Keeping Your Sex Dungeon Clean
Whether you play publicly, are a Dungeon Master, or a play space owner, keeping your kinky play space clean is a crucial responsibility.
Cleaning the surfaces of a play space isn’t just good housekeeping - it can be the difference between safe, enjoyable play for years to come, and a potentially life-threatening infection.
Similarly, if you’re into medical play, or your play involves breaking the surface of the skin (e.g needles, cutting, cell popping, cupping, extreme impact, etc), you have a duty of care to yourself and your partner(s) to ensure you maximise the safety and hygiene of your play space.
Infection and disease transmission aren’t kinks.
Safer practices mean you can make your spaces more risk-averse. Standard Precautions (or Universal Precautions) are critical for infectious risk reduction when you are dealing with body fluids.
Why Keeping Your Sex Space Clean Is Important
The world is full of microorganisms - germs, bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
Most of them are harmless, but the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that approximately 1.5 million people in the USA alone end up contracting an infection related to improperly-cleaned surfaces.
Add into the mix the increased exposure to blood-borne pathogens, like malaria, syphilis, brucellosis, Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV), and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and it starts to really hit home just home important safe and thorough cleaning of surfaces needs to be.
We’re not trying to scare you.
Any surface and equipment can become contaminated, and this applies even if you and your partner(s) are fluid bonded.
You can’t guarantee there is no cross contamination of surfaces, so if you’re cleaning down an area, always wear gloves.
How To Keep Your Sex Dungeon Clean
Cleaning non-porous (hard) surfaces
Wipe the surface to remove any visible and other contaminants with disposable paper towels
Thoroughly clean the surface by applying disinfectant for the indicated length of time on the product label - reapply if needed
Wipe the surface with a fresh paper towel, being sure to wipe the entire surface to remove any remaining disinfectant.
Lightly spray the surface using an appropriate disinfectant product to coat with a mist. Allow the surface to air dry.
Sanitize the surface with a household cleaning product spray and wipe the entire surface down with a fresh paper towel before leaving to air dry.
If you’re using a medical grade disinfectant, you shouldn’t need to sanitise, but it’s always a good practice - and you’d be surprised how many people actually like the scent of cleaning products!
Recommended Cleaning Products
Using something is better than nothing, but most BDSM dungeons will use brands like Lysol, Dettol, or CaviCide, as well as chlorine bleach solutions over 6%. Keep in mind they are only effective if used properly, and always read the label.
Using Branded Cleaning Disinfectants
These products are used for disinfecting hard, non-porous, non-food contact surfaces. The instructions are usually simple to follow, and when used in conjunction with branded disinfectant wipes, most products will eliminate the following bacteria, viruses, and allergens from hard, non-porous surfaces like HSV1 (Herpes), coronavirus, flu, E. Coli, MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), salmonella, pollen, and mould & mildew.
Chlorine Bleach Solution (<6%)
Used to clean non-porous surfaces, bleach typically has a one-year shelf life but will begin to degrade after six months. Always follow the bleach to water ratio indicated on the label.
Five minutes of surface contact will typically kill bacteria such as flu and E. Coli, whilst ten minutes of surface contact will kill parvovirus, Athlete’s Foot, MRSA, and many more nasty pathogens and organisms.
Bear in mind that the typical 1:9 ratio typically used in a play space is only good for 24 hours.
CaviCide
Designed for non-porous surfaces and decontamination of environmental and medical devices, CaviCide is a ready-to-use medical-grade disinfectant with a long shelf life.
You must wear gloves when in contact with this product.
Two minutes of surface contact time will kill Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Herpes Simplex Virus Types 1 & 2 (HSV1 & 2), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1), Human Coronavirus, and Influenza A2 Virus.
Three minutes contact time will kill Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Var: Bovis (BCG) (TB), MRSA, Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus Faecalis (VRE), Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Salmonella Enterica, and Trichophyton Mentagrophytes.
That’s a lot of nasty stuff that you may not have considered could be lying around on a surface, waiting for the next time you didn’t clean up.
Special thanks go to The_Carnie for his assistance in providing this guide for us to share with you. The_Carnie is a highly experienced practitioner of suspension, needle play, and piercings. If you have any questions about taking care of your dungeon space, please reach out to him directly.
