How to Store Your Adult Sex Toys

By: Abby DivDate: July 13, 2020

In Le Sex Lab's podcast we are talking about adult toy storage trunks. Talking about his custom, handcrafted storage is creator and founder of Toy Boxxx Studio, Oz Maile.

Abigail Div
Hello, everyone. We're going to be talking today about the modern problems, how to store and display your sex toys. In this interview, we'll explore the following. How did Toy Boxxx Studio start? How did it arrive at the current trunk design? How have the trunks evolved since they started? What are the trends and custom storage solutions for sex toys? And how would you design a toy closet? And with me today to talk about all the world of sex toy storage is creator and founder of Toy Boxxx Studio, Oz Maile. Welcome.

Oz Maile
Welcome. Thank you, Abby, for having me on.

Abigail Div
Yeah, welcome to the Le Sex Lab adult product podcast. To start with, I thought we talk about who you are, and your custom storage solution. So first, tell me about Toy Boxxx Studio and how did you get started?

Oz Maile
Well my profession is as a designer furniture, lighting and interiors. So it was sort of a natural outgrowth of that. But it has a few marked instances where, you know, the idea of perked up. The original one was way, way back when I was mentoring with a designer, and we were working on an apartment and he mentioned locks for a lot of the side tables and drawers in the bedroom. And being a naive guy from the Midwest I got him inquired, and that was precisely what the locks were for. So that was a very early start.

When I got more evolved and having my own collection, I soon realized that you know, basically, anything you put them in a suitcase a fiber case, everything inside ended up a tangled mess. It was hard to see what was

They're hard to sort and this was probably 20 years ago.

My business was, you know boutique but I've almost always had three months of work ahead of me. So it took a long time to like it actually start to prototype.

A solution for myself and as a possible furniture product.

Originally we looked at wardrobe trunks and other you know, other types of trunks, traditional wardrobe Trump's seem very appealing. You can even work with antique ones that have great you know, kind of character, but wardrobe trunks are really meant for packing sweaters, and light weight clothing. The doors are not made durable enough for the weight and nature of most people's sex toys. And they post a lot of problems in you know are you working with if you're working with a vintage product, all the time, everything custom.

About six years ago, I moved my business up to beacon, New York, and dial that down enough to have the time to really explore and design. And that's how we got to, you know, really starting a prototype and design of what we currently offer.

Abigail Div
Wonderful. Yeah, I'll admit that I've admired izes Trump for a long time, as I have the problem of most urbanites, where we have little or no additional storage space for luxury lifestyle goods. It's always felt rather improper to put well crafted sometimes very delicate objects in plastic bins, or stuck them in an array stuff causes only to be wrinkled or warped or damaged in the process. But what else is there to do? there's so little space in New York City.

Oz Maile
And yes, and that was my original problem as well.

You know, I had a nice life that which most people would think is spacious but you have limited closet space. You and city dwellers in particular can't dedicate a room they don't have a basement or an attic. So, that was the original idea. But it was intriguing. You know, the nature of the clients, the by them are kind of twofold. Originally, I thought that it would mostly go to people in the lifestyle, or professionals and professionals have carved out their space, they might have, you know, a dedicated space in general. Some need need this type of storage. But the big surprise was the amount of families people in Middle America, they wanted to keep their sex toys away from their kids, their housekeeper and the grandma.

Abigail Div
I can understand on all regards as to why you would want not any of those audiences just randomly stumbling across your toys.

Oz Maile
Yeah, we've all heard the stories of the kid, you know, taking something to show Intel and in first grade, he shouldn't surprise for not only the classroom but also the teacher. Gotcha.

Abigail Div
Well, let's dive into our first topic, then. the limitations of space in mind, how did you come across the design that you're currently using for your toy boxes. And for those of you who are not familiar, the trunks are vertically oriented and set on caster wheels, so that the boxes are easy to move and put in storage. The smallest is about two feet tall was the largest model that as maxes about four feet tall, but they come in and weighing about 100 pounds each, so I'm glad to hear that they are on wheels pick them up.

Oz Maile
The weight is we very clearly point out that these are rolling furniture. Of course, they can be put in the back of an SUV with some help, but the drawers are not completely captive and the weight alone, they're not meant for flying or any of that type of travel. We do get requests for travel cases and we are trying to consider you know, finding a solution for those as well because people do travel with their sex toys. But this in in particular, these are rolling furniture.

Abigail Div
So the trunks when you open them up in secret or in in public look like a sex object in their own right that you would want to have sex on. What kind of materials do you use inside of your product?

Oz Maile
They are it's mostly a very high quality vinyl. It's a leather look vinyl. There's leather, metal, Polish metal. We can do the interiors and exteriors in a variety of colors. But as you mentioned, certain colors lend themselves to, you know, feeling sexual, visually sexual. We love the red interiors because they allow black leather which often is hanging in the hanging side in the terms of you know, all sorts of things that come in, in leather and black allows it to show off stand out. We do get a lot of requests for all black as well. And we've discouraged a few strange colors such as you know, somebody's favorite football blue and a few other strange requests, but of course we would not you know, we're happy to find materials in colors for the interior that people were comfortable with.

Abigail Div
And so what are some common features to your chests, partner levers, pulleys, you know, the Bondian secret door that opens up into another secret compartment.

Oz Maile
Pretty much once you unlock this, we figure that you know you've unlocked your goodies and you want to get to them. We do and have put a separate small, hidden lock on bottom drawer. So even though one might have want to share most of everything, they might have something they only want to share for themselves. In addition, people have purchased them for you know other things in sex toys, keepsakes, important, valuable things. We're actually looking at possibly doing one that's a little more lingerie oriented, delicate objects. Each of the sizes at this point comes with six drawers, we can change the amount of the amount of drawers and the size of the drawers somewhat. Some customization in that regard. Also, we people requesting different types of liners, the bottoms of the drawers, vinyl velvet, rubber diamond plate, we've done all of those Some are easier and more successful than others.

So there's somewhat of a customization element to the design work as well. Yeah, the exterior, we recommend black and there's a couple of grays and we've also done a white. But practically speaking, most people choose the black interiors. There's a wide variety of the upholstery grade material vinyls we use but again, there's colors that seem appropriate. We have a couple of different reds ones more vintage ones a little brighter, and we do black. And there are other options as well.

Abigail Div
Wow sounds like you can customize to a certain extent, anything and everything within this case.

Oz Maile
Yeah, we we haven't been doing you know, some people want dividers and that gets really, you know, very personalized. We could do them but you know, it's it's something that unless somebody is really willing to invest in to do the kind of quality dividers. Most people probably don't go down that road. On the lid side, we have seven hanging hooks. It's interesting because we get you know calls you know all my 40 inch crop hang without puddling up in the bottom in size x or size Why? You know people fit one person, he got everything in except his spreader bars. You're gonna have to invest in the ones that are adjustable size.

Abigail Div
And certainly a daunting task when you're looking at all these different solutions as you may have, as you were saying many different sizes when it comes to your whips, your paddles, your tails, your blindfolds and any number of other accessories that are on a custom made market may come in a variation of sizes and shapes. How have you evolved the trunks since you started? What features have you added as a result of customer feedback that you've received?

Oz Maile
We added we got some great customer feedback from some guy he he called me up like 30 seconds after he saw them. He never ended up buying one but we had a great chat on the phone. He wanted power on board, so that vibrators and other toys which require recharging, could be plugged in and kept inside the cabinet. And this this works on the largest size the XL. We shortened the drawer, we add USB charger, and the kind of cabling that comes with amplifier equipment and the like where the plug can be disconnected from the case. But that led me to something that is really been what I think is the the nicest addition and something I recommend to everyone that buys them the hanging side of the door. You know most of the time when you're using these things, it's not in bright daylight. It's often in a darkened, candlelit or, or sort of theme, lit room, and even though you've got this great drawers and hanging space, it's not a strong visual and it's not so easy to see things in a darkened room. So we added a valence and an LED rechargeable light. And this is great. It goes on when you buy motion sensor, and it lights up all the hanging goods making very dramatic and even most of the drawers when you open them, you can see it casts enough light to see what's in the drawers. So this is a great feature and we pretty much recommend this option for everyone.

Abigail Div
That sounds like a fairly common use case where you're having sex in the dark and therefore can't see what you're actually trying to find.

Oz Maile
Exactly, which was sort of the you know one of the original inspirations.

Abigail Div
Well, I'm sure also in the years of experience of customizing these cabinets you found trends in terms of things that you have them taken away are there features in the cabinets that no longer exist.

Oz Maile
We're finding refinements pretty much been minor, but from a furniture design point of view, I don't think people don't realize how much even sometimes common objects need a great deal of revision and engineering.

You know, when I designed furniture, we designed some beautiful aluminum furniture years back, and you were amazed that how the two inch aluminum with flex or parts would wear out things like that. So with the toy boxes, we've changed the wheels. We've changed the mounting we got, you know, we offer different door glides than we started with, so that we don't have issues with shipping, things like that through the process, mostly or refinements.

Perfect. Well, let's talk more about sex specifically. Now, the adult toy market is so dynamic and when it comes to toys and technology, and as a creator, you must come across many requests to customize and modify your trunks to suit specific needs. For example, and I think you've noted it before, we're talking specifically about an industry that women have a lot of vibrator options now on the market, and things like pulse and buzz and now even suck. I personally have a stash of chargers tangled up in a drawer that have accumulated over time with each new acquisition into my collection. I can't be the only person with this issue of organization. So my question for you is how have you modified the trunks with these innovations and the trends that you see that have moved within the sex toy market?

We haven't been building them for that long. So we're pretty much in the current market of USB charging, some hard wired charging. So that's where the power onboard became a really nice option of being able to store it and charge it. No, that's charged when you open it up.

Again, we do recommend some commercially available dividers, which I think you know when people want to get really specific that they may want to go into a drawer and either have us or customized with dividers themselves. Also in some of the drawers, you know, people put pouches and other types of organizational material. The drawers are in three sizes we do shallow for small things, such as smaller vibrators, all kinds of, you know, smaller items, coughs, things that lay flat. And then we offer then we was medium drawers and large doors, which you know, make a nice rope in or back storage.

Abigail Div
Wonderful. How are you seeing any trends inside of custom storage solutions in terms of what's on the market? Or what's going to be coming onto the market in terms of requests?

Oz Maile
You know, most of these are sold through Etsy. And if the feedback is always interesting in the conversations, which is something that I didn't really, you know, kind of foresee, we probably spend at least an hour back and forth, if not more with each person who buys it, so I get a lot of interesting stories.

They're so diverse and more diverse than, you know, sort of the well publicized or well known cliches. As I said, we get families. We recently sent one to Tennessee, and I joked about it being the Bible Belt, and I was thanked for doing God's work. And I've sent the military basis. we've shipped to Australia and Finland and France. So we get it, you know, a fun wide variety of clientele.

Abigail Div
Wonderful. And finally, let's explore the idea of if you were to take your box out of the box and put it instead into a closet. So let's just pretend you decide that you're going to come out of retirement and back into the world of interior design. You're going to create a custom toy closet of your dreams. What features would it include?

Oz Maile
Well, when I saw that as a question I was thinking about, the truth is, is that unless you have a really big closet, you're probably not going to be having your fun in it. So, yes, the trunk or trunks couldn't be rolled out and you think, you know, to make a closet sexy, it could be padded upholstered. A lot of the space that a person might need might be in wardrobe. So of course, you know, a regular closet with hanging space is very important. And lighting that keeps it all looking sexy, where you can see what you need to see and doesn't ruin the mood.

Abigail Div
So what aspects of design would you change from a conventional convert so that it can fit those things.

Oz Maile
Again, closets come in such a variety of sizes that you know that that basically that's where you really have to start as again, color lighting, upholstery.You know, a typical closet. It could work in the sense that hanging space is important. And you might have headgear and hats and the typical things that go on the shelves in in a closet. So I think it's more about the look and feel. And also if you can, you know, leave yourself enough room to roll a trunk in and out. Then you can have the smaller items come with you as you come out of the closet.

Abigail Div
So, essentially a rolling closet.

Oz Maile
Yeah, and some people have actually requested, you know, have to request that something that almost that large. We haven't followed through on those. But there are some very large containers available.

Abigail Div
I can only imagine how large they would be if you were in closet size to roll it out the complete, certainly require a much larger space than the average urbanite here in New York City has to offer but you know, as you were saying, your clientele does expand outside of urban centers and into the Midwest and thereafter so it does sound like people do have the space in order to be able to make that a possibility.

Oz Maile
Yeah, a New York closet...some of them are literally, you know, two by two and a half feet.

Abigail Div
Not a lot of space.

Oz Maile
Yeah, the smallest one has a really, really flexible footprint we've renamed it the PK, Personal Kit. The very first person who purchased one was in Australia believe it or not. And he said this is a really smart kit and I couldn't keep them having that word. That word stuck with me because it's kind of neat. And but it's 20 by 15 footprint, so it can handle even quite a small closet.

Abigail Div
Yeah, that sounds like that's actually the size of most Manhattan apartments.

Oz Maile
30 by 3020 by 15 by 20 inches.

We have one other product if you have a time for sure. We make way way back another product that has its roots in New York. Back in the kind of golden age of Soho when it was 75% restaurants and art galleries and 25% old shot old manufacturers and fabricators. There was a great old machine shop named Zelf. And it was pretty much down to its last legs, but many people have fond memories of having custom parts.

And I was in one day working with a machinist. And the business had also rented floor Sanders and urethane and big five gallon buckets. And I looked over and there were paint stirs. But they weren't the little ones. They were giant ones for five gallon buckets. And they were beautiful pieces of wood, clear pine, lightweight, nice dimensions and they had an amazing whoosh and smack years years later, I kept a few for myself.

And years later, when I got the toy boxes going, I thought, you know, you really need something for branding. And something that if someone would just wanted something less expensive and kind of fun. So we basically got quantities of these large paint stirs. They're about 20 inches long, dress them with leather and rubber lashing. And we took our logo and got an actual brand a branding iron, so that we could burn it into the top of the woods. So it's a fun story because it's another one of those things that took many, many years to evolve and has a history. But there are a nice little $25 item that is kind of special. It's somewhere between a crop, a cane, and a paddle. But I think better than all.

Abigail Div
All in one, it saves you a few dollars to in the process.

Oz Maile
Yep. It does come with a warning label though.

Abigail Div
Do tell what is this label?

Oz Maile
It seems so innocent. But it it you know, and it could be applied somewhat innocently, but it can also really sting. And well hang on one second.

Here you go

Abigail Div
All right. I heard it.

Oz Maile
Anyway just a few sound effects.

There, it's just kind of a fun thing that you know we could offer that was kind of lightweight. We haven't gone in I mean we have a few other ideas. But as you said, I mean the the variety and scope and quality of sex toys is kind of off the roots. I kind of you know, I've always marveled at the creativity of man on one particular topic.

Abigail Div
Wonderful. And thank you Oz for joining me today to talk about custom sex storage solutions.

Oz Maile
Thank you as well. It was a pleasure.

Abigail Div
And if you want to hear more, please join me again next week for another adult product feature on Le Sex Lab.