Things to keep in mind when you store your sex toys
While the options for storing are plenty, the essential step to keeping your sex toys body-safe is ensuring they're in optimal condition before you pack them away. Follow our guide and utilize our tips below for perfect sex toy storage.
Clean and dry your sex toys
Before storing your sex toys, proper cleaning is a must. While some people prefer to clean their toys only after use, no matter how adequately they're stored, we recommend doing it twice - before and after they touch any intimate part of your body.
Properly cleaning your toys largely depends on the materials they're made of. For example, dildos made from metal or silicone are much easier to clean, and you can use multiple products to ease the whole process. You can apply special cleaning sprays and chemical solutions to sterilize excess waste. You can fully dunk them in warm water, rinse them with cloths or special brushes, use cleaning solutions, boil them or even put them in the dishwasher.
On the other hand, dildos and butt plugs made from porous materials, such as TPE and PVC, are easy to clean but more limited in terms of cleaning options. Most of the time, you'll only be advised to use warm water, antibacterial soap, and a damp cloth. Putting them in hot water or the dishwasher may instantly damage the toy's materials and make it unsafe for subsequent use.
Additionally, the mechanization of sex toys plays a significant role in keeping them sterilized. Even if a toy is made from non-porous material such as silicone, if it has a vibrating mechanism, it cannot be freely dipped into the water if it's not marked as water-safe.
To ensure the toy stays clean in the bag or box you store it in, you must ensure it is completely dried; since, apart from cleaning, drying plays just as big of a role in the longevity and storage of your sex toy. Air drying is the best option, although, for some toys, such as metal butt plugs, you can also use a hair dryer.
If you mistakenly store your sex toy in a bag before it is adequately dried, you risk the development of mold, yeast, and other bacteria while the toy is sealed. This will damage the toy's appearance and functionality, making it unusable after some time.
Use satin bags
Cotton bags are most commonly used for storing sex toys since they can be found in almost every store on the market. However, the safest option that will keep your sex toy hygienic while in storage is satin bags. The material is breathable enough to ensure the sex toy doesn't develop any smells but is enclosed enough to keep dust and germs away from its insides.
Satin bags are usually provided by sex toy manufacturers and come with the original packaging. However, they can also be bought separately at almost any brick-and-mortar and online sex shop. They come in different sizes and colors, making them great for storing all sex toys, even in plain sight.
Silk bags are a great alternative to sating bags, but they're much harder to find and rarely produced by sex-toy manufacturers. Moreover, they're a bit pricey but still have the same functionalities as the satin ones.
Store sex toys separately based on material
As we said, the materials of the sex toy influence the cleaning process and storage. While satin bags are generally good storage tips, you may need to apply additional products and assess the hygiene of the toys differently if they're made from porous materials.
For example, TPE dildos are susceptible to heat. Even keeping them in direct sunlight can cause deterioration of the materials. Instead, they should be sealed in a proper bag and placed in a dark and cold place.
Jelly, rubber, and latex sex toys are more flexible when it comes to where you store them, but their materials can easily reach one another if they're held together. Additionally, sex toys shouldn't be close to any silicone toys. Instead, you need to store each in a separate bag and prevent the toys from ever touching.
Speaking of silicone, sex toys made from this material are the most durable and easiest to clean. This makes them easy to store, as long as they're not put together with toys from porous materials. It is claimed that silicone sex toys can be placed together and won't deteriorate if they're touching; however, we do not recommend it. For safety purposes, primarily hygiene, it's best to store them separately, just as sex toys from porous materials.
As opposed to silicone, ABS sex toys are not heat resistant. This means you can leave the former out in the open but should place the latter in a cold and dark room with sex toys from porous materials.
Last but not least are Pyrex glass dildos. They're easy to clean and can be stored in almost every environment, but they're much more prone to damage, such as cracking or chipping. To ensure your glass sex toy wouldn't be damaged while rolling away in a storage box, invest in cushioned pouches. Even if it falls off your shelf, chances are it won't break.
Remove the batteries
Most manufacturers and sex toy companies will advise you to remove the batteries while not using their sex toys. While the apparent reason is to save the batteries' life and avoid changing them too often, it also prevents damage to the sex toy.
Batteries melt and break down over time. If they're left in the battery compartment of your vibrating sex toy, they can easily compromise the whole mechanization. Moreover, depending on how long they've been disintegrating, the sex toy could be fully damaged and unsafe to use, even as a dildo.
Instead, make it a habit to add and remove batteries from your mechanized sex toy with every use.
Storing charging cables
Very often, mechanized sex toys come with charging cables instead of regular battery compartments. While most sex toys utilize USB ports and can be easily charged with a single charger, others make stuff more challenging and require unique parts for each functionality.
Charging cables don't need special storage; you can place them in the same storage box alongside other sex toys and gadgets. This ensures they're at arm's length whenever you want to recharge your toy. At least, nothing's worse than craving an orgasm with your favorite vibrator and not having the charger to give it enough power to please you.