To get the most out of your sex toys, you’ll need lube, proper storage, and a comfortable place to play. As a sex toy reviewer and collector with over 300 sex toys in my collection, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to figure out what makes for a satisfying session—and I’ve had to come up with ways to store everything discreetly and efficiently.
I use the products in this article often enough to consider them practically essential. In some cases, brand is important; in others, anything good enough will do.
Just want to see the list of items? Jump down to Product Summary.
Lube
Lube is one thing I will call essential for just about everyone playing with sex toys. Even if your body can get wet on its own, dildos and sex create a lot of friction (particularly with silicone), and lube significantly eases the way for a slicker, safer, and more enjoyable time.
Water-based lube is the safest bet when playing with silicone toys and is the kind of lube I opt for most of the time.
My go-to lube is Wicked Sensual Simply Timeless Aqua. It’s water-based, which is critical for my needs since I primarily use silicone toys; silicone lubes and most hybrid lubes will interact negatively with silicone toys. It’s also free from parabens and glycerin, and includes multiple hydrating ingredients to ensure that my skin remains hydrated, which allows me to stretch comfortably for larger toys with a lower risk of tearing.
As a trans man, I’m at risk of vaginal atrophy, which includes dryness and thinning of the tissue. I have to be more careful if I want to be rough or use something huge or highly textured. Using a moisturizing lube helps mitigate atrophy so that it’s easier for me to play with less risk of injury. In the past, when I suffered tearing due to a harsh seam on a dildo, I applied a little bit of this lube a couple times a day to keep the area moisturized, and it also soothed the pain and kept the skin from getting irritated any further. (Most dildos don’t have seams, and those that do are usually safe, so this was an anomaly.)
Simply Timeless Aqua is thick, comparable to many hand sanitizers I’ve used. It sticks to my skin and to toys. It’s easy to pump some on a toy before inserting—it doesn’t slide off that quickly—without getting my hands messy. Wicked Sensual’s lube bottles have pump caps that turn to lock or unlock, making them travel-friendly and keeping my hands dry.
I’m stingy with lube, so I use just enough to start with and then I have to reapply it every now and then, but not at a higher frequency than any other lubes I use. Due to the price (which isn’t a premium, but still higher than many readily available lubes), I tend to use this one for small-to-medium size dildos, and use a cheaper lube for dildos that require a higher volume of lube.
The Simply Timeless line also has a thicker “Jelle” version, but I find that it’s fairly thick as-is. If you don’t need moisturizing ingredients, Wicked Sensual has standard Aqua and Aqua Jelle formulas which are easier to find at your retailer of choice. (The only version I have tried is Simply Timeless Aqua, so I can’t personally vouch for the other ones.)
Other water-based lubes I’ve used and enjoyed include Sliquid H2O, LubeLife, and Bad Dragon Cumlube (review). Foria Juicy Pure Lube (review) is alright for a flavored lube, although the scent doesn’t appeal to me. None of those are as nice to my body as Simply Timeless Aqua, nor are they moisturizing, so I’ll usually rotate which lubes I use so that I don’t use the less ideal ones all the time, but don’t use up all of my Simply Timeless Aqua on a big toy.
Important note about lube shopping: Never buy lube from Amazon. You could get a counterfeit/diluted product, or it may not have been stored correctly. I’ve been burned by that before (literally: the lube felt like it was burning me). It’s best to buy from a reputable retailer or directly from the brand.
Accessibility
I love using my dildos with handles. They help relieve the strain in my wrists and allow me to go at a different pace and angle than usual. My favorite handle is the Silc Touch Vac-U-Lock handle from Silc Arts. I have the small V1, although I suspect the medium V2 might suit me better since it would allow more space around my belly and the added length would give me more leverage.
The Silc Touch has suction cup versions which are compatible with toys that have suction cup bases (as long as the base isn’t too wide) or when used with double-sided suction cups, but the Vac-U-Lock version has a much stronger connection that will never accidentally disconnect.
The downside is that the Vac-U-Lock version is only compatible with toys that are produced with Vac-U-Lock ports. (Ports can’t be added after manufacture.) Wandering Bard and Uberrime regularly offer Vac-U-Lock ports when ordering customized dildos, among other brands listed here. I only have a handful of dildos with ports, but I’d love to have many more.
I find that handles work best with low-detail toys like Astarion, Slipskin Girthy & Curvy, and Draconis. Suction cup handles can get pulled off if there’s too much resistance, so high texture or strong details like knots can interrupt use or break the connection. The Vac-U-Lock handles are more sturdy, but they only have so much leverage, and strong details can make it more difficult to use them fluidly.
The Lust Arts Thruster Handle works with most dildos that have a flat base. It doesn’t offer as much leverage or control as the Silc Touch, but it’s still very useful and gives my wrist some relief. As I use larger toys, it’s less effective, but it works pretty well with smaller toys. Since it just requires the dildo to have a flat base, it’s compatible with most of my collection.
See full reviews for my handles in this article.
Storage
I store most of my dildos inside of bags which are then kept inside of boxes.
Silicone toys can generally be stored touching each other (unless they have a huge difference in firmness, like a vibrator and a soft silicone dildo, as the oils may transfer between them). It would be totally fine to put silicone toys inside of boxes touching each other without using any bags. However, bags help me keep things organized—I like keeping all my dildos from the same shop in the same bag, for example—help reduce lint, and provide an extra barrier in case a bug gets in and tries to nibble (which can be a problem if you’ve got ants or crickets).
Some of the links in this section are for Amazon products. While I don’t recommend buying lube or sex toys from Amazon, I have found these storage products to be fair quality and affordable. Any comparable product would probably do just as well as long as they’re of similar size.
I have a lot of toys, and that means a lot of bags. I really appreciate when toy shops include their own bags, like Twilight Meadow Creations and Nyoon do, since it makes storage easier. The satin-lined velvet bags that Master4Fancy includes are my favorite, and the large ones can fit a handful of dildos.
For bulk storage, Weewooday satin bags (15.75 x 11.81 inch) hold my largest dildos easily, and can hold a bunch of small-to-medium size dildos all at once. XL LEAFICO cotton muslin bags (14×17 inch) are also quite spacious, but less stretchy; these mainly hold my grinder and penetrable collections.
One thing to be cautious about with bags is pigment transfer from dyed fabric—the thing that probably tinted my Changeling purple (not from any bags listed in this post). It’s best practice to wash bags before using for storage in case of unsealed dyes and lint.
The boxes I store my toys in are HOONEX fabric boxes and punemi under bed storage boxes. The HOONEX boxes have a somewhat sturdy frame with fabric covering. The size (16.5″ L x 11.8″ W x 7.5″ H – 24 liters) makes it possible to store 20-30 small-to-medium size bagged dildos. They stack comfortably, won’t collapse under the weight of that much silicone, and the handles on the sides don’t tear when lifting. However, the boxes and lids will deform if I try to put too much silicone in there and bulge out the sides, and they’re too tall to fit under my bed.
The punemi boxes (31.1″ L x 15.7″ W x 5.5″ H – 44 liters) fit under my bed very nicely and can fit 30-40 bagged dildos. However, it’s more of an arrangement game with them, since the height is only 5.5″, which makes it much more difficult to stack dildos. Hauling the box out from under the bed takes an effort, and pushing it back under is a little annoying because I have to press against the corners rather than the front face. But for affordable and discreet functionality, it’s good enough for me.
Another must-have for me is a large toiletry bag. The one I currently use is the Vorspack Travel Toiletry Bag (12 x 7.5 x 5.5 inches). It’s perfect for discreetly taking dildos to the bathroom to wash after use. I pretty much always have a couple dildos, a couple lubes, my toothbrush, testosterone, shaving razor, and lotion in it, with room for more. 12″ long means it can hold most of my dildos, and for the ones it doesn’t, I can gently bend them for a short time without an issue. It reaches capacity around 5-6 small-to-medium dildos; below that, it’s pretty easy to zip up and carry around.
However, the handle is on one end rather than at the top, which is an interesting choice; I’d rather have handles that let me carry it like a tote.
Blankets
Sex blankets make masturbation more luxurious and easy to clean up. Compared to a towel, a blanket can cover more area, feels nicer, and is more resistant to lint. My Liberator Fascinator Throw is an essential part of my play setup. It has a layered construction—soft outer layers with a waterproof inner layer—so that the soft layers absorb liquids and the inner layer keeps the liquids from bleeding through.
The mini size covers quite a lot of space at 36×26 inches. It’s enough for me to ride or recline with 5-10 toys laid out, although my feet sometimes stick off the edge and I couldn’t fully lay down on it. The next size up, travel size, is a good step larger at 53×36 inches; that one would probably suit me better, but as it is, the mini’s still pretty good.
I love to lay mine down next to my bed, sit atop it and either ride or lean back (against the side of my bed) as I go for it, letting the blanket catch any mess that drips down. In a session with more than one toy, I set down the toys I’m not using at the corner of the blanket, where they’re unlikely to catch lint and any mess is contained to the blanket alone.
Why on the floor rather than on the bed? To be honest, it wouldn’t be as comfortable on my bed, and I would rather not alert my entire family to what I’m doing with the squeaking of the bedframe. Leaning back against the side of the bed itself isn’t necessarily 100% comfortable, so I drape a thick or weighted blank across the side to make it more comfortable.
I use this blanket for almost every session. It’s been a game-changer for my masturbation habits. I honestly thought I’d only use it every now and then, or just for a short while before shelving it, but using a sex blanket is now an essential part of my routine.
It soaks up small puddles quickly. If I manage to squirt more than a little bit (which I have lately learned to do both with and without my njoy Pure Wand), then within a minute, the liquid is absorbed, leaving a sticky damp spot. It doesn’t bleed through. The damp spot is cool to the touch, but there’s enough space for me to shift to a clean spot unless I’ve really gone at it.
There’s a limit to the absorption; larger puddles may not be fully absorbed. The few times I’ve been able to squirt a lot, the puddle will sit there unless I do something about it. Shifting and lifting edges of the blanket move the liquid to dryer parts that will soak up the liquid. I haven’t yet had a point where the whole thing is soaked, but I’ve gotten close. A larger size would help soak everything up.
The throw is machine-washable. While machine washing is by far the easiest and most effective way to wash it, hand-washing can handle some spots, especially since it’s velvety rather than fluffy. For discretion and convenience, I usually hand wash small areas with cold water and soap (to avoid sealing in any scents with heat), squeeze it out (without wringing to avoid aggravating the middle layer), and let it hang dry on a rack. As long as I wash particular spots and don’t submerge the whole thing until it’s waterlogged, it dries out by the next day. Ideally, it should be washed right away, but it’ll survive small messes like a little bit of lube for a few days if needed (as long as they’re not damp and not strongly scented). If squirting or waterworks are involved, I highly recommend washing right away, machine washing, and having odor neutralizers on hand (ones intended specifically for pee or pet odors).
While Liberator’s Fascinator Throw is the only sex blanket I own, there are a number of alternatives out there with similar construction, including the Solina Sex Blanket, the Dame Thro, and the fluffy Splash Blanket. Waterproof pet blankets are also suitable as long as they have a waterproof layer in the middle. Many retailers have one or two sex blankets in stock, so you should be able to find something from your retailer of choice or shop around for the best deal.
Toys
Maybe there are some cocks I’d consider essential. I definitely have my favorites. But this article is about items that I use in most of my play sessions, and there’s no particular fantasy dildo that hogs that much attention. Which dildos I use depends on what I’m feeling at the time, and with the variety that I have, that makes for a lot of unique sessions.
The below toys are ones that I always have in my bag and often use alongside dildos to enhance the experience.
I’m pretty comfortable with my current body as a transitioning trans man, but I always have a suction prosthetic on hand for when I really want to feel like I have a dick that’s either long enough to stroke or heavy enough to hang around while riding.
FTM Pitstop PeenPocket is the best-fitting prosthetic I have and it holds on very well, offering a satisfying weight as I ride and working well with some of my strokers. The downside is the tacky sensation (normal for super soft 00-20 silicone) and how short it is. (More thoughts on that in this article.)
Transthetics Hot Rod is longer and more realistic, but much more pricy and harder to get on. The velvety soft finish isn’t tacky at all. The firmness feels like medium firmness 00-50, making it firmer and more sturdy than the PeenPocket, and it stays on decently well. Unlike my Axolom prosthetic, it doesn’t go flat when the air is pushed out of it. The suction, however, is very strong, so I can only wear it for so long. I prefer the realistic look, the lack of tack, and the increased length of the Hot Rod, but I need to reserve it for shorter sessions.
I keep Neotori Thorvald’s Prism (review) in my bag for pumping purposes. As a closed-ended mini stroker, it creates a vacuum. The suction is fun but it also encourages blood flow to my tdick, leading to enlargement with enough playtime. (The PeenPocket and Hot Rod can be used for this purpose as well, but I personally prefer using those as prosthetics rather than strokers.)
I’ve gotten really into squirting lately, and the njoy Pure Wand remains the easiest way to get there. Initially, I wasn’t going to include it in this article, but then I realized that every time I put it back into storage, I pull it out again within a couple of days because I can’t resist it. It remains an almost permanent part of my toy bag. (Click here for the full review and how I learned to squirt.)
When I need a little bit of extra kick to push me over the edge, I grab a bullet vibe or my Satisfyer. The bullet vibes need a tapered or lipstick tip in order to press against the right spots. As long as I’ve got one of those in my toy bag (and remember to charge it), I can finish off satisfyingly while riding my dildo of choice.
- Nü Sensuelle Evie Nubii is my strongest bullet vibe. Despite being lower intensity than the brand’s other bullet vibes, it packs a punch even on the lowest setting.
- Blush bullet vibes are decent, affordable, available from lots of retailers, and come in tons of colors, although they might not scratch the itch for those who need strong vibes. The colors don’t make a difference; it’s all the same vibe underneath.
- Hot Octopuss Amo* (review) does the job and doubles as a round-headed vibe.
- Satisfyer Pro 3+ (review) gets me off really well. I wouldn’t call it top quality and the motor sounds wobbly, but it’s just about guaranteed to get me off within five minutes or less.
* Hot Octopuss Amo appears to have been discontinued in the middle of writing this article. I’ve kept it here in case it ever comes back, and you might be able to track one down from a retailer if you want one.
Not Actually Essential
I may enjoy these or see them recommended a lot, but at least in my case, they don’t see as much use as one may think.
- Warming/Cooling/Stimulating Products: Specialty serums and lubes can increase blood flow and cause sensations that encourage arousal, but I find that I still need a mental aspect to arousal before I’m truly turned on. I normally save these for certain fantasies and try to avoid overusing them, giving my sensitive tissues a break in between sessions. Plus, they’re expensive and I don’t want to go through them too quickly. These may be helpful for some people, but for most, they’re just fun enhancements.
- Toy Cleaner: Foaming toy cleaner may be convenient if you can’t immediately wash off your toys or if you need a self-foaming soap, but the toy will still need to be washed under hot water to finish cleaning it. Soap and hot water alone are sufficient to clean your own toys if they aren’t shared with anyone else (and if they are shared, boiling in water or soaking in a 10% bleach solution can sanitize them). While some people recommend toy cleaner as essential, I don’t use any myself.
- Sex Furniture: My Liberator Wing (review) is fun for mounting toys, but not something I use all that often in favor of just riding on the floor. I don’t think there’s much furniture I would use often if I had it, honestly. While some furniture is great for accessibility purposes, if you’re only asking “Will this spice up my personal playtime?” without a specific need or position in mind, then it could turn out to be an expensive waste of space.
Product Summary
Ultimately, everything in this article is subjective. What works out great for me might be just about useless for someone else, and items that I don’t use may be essential for others. I hope the information in this article provides some food for thought in building your own toybox for the perfect playtime.
- Lube
- My go-to: Wicked Sensual Simply Timeless Aqua ($18/4oz)
- See also (not personally tested): Aqua ($14/4oz), Aqua Jelle ($14/4oz)
- My alternate picks:
- Sliquid H2O ($8/2oz)
- LubeLife ($8/4oz)
- Bad Dragon Cumlube ($4/2oz)
- Foria Juicy Pure Lube (flavored) ($20/4oz)
- My go-to: Wicked Sensual Simply Timeless Aqua ($18/4oz)
- Accessibility
- My fave: Silc Arts Silc Touch Vac-U-Lock handle ($105+)
- Compatible with most dildos: Lust Arts Thruster Handle ($40+)
- Storage
- Bags included with orders (this list is not exhaustive)
- Bags
- XL LEAFICO cotton muslin bags ($26/6 bags)
- Weewooday satin bags ($21/12 bags)
- Vorspack Travel Toiletry Bag ($17)
- Boxes
- HOONEX fabric boxes ($30/2 boxes)
- punemi under bed storage boxes ($28/2 boxes)
- Blankets
- Liberator Fascinator Throw ($66+)
- See also (not personally tested): Solina Sex Blanket ($72), Dame Thro ($69), Splash Blanket ($85+)
- Liberator Fascinator Throw ($66+)
- Toys
- FTM Pitstop PeenPocket as a prosthetic ($50)
- Transthetics Hot Rod as a prosthetic ($195)
- Neotori Thorvald’s Prism for t-dick pumping (€55)
- njoy Pure Wand ($160)
- Vibes to finish off
- Nü Sensuelle Evie Nubii ($40)
- Blush bullet vibes ($35)
- Hot Octopuss Amo (discontinued)
- Satisfyer Pro 3+ ($79)
This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a commission from qualifying sales.
These listed products were provided to me at no cost directly from each brand, but there was no obligation for inclusion in this article: Bad Dragon Cum Lube, Foria Juicy Pure Lube, Silc Arts Silc Touch, Master4Fancy bags, Neotori bags, SquidlyCo bags, Twilight Meadow Creations bags, Neotori Thorvald’s Prism.
The Liberator Fascinator Throw and Hot Octopuss Amo were provided by retailer The Sex Shed as part of a previous affiliate partnership without requirement for review or article inclusion. I can no longer recommend the brand due to their extensive use of generative AI and have linked to other sources in this article, but I still acknowledge that they provided the products and appreciate the past partnership.
General disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, dildo reviews are written regarding vaginal use, packages were shipped discreetly, and products are safe to use with water- or oil-based lubes. For general questions about fantasy toys, please refer to my Guide to Fantasy Toys.