[...] I decided I wanted to buy a vibrator for masturbation, but I was looking online and I think they might be too expensive. Are there any ways to make your own vibrators or sex toys for free? Is it safe to use household items in your vagina? Please let me know.
Thank you,
R.M.
What a great question, R.M.! Vibrators and sex toys can certainly be expensive (though many stores like A Woman's Touch have bargain vibes and sales), but there are plenty of household items we can use for special purposes in the bedroom.
Really, a ""vibrator"" is just something that vibrates, and most of us have at least one vibrating gadget lying around our apartments—our cell phones. While the varying shapes of a cell phone may make it difficult to use for penetration (and something without a flared base, like a cell phone, should not be used for anal penetration anyway), it's easy to use your phone's vibrating alerts for external stimulation.
Like with many other sexual activities, the first step is to wrap it up. Wrapping our cell phones with an unlubed condom, sex dam or even plastic wrap helps keep our juices out of the phone, which is better for the phone itself and also prevents awkward situations when your roommate asks if she can borrow your phone. After that, there are a couple of methods we can use to keep the good vibes going.
The easiest option is to use the phone's alarm settings. Many phones are capable of setting multiple alarms and can also use vibration as an alarm. To use this to our advantage, we must first find out how many alarms the phone can set, then find out how long the alarm will go off if you don't turn it off or hit snooze. Then, we can set multiple alarms to maintain a continuous vibration for several minutes. For example, a little playing with my phone (research only, I swear) revealed I can set five alarms, any one of which will go off for two minutes if I don't hit any buttons. Therefore, if I wanted to use my phone as a vibrator starting at 3:00, I would set all of the alarms to go off in two-minute intervals (i.e. at 3:02, 3:04, 3:06, etc.). Ten magical minutes of vibration.
One slightly more involved method is to repeatedly select the vibration setting on your phone. Know how your phone buzzes when you select ""silent"" or ""vibrate"" in your sound profile or ringtones menu? If you simply keep pushing ""select"" (or whatever), you can repeat that vibration as many times as you need to. It might take a little while to get into a good rhythm, but this can be a good option if you plan to use your vibraphone longer than your alarm settings allow. Finally, just because they're solo sessions doesn't mean you can't involve a partner. Simply set your phone to vibrate, and have someone call you repeatedly. When you finally pick up the phone, you can tell him or her how marvelous it was.
Although our cell phones (or electric toothbrushes) will serve very well as a homemade vibe, there are many other inexpensive household items that can serve sexual purposes. Pretty much any smooth and solid object (meaning no sharp edges and hefty enough to avoid breakage) can be safely used as a dildo. You may want to put an unlubricated condom over it—to protect yourself and the object, depending on what it is —but some beginning ideas include a cucumber, a spoon handle or a curling iron (off, of course). As stated above, anything used for anal penetration must have a flared base. The anal canal doesn't have a stopper to keep things from traveling all the way up inside the body (unlike the cervix in the vaginal canal), so it's important to have an external stopping mechanism. However, you can easily modify an insertive object so it has a flared base (e.g. by sticking a pen horizontally through the last 2-3 inches of a zucchini; cap the pen, and your homemade anal dildo's flared base will sit nicely between your butt cheeks).
Finally, you can make your own sensation play toys, too. Clothespins will work as nipple clamps, a thick, soft scrunchie can be used as a cock ring (make sure these toys aren't causing numbness, and don't wear either for more than 20 minutes), and you can make your own flogger from a bungee cord. To do this, cut a length of cord slightly longer than the desired length of your flogger. Wrap 4-5 inches of electrical tape around one end to make a handle, then unravel the cloth covering from the elastic cords underneath.
These are a few beginning suggestions, but as long as you follow the same safety precautions you'd follow for toys you purchased—using a barrier with it, choosing anal toys with flared bases, wearing items that restrict blood flow for less than 20 minutes at a stretch—a huge variety of household items can be safely incorporated into sex play. Many thanks to R.M. for inspiring our creativity this week: while masturbation is by definition DIY, with our new homemade toys, we can take that to a whole new level.
Want to let us know about your homemade bedroom helpers or other questions? E-mail sex@dailycardinal.com.
