As you lay in absolute bliss after an orgasm, the last thing to come to your mind is that you have to clean your sex toy. Well, sorry if this comes as a painful revelation. Cleaning them is very important. Sex toys come in direct contact with your bodily fluids, so knowing how to clean a sex toy properly. If you neglect that, you risk an infection in your nether regions; no one wants that!
As important as it is, cleaning a sex toy properly is not that hard. When you come back after a tough day or bring your playmate along, you need to have the peace of mind that the sex toy you own is safe to use. The longer you expect your toy to live, the better you need to care for its cleanliness.
How to Clean a Sex Toy – Everything You Need to Know
You can clean almost all sex toys using surface cleaning and air-drying. But you need to know about several factors that influence the bacteria buildup in sex toys and what type of cleaning methods would be best for the sex toys you have. It would help if you kept these things in your mind:
1. Terms Defining How the Toy is Built
When buying your toy, make sure you look out for these terms:
Porous vs Non-Porous Materials
You will generally find sex toys that fit into two categories; porous and non-porous. When companies want to give their toys a skin-like feel, they make them porous. But porous toys have tiny grooves and holes where gunk can get stuck and remain there even after a thorough cleaning. Materials such as TPE and PVC are examples of porous sex-toy materials.
Non-porous materials are much safer in terms of bacterial buildup. Materials such as glass, medical-grade silicone and medical-grade stainless steel are common in the non-porous category of sex toys.
Medical Grade
You need to be very careful of this one. If a toy is termed “body safe”, it does not mean that they are medical grade. You need to be careful even if your toy is FDA approved. Some toys are FDA approved as food items and are probably not safe for use as sex toys. Medical grade is the highest and safest quality of sex toys.
Motorized
This is important as it can be a determining factor in the cleaning of a toy. If the material used to make the toy is water-safe, such as silicone or stainless steel, submerging it in water will not damage it. But if the toy has a motor in it for vibrations, you will be better off cleaning it with a damp cloth and body soap.
If it is not motorized or made of wood, you can submerge it in boiling water for deeper cleansing. If you feel okay with it, you can even put them in your dishwasher without soap. The steam will disinfect them pretty well. Before submerging a toy in water, make sure that it is waterproof, not just splash-proof!
2. Surface Cleaning
You can clean splash-proof sex toys this way. And most of the sex toys that you will own do not need more cleaning than this regularly. This method only cleans the fluids off the toy’s surface; it does not sterilize or disinfect it. If you are the only person who uses the toy, this method is good enough for you.
Before you start cleaning, remove any batteries from the toy if it is battery operated. Surface cleaning requires rinsing or wiping off the surface of the toy. If you are near a sink, you can apply liquid soap directly to the toy, rinse it, and then wash off the soap. If you do not have a sink near you, wipe it with a cloth dipped in soapy water.
You need to be careful if your sex toy has grooves or crevices on it. You would need to clean it using a soft toothbrush that you keep specifically for this purpose. The brush will adequately remove any stuck gunk or debris in the engravings. After that, wipe the toy, or rinse it under flowing water till it is absolutely clean.
3. Disinfecting and Sanitizing
There are some cases where it is necessary to sanitize or disinfect a sex toy. This happens when:
- Someone with an active infection in the genitals has used the toy. A sex toy can be means for the transfer of HIV too!
- You want to remove odor from a toy. Silicone toys in specific are prone to hold unpleasant odors.
- More than one person uses the toy. If you are not fluid bonded with your partner, then you must sanitize it before use.
- If you want to use the toy for anal and vaginal penetration. This is especially necessary if you’re going to go from anal to vaginal penetration with one toy.
Here are common disinfecting and sanitizing techniques that will help you remove unwanted bacteria and pathogens:
Boiling
By surface-cleaning and boiling your sex toys, you can completely eradicate any bacteria or pathogens on your toy. When you have cleaned your toy on the surface, you can submerge them in boiling water with a washcloth for three to five minutes. The washcloth prevents your toys from getting damaged, as they are likely to bob around in boiling water.
Remove your sex toy from the boiling water using tongs, and let them dry by air drying. Air drying is the best for sex toys, as it prevents any unwanted debris from getting stuck on the wet surface. It is not advisable to rinse it with cold water immediately after removing it from boiling water. It can stress the material, and glass toys may break under that pressure.
This type of cleaning is suitable for entirely waterproof toys made of stainless steel, glass or silicone.
Bleaching
After you have finished surface-cleaning your toy, you can use a bleach solution to finish any remaining bacteria or gunk. The ideal way is to use a bleach solution of a third of a cup of bleach in a gallon of water. You can either submerge the toys in a bleach solution or apply it on their surface and let the solution stay on them for ten minutes.
After you have completed all the things above, rinse and wash the toy thoroughly with water. Bleach is corrosive and can be very irritating to your skin. So make sure you only use this method on completely waterproof toys. If the bleach solution makes its way into the toy, it may stay there, causing you discomfort the next time you use the toy.
Dishwashing
Do not use this method if you share the dishwasher with people who are not your sexual partners. After you clean your sex toys on the surface, you can use your dishwasher for deeper cleaning. Do not use dishwashing soap; it is too harsh for your sex toys. Place your toys on the top rack and run them on the sanitize cycle.
If you doubt that your sex toys are in serious need of some sanitization or disinfection, then you should stick to bleaching or boiling. The latter is much more effective than dishwashing. Even though the normal sanitize cycle is hot enough to kill most bacteria, heat resistant fungi can live on and cause an infection.
UV Cleaning
UV lightboxes are a common way to disinfect sex toys. Some people claim they have better efficiency compared to bleaching and boiling. But this method is very costly compared to other methods, and if you bleach or boil your toys thoroughly, you should not have a problem with them.
In cases where the toys have grooves and curves, UV boxes can fall short as the light does not reach all the areas of the toy. Also, this is a method that many deem to be too expensive for a sex toy. You can remove this method from your list of cleaning procedures, but it still exists if you want to do it.
4. Store Your Toys Properly
Once you have cleaned your toys, you need to ensure they stay clean until their next use. To aid in this, many sex toys come with their fabric pouch to store them in. But you can store a non-porous toy in any sealable and breathable bag to keep it free of lint and dust.
A breathable bag is essential for anal toys as a plastic bag may promote odor. Make sure you store your toy away from heat, sunlight and dampness. So keeping it in a drawer of your dressing table would be an ideal place.
5. Dispose of them Timely
Like most tangible things you can buy, sex toys have a lifespan too. Stainless steel and glass toys are much more durable, and you would rarely have to see this situation compared to silicone toys. If you find visible cracks, rips or tears in the toy, it should be disposed of immediately.
These cracks can become injurious in the case of glass and metal toys. And they can become breeding grounds for bacteria as they make cleaning all the more difficult.
How to Know Which Method to Use
While the methods above are valid for most sex toys, it is always a good idea to check the manual of your toy before you do anything to it. Based on how thoroughly you need to clean your toy, here is a breakdown of it;
1. Cleaning
This is the most basic form of sex toy cleaning. If you are looking for protection from bacteria and viruses, then this method won’t do it.
2. Disinfecting/Sanitizing
This is a step ahead of basic cleaning. It kills bacteria and pathogens and makes your toys safe for use.
3. Sterilizing
If you are very worried that your toy may have come in contact with a very severe virus or bacteria, this method will eradicate all unwanted microorganisms.
For a typical vibrator, butt plug or ball gag, you should be okay with just cleaning their surfaces with soapy water. But for toys that come in contact with bodily fluids inserted inside you, you would be better off properly disinfecting or sanitizing them.
Unless you are into very intense BDSM, or you might end up in invasive medical play, sterilizing is a bit too much.
Supplies You Need to Clean Your Sex Toys
1. Cleaning
For surface cleaning, all you need is water, soap and some paper towels. Don’t use dish soap to wash your toys. It is too harsh. You can use a hand wash or a castile soap. It would be best if you had an antibacterial soap too.
2. Disinfecting/Sanitizing
You can clean most toys just by submerging them in a pot of boiling water or bleaching them. You can use bleach and a spray bottle to cover the toy in bleach. You need a dishwasher if you want to clean it in the dishwasher. It should have a disinfection option for the best cleaning. Paper towels are a must as they help in air-drying the toy after the cleaning.
Why is Cleaning So Important?
While it is not sure that you will get infected if you slack off on cleaning your sex toy, the chances increase significantly. With that said, you need to know why it is so important.
A vagina is already home to a lot of bacteria. But most of those bacteria are suitable for it and keep it healthy. But in the case you have an infection, the infectious virus or bacteria will attach to the toy and keep growing. If you don’t clean the toy, there is a chance that you may re-contract the infection. Or if someone else uses it, they might catch it.
If you use a sex toy anally, there are a lot of bacteria and viruses that your vagina isn’t used to. If you use a toy vaginally after you have used it anally, there are high chances that you will end up with a UTI or other infection in your vagina. Disinfection reduces the chances of such an infection.
While most bacteria cannot survive on a dry and hard surface for long, disinfection can reduce the life of bacteria from a day to just a few minutes. The most critical infection is a yeast infection. The fungi Candida albicans can live for a couple of weeks on dry surfaces. So you can get another yeast infection if you don’t clean your sex toy after use when you have a yeast infection.
Non-porous toys are not as dangerous. But porous ones, on the other hand, can be an absolute breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria if not properly disinfected. Therefore it is vital to make sure your toys are hygienic before use.
Two Quick Hacks
Sex Toy Cleaner
If you are not in the mood to get up and go through a rigorous cleaning routine for your toy, you can get away with this little trick. You should not use it regularly, but you can use it once in a while without worrying about any bacteria or damage to your toy. Even though it is a good option, there is nothing like a thorough cleaning for your toy.
Condoms
Based on the toy’s shape, condoms might be a quick fix for this cleaning problem. Each time you have to use your toy, just put a condom on it before use. If you do this correctly, you may never have to clean your toys at all. This is an excellent choice for people who share sex toys or shift from anal to vaginal penetration mid-session.
With condoms, make sure you don’t use oil-based lubes; they can erode the condom and eradicate any protection you might have. A fun little thing you can do is to use dotted or ribbed condoms if your toy has no grooves already. It might enhance your pleasure multiple times!
Safe Pleasure is the Best Pleasure
There are a lot of unwanted chores that you don’t want to do in adulthood, and this may feel like one of them. But you cannot ignore this, especially if you love your pleasure sessions. We know it might sound like a buzzkill. Still, there is nothing as disheartening as trying to pleasure yourself and feeling discomfort instead.
You deserve a tension-free self-pleasure session, and after all, you have read, a sanitary sex toy is the only way to know that you are absolutely safe!