How to Store Your Sex Toys

My sex toy situation is out of control.

I have vibrators lining my closet shelves—some in their original boxes, some in the drawstring bags with which they came and one of them (sadly, infuriatingly) missing a power cable. I have more vibrators, still in their original packaging, shoved in a drawer beneath my bed—tucked in amongst various clothes that no longer fit.

And then there are my favorite and most-used toys. They're clustered together in my nightstand drawer, pressed up against lip masks and bookmarks and tubes of hand cream. They are not in any protective boxes or bags. They are wild and free.

Unfortunately, wild and free does not equal safe.

Read: Sex Toy Safety: A Guide to Materials

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to better store my sex toys (and how to dispose of the ones I no longer use). So it seemed fortuitous when I learned that Bedbible—a wealth of sex toy-related info—had done a survey about where and how people are storing their toys.

Fired up by the need to get my sex toys under control, I dug into the data to see what other people are doing.

Where People Are Storing Their Sex Toys

Bedbible.com surveyed 1,009 people in the U.S. to learn where they store their "sexy stash." And turns out, some people are way more organized than I am, some are as haphazard as me, and some are really concerned about the possibility of prying eyes.

The most popular hiding place for sex toys? A secret box—47% of respondents reported one. People store their secret boxes any number of places—including in closets, in drawers, under the bed or in a separate lockbox. Nine percent of people even went so far as to secure their sex toys in a coded safe.

Furniture was another popular storage spot. Thirty-four percent of survey respondents kept their toys in places like their underwear drawer or nightstand (::waves::).

Others (17%) used bags—from makeup bags, to travel bags, to handbags—while others still (11%) went even more incognito by shoving their toys into pillowcases, plush toys (!) or tucked away in a shoe.

Another piece of information I found interesting was that 58% of men stored their toys in a box compared to 40% of women. Moreover, 12% of men used a combination safe compared to just 6% of women. Could this be because the use of sex toys by men is still more stigmatized?

Read: Think Sex Toys Are Just for Women? Think Again!

How You Can Store Your Sex Toys

Of course, when it comes to sex toy storage, discretion isn't the only—or even the most important—thing to consider. In addition to easy accessibility, your storage solutions should keep your toys clean when they're not in use, ensuring they don't come into contact with dirt, food, cat litter or any other household detritus.

(I guess that means having my toys commingle with the dust and lint in my nightstand isn't good.)

If you're among the majority of people who want to stash their sex toys in boxes, you can buy a lockbox made specifically for that purpose. The Joyboxx, for example, has a combination lock, fits multiple toys, can be easily wiped down or thrown into the dishwasher, has hidden ventilation holes and even has a USB port you can use to charge your toys.

But you can also use any old box—including those awesome under-the-bed storage bins—as long as each toy has its own baggie to keep it separate from the others.

If you prefer to use bags, that's cool, too. Some of higher-end toys come with their own drawstring bags; but there are also sex shops, toy brands and sexuality educators who sell bags specifically for your toys—like this plethora of zip-up storage pouches from sex educator Luna Matatas, this locking, microsuede toy bag from Liberator (which boasts a water-resistant inner liner) or this cheeky "go fun yourself" bag from Fun Factory.

And if you end up with a bunch of different boxes or bags with nowhere to store them, you can always buy a set of drawers, a trunk or one of those nifty storage benches (I love a piece of furniture that does double duty).