Using Anal Plugs: Before and After Care

Anal or butt plugs are an excellent way to spice up your sex life. They are highly versatile; after all, everything you need is a butt for plug play. Now, you could argue that dildos and anal beads are as versatile, but it’s a simple fact that guys (especially straight dudes), for one reason or another, are more open to an anal plug being their anal sex toy of choice. Wearing a butt plug is also a fantastic idea if you’re just starting to explore the world of anal. As you’re getting used to how the plug feels inside your anal canal, your muscles (called sphincters) will relax. Slowly but surely, you’ll be ready to take on bigger bites if your anal ambitions lie elsewhere.

Additionally, butt plugs are excellent, even during oral sex. When you’re getting a BJ, and there’s a feeling of fullness inside your ass (stimulating your prostate), you’ll reach orgasmic peaks you’ve never experienced before! And as virtually all plugs have a flared base, you don’t have to worry about getting carried away and losing your Lemmiwinks inside.

As is the case with all anal toys, using a butt plug demands using of lube as well. Since your anal canal doesn’t lubricate on its own, you need to apply lubricant artificially. Because of that, once you’re done and take the little joker out, you’ll have quite some work on your hands. No matter how clean your butt is, there’s always some residual bacteria lingering about. So now you have a toy covered in lube, bacteria, dust, and/or semen. Obviously, you have to clean it up if you want to avoid infection. How do you do it properly in order to make it body-safe? In this butt plug care guide, we’ll go over just that!

The Proper Way of Cleaning Butt Plugs

If, for some reason, you’re not already aware of this, it’s crucial to keep your sex toys clean to perfection (if such cleanliness exists). Why? Well, bacteria can survive for days in your butt, and if you put them back into your body, they’ll be a health hazard. For instance, using a poorly-cleaned toy can get you STIs, as well as introduce some pathogens, including hepatitis C. That’s something you can really do without.

The first thing you should know is that you have to clean your butt plug immediately after use. If you leave it for the next day, you’re better off throwing it away and buying a new one. There are several methods for cleaning butt plugs, and it all comes down to the material your toy was made from.

We divide the materials into two primary groups: porous and non-porous ones. Non-porous materials include stainless steel, silicone, and glass, whereas porous toys consist of plastic, rubber, neoprene, and cyberskin. The most significant difference is that the porous material has tiny gaps in it in which bacteria can crawl through. They’re also more sensitive, and hot water can make those small gaps wider, ruining the toy. For high-quality non-porous plugs like glass butt plugs. you can rely on LP, retailer of butt plugs.

With porous toys, you need to use soap and warm water, lather it up, and clean them thoroughly. Contrarily, you can use hot water on non-porous materials, disinfecting the toys entirely. You can put your plug in boiling water for about ten minutes or even place it inside a dishwasher. Just keep in mind that silicone plugs have to be of strong silicone to be able to endure hot water. Obviously, that only works for butt plugs that don’t have batteries or any electronics in them, so if you rock a vibrating butt plug, clean it as if it were out of rubber.

Do Tails Matter?

If you’re using a tail butt plug, depending on what the tail is made out of, your cleaning process will differ. Faux fur can go into soapy water. However, you have to be more gentle with real fur and only clean it with a damp cloth. In case you have a real animal tail, never submerge it in water. The water will make it gain weight, and it could even snap in two. To sum it up, you’d be best off with faux fur, while an actual animal tail would make things difficult. Moreover, it wouldn’t make you any more of an actual fox, so there’s no reason to go for it. 

The Type of Soap to Use for Cleaning

There’s no real guide on which soap you should use in the sense of what materials that soap should be made out of. As we’ve already established, depending on what your plug is made out of, you will use cold, lukewarm, or hot water. But when it comes to soap, you just need it to be… mildly soapy. However, there are some preferences.

Since you’re going to put your toy inside your body, make sure that the soap you use is mild and fragrance-free. Also, if you’re easily irritable (your body, not your psyche), you should also avoid soaps that contain paraben and sulfate. Sometimes, the soap won’t be able to get rid of an undesirable smell. While things such as bleach and vinegar can get the job done, it’s a bit of an overkill. Even if you do go for them, use a mild soap afterward to get rid of the bleach.

Once you’ve cleaned your toy, use a dry cloth and wipe it down thoroughly. You don’t want any foam residue tagging along for your tomorrow night ride. So if you’ve used the proper method and soap after you’ve done playing, do you need to clean it next time before starting over? 

Do You Need to Clean a Brand-New Anal Plug Before Using?

In short, yes. Let’s put it this way: would you eat lettuce you bought from the store without washing it? We really hope you said no to that one.

Sex toys can never be too clean. While sitting around doing nothing but waiting to do nothing inside your butt, plugs gather dust, bacteria, and all other sorts of microorganisms you don’t want inside you. So before using them (again or for the first time, it doesn’t really matter), you should give them a wash. If you don’t have time for all of that, you have to at least give them a good wipe with a damp cloth.

How to Properly Store Anal Plugs?

Although it’s incredibly common, don’t let them just lie about in your drawer. Your drawers are not the most sanitary place in the world! Either use the original packaging or buy a sex toy box for storage. At the very least, place them in a ziplock bag so that dust and bacteria don’t make their way through. Now, depending on your living arrangements, you might want to hide the little fellas, and there are plenty of creative ways to do so. However, that’s a whole other story.