Bang for your Buck: 11 Tips on the Cleaning and Maintenance of your Sex Toys

This article was first published for PinkLifestyle.com here.

We all love to keep it exciting when it comes to sex toys, but we also need to think about the care and maintenance of them to enjoy for as long as possible.

Sticking to these instructions will help you stay safe — after all, we expose the most sensitive and absorbent parts of our bodies to these toys, so it’s important that we talk about sex toy cleaning and maintenance.

Porous vs. Non-Porous Materials

The specifics of cleaning and maintaining your sex toys will differ based on the materials they’re made from whether the material it’s made from is porous or non-porous.

Porous materials are usually used to make soft and realistic sex toys — these materials include different rubber varieties or PVC. Due to their porous nature, these toys will be harder to clean, as bacteria and other microorganisms can reside in the pores, potentially causing infection if not cleaned properly.

Non-porous materials, such as silicone, hard plastic, glass or metal, don’t have these pores over their surface, which makes the cleaning much easier. However, this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to clean them thoroughly.