Section four
Care
Cleaning is where a drawer is won or lost. The method depends entirely on the material, and the drying step matters more than the washing step.
Three separate jobs get grouped under the word cleaning. Removing body fluids and lubricant is the first. Reducing the population of organisms left behind is the second. Getting the object genuinely dry before it is put away is the third, and it is the one that decides whether the first two hold until the next use.
The order that works
- Rinse in warm water immediately after use, before anything dries onto the surface.
- Wash with a mild unscented soap, paying attention to seams, grooves and the base.
- Rinse again until no soap remains, since residue irritates skin later.
- Dry completely with a lint free cloth, then leave in open air until certain.
- Store separately, in a bag or a lined box.
- Cleaning covers the method for each material, including what tolerates boiling and what does not.
- Drying and storing deals with the step that causes most of the problems.
- Travel covers locks, cases and airline rules.
- When to retire lists the signs that an object is finished.
What not to use
Antibacterial soap is unnecessary and hard on skin. Alcohol dries out silicone over time and destroys soft touch coatings. Bleach has no place near anything that will later touch mucous membrane. Boiling water is excellent for solid silicone, glass and steel and ruinous for anything with a motor or a battery inside it.
Mild soap, warm water and patience will outperform every specialist product sold for the purpose, with one exception: a cleaner is easier to carry than a sink.
Dedicated cleaners
Purpose made cleaners are convenient rather than magic. Their real advantage is in situations without a sink, and for objects with cavities where rinsing is awkward. Sprays that require no rinsing are the useful kind for travel. Listings such as the inWonderstate category state whether a formula needs rinsing, which is the detail worth checking before it goes into a bag.
How often
Before and after every use is the honest answer, and the before matters more than people expect. An object that has been in a drawer for a month has collected dust, lint and whatever migrated out of the material next to it. A rinse before use takes ten seconds and removes all of that.
The five minute routine
In practice the whole thing takes about five minutes. A rinse before use, a proper wash after, a cloth, and a spell in open air while something else is happening. Objects that get that treatment stay usable for years; objects that get put away in a hurry develop the problems this section exists to prevent.
The most common failure is not laziness but timing. Washing happens later, drying happens partially, and the object goes back into a bag while the seam is still damp. Leaving something out on a towel for twenty minutes is the single habit that changes the outcome.