for the love of God, read the directions.
There will always be a section for care and cleaning. PAY ATTENTION. Don't go sticking some motorized dildo in the dishwasher just because you think that sh*t is an easy fix to remove your sex juices.
As we all know, sex toys are investments. Don't treat them like trash.
Pay attention to the materials used to make your sex toys.
Cavanah gave us a comprehensive list of materials used for the sex toys sold at Babeland:
“Vibrator materials include silicone (our favorite), hard plastic, TPR Plastic or Thermoplastic Rubber, stainless steel, and Elastomer."
Rabbit Habit Deluxe, $90, Babeland
"Dildo materials include silicone, VixSkin Silicone (a pure silicone that feels like real skin), acrylic, glass, wood, stainless steel, ceramic, and Lucite."
Jimmyjane Form 6 G3, $175, Babeland
Pure Wand, $108, Babeland
Octopussy Dildo, $50, Babeland
"Harnesses can be made from different fabrics like leather, nylon, Spandex, and cotton.”
Got it? Good. Let's move on.
You should clean your sex toys after every f*cking time you use them.
I know, I know -- it's not exactly sexy to jump up after a round of passionate coitus and start preparing the suds and bleach. I get that. Take a few minutes and relax. Wait until your one-night stand has left for the night. Wait until the next morning. I don't care. But you have to clean them before you use them again.
The bacteria will accumulate if you don't. If you'd like to avoid a scathing case of bacterial vaginosis, you will heed this advice. And no, water is not enough.
Soap and water is your friend.
Cavanah says that in most cases, washing with soap and water is an easy and effective way to clean your sex toys. This does not work as well for sex toys made from porous material, like soft jelly.
I'm of the general persuasion that if it is porous, just skip it. You don't need that kind of drama in your life. True story: I got a sh*tty, jelly cock ring from a seedy sex toy shop in Ithaca once. Nothing bad happened, but that motherf*cker got sticky and gross REALLY quickly. You don't want this. I assure you.
If you MUST use crappy jelly toys, use them with a condom to stave off bacteria.
What to use: Get a mild antibacterial soap. Be sure to rinse well. You don't want soap residue building up on your sex toys, and you certainly do not want that in or around your vagina or butthole.
Be careful of MOTORS.
WARNING: If it has a motor, do not submerge your toy in water. You could seriously damage or RUIN it. If you want to put it in water, make 100 percent sure the toy is waterproof. If it has a motor, do not put it in the dishwasher or boil it. Again, soap and water.
I'm a big fan of Babeland's toy cleaner. I'm always worried about my motorized toys (which -- surprise, surprise -- I have MANY of) making any direct contact with water. You can keep the toy cleaner right by your bed with some paper towels. Just spray, wipe and move on with your life.
Babeland Toy Cleaner, $10, Babeland
You can use some household bleach, but you must dilute it in water. DO NOT SUBMERGE.
Cavanah says the way you clean you toys really does depend on the whole motor situation:
“If it's silicone and doesn't have a motor, you can wash it with soap and water, or put it in the top shelf of the dishwasher or boil it for 5 minutes.”
So don't go sticking your toys in water if they pretty much DO anything.
Here are some more questions you should ask yourself if you can submerge your toy in water:
Is it made of glass? If yes, you can boil it.
Is it made of wood? If yes, you can use soap and water on it.
Is it pyrex? If yes, you can boil it.
Does it buzz? If yes, do not boil it.
Does it move in any way? If yes, do not boil it.
It's all pretty basic stuff. No motor, no problem.
Store your toys where they won't gather bacteria.
Where you store your toys is really about convenience. I'm a classic lady, so I keep some in my underwear drawer and some in the goodie drawer next to my bed.
Just be sure that the place where you keep them is safe, dry and relatively cool. I like keeping my different toys in a cloth bag. Cavanah says it's a good way to keep toys from gathering dust or collecting pet hair (ew).
If you're feeling fancy, there are even special toy boxes out there. The JoyBoxx is a fun one to have. However you store your toys, just keep them away from the wandering hands of children or mother-in-laws.
JoyBoxx Lock Box, $35, Amazon
Final tip from Cavanah: Remove the batteries from your toys when you aren't using them to preserve battery life.
And a final tip from me: Don't leave your toys with USB chargers on for days at a time. Like with your laptop or iPhone, you'll mess them up. I learned this one the hard way.
