#teardrop also can fit into this category but i just wanted to draw these two

[smile-files]

boys who are annoying on purpose (affectionate)

[stimtoybox]

Hey I'm new to the idea of stim toys 'cos I'm newly diagnosed and I'd like to ask if you have any "starter" ideas for stim toys or ideas for squeezeable stim toys that give a bit of resistance when you squish them. Things not smelling or making noise is a big plus.

I see we have another stimming convert! Fabulous. Not that we’re trying to take over the world or anything…

Anon, I’ve got several posts that I consider Stim Toy 101, including posts on breaking down toys into categories and posts on the more popular fidget toys. I’ll list those, and then I’ll finish by listing the toys that I think fit your brief.

So. For anyone new to the wide and wonderful world of stim toys, here’s what I hope to be useful reading:

@wrennigan​‘s Chewable Comparison Post: a list that compares many Stimtastic chewables.

Household Stimmy Items: a list of readily available stimmy objects for folks who don’t have online access to conventional toys or need to be stealth in their stimming.

Subtle On-The-Person Toys: toys that are easily portable and less like to draw attention, also great for folks who need to be stealth.

Common Tactile Toys: a list of the most common tactile stim toys and how they’re used. This is a great post for “starter” toys, anon!

Categories of Stim Toys: things to keep in mind when building a varied stim kit.

My Stim Kit: an example of the kind of kit you might build.

Varying Your Stimming: why you should be a little mindful about your stimming, because you don’t want to end up with chronic pain or injury.

@whisperstims​‘s Stim Toy Hygiene Post: how to clean your stim toys.

DIY Stim Toy Master Posts, One and Two: lists of links to all sorts of tutorials for DIY toys. The degree of difficulty varies here: some tutorials and DIYs are easy, others require a bit of crafting experience.

Autistic Sellers and Crafters Post: a list of autistic stim toy store owners and stim toy crafters.

Now, we’ll move into the rec portion of the answer. Squishable, with resistance, but silent and scentless. All links go to our tags, because by now there’s several posts telling you where you can find the thing.

Squishies: available in a variety of resistances, very squishable, available many places online. Some of these are slow-rising, which mean they compress tightly and take time to expand; others compress less well. Some, like the mochi squishies, are rubbery and gel-like, but most are made from foam. The better quality squishies generally cost more, sadly; I’ve had good experiences with the SquishyFun brand, and I’ve heard good things about Areedy squishies as well. Unfortunately, many squishies are scented, and while some listings state this, many don’t specify scent, so buying these can be a bit of a risk.

Stress balls: usually made from foam, available in a variety of resistances (firmer than most squishies), silent. Most of these don’t have odours, but I recently bought some that did smell chemically. These are readily available in dollar shops and just about everywhere online.

Fabric or crocheted stress balls: weighted, good for crunching and scrunching, no scent, do make low noise as they contain weighted pellets and, sometimes, crinkle paper. The mesh fabric stress balls I have are quieter than the crocheted ones.

Grape or mesh stress balls: squishy, available in varying resistances, do make a slight slurping sound as the slime inside the ball moves.

Puffer balls and puffer creatures: very soft and squishy, but the majority of them have a chemical-rubber scent that I can’t bear. This said, I own one ball from a dollar shop that has no odour, and the puffer worms I smelt at Sensory Oasis for Kids have no odour, so they do exist. This one, I think, is very much a try to find in person item because of the risk of bad smells, but they are available in many dollar and toy shops.

Wool stress balls and wool dryer balls: soft woolen balls that you can squish in your hand. No smell, no odour but that of wool unless you add scent - just a wool ball you can squish or tear.

Makeup blending sponges: a teardrop or hourglass shape sponge, generally medium resistance, great for squishing. No scent or sound, just a lovely fine-spongy texture. I’ve seen them from most dollar and department stores starting at $3-$4 AUD, but the brand name sponges are absolutely not needed for stimming.

(Many sponges in general are good for squishing, and if you like rough textures, check out this ask for a few more rough-textured sponges that are squishable.)

Disney mini Tsum Tsum plush: no scent, very squishable, lots of great textures, a small amount of sound if you press the small pocket of weighted pellets in the plush’s belly (above the strip of faux suede used as the toy’s base).

Thinking Putty and TheraPutty: one of the firmest items here, if you like a lot of resistance when squishing, but Thinking Putty does tend to crack and snap when moulded. It’s not constant, so it’s like a crack here and a snap there, but know that it does. TheraPutty makes no noise at all. No scent for either, unlike most putties and doughs.

I hope that gives you somewhere to start, anon. If you have any more questions, please ask away!

[stimtoybox]

hey! mods get a lot of asks so feel free to ignore, but lately ive been really stressed out and my need to sensory input skyrocketed. i really like soft things, and rn for that i have a minky blanket and a cat that i love to pet, but ive been looking for public acceptable soft textured stims. do you have any suggestions?

There’s a lot of asks, yes, but I don’t want to ignore anything, so if folks don’t mind waiting a bit or a lot, I promise we’ll get to it eventually. I mean, people are asking under the belief that we can help (or try to help) so to ignore that, I think, would be a disservice to the people who support us. Not to mention the fact that I’d be surprised if there isn’t at least one other person who is helped out by someone who asks and gets an answer, no matter how odd or unnecessary the ask might seem. Informative posts help people know something exists; asks often ask me to put together toys by category or need, or provide care/safety information, all things posts about a cute squishy or a sale Tangle don’t accomplish. So to me, anyway, they’re pretty important!

I’ve actually got quite a lot of soft textured sims, some small enough to hide in a coat pocket or handbag/satchel, some that won’t draw too much attention and some that don’t even look like stim toys:

Image description under read more cut at end of post!

Subtle/Easily Hidden Toys:

- Keychains (Fluffy, Pompom, Plush, Tassel): These are the biggest in “stimmy objects attached to a bag or satchel that nobody will consider an obvious stim” toys. If you choose more muted colours, especially if you’re female, feminine or seen as female by society, nobody will think anything of these: I’ve seen plenty of professional-appearing women with a dark pompom keychain attached to their handbags. If you’re a little quirky, punk, goth, counter-culture or unconventional, you can get away with any colour and style you like without anyone realising what they’re actually for.

Try the accessories sections of department stores (K-Mart, Target) and accessories stores (Claire’s, Lovisa) as well as markets (Queen Victoria Market) for the more unusual and funky items. There’s all sorts of things on eBay (none of them expensive) under the search plush keychain.

- Purses and Pouches: again, it helps to be a little unconventional here, since most of the really stimmy ones tend to be brightly coloured. I’ve got two very soft plush coin-style purses shaped like a frog head and a watermelon slice; I’ve also got a chenille coin purse with all the lovely fronds for running hands through.

I’ve seen the plush pouches/purses in K-Mart and Daiso, so again think the accessory sections of department stores. Or you can try eBay under the search plush coin purse, as there’s loads of awesome purses for $2 USD or less. The chenille ones are harder to find, but I’ve seen the Yoobi-branded ones here in Officeworks and they’ve been found in the US, I believe, at Target.

- Makeup Blending Sponges: soft but with a little cellulose-like texture. Available in most department stores. You might not want to be seen holding this, but they easily fit into a coat pocket or bag.

(I also glued two makeup sponges together around a slide clip to make a crackling squishy, as in this tutorial you sent in to us, and sewed the sponges into a small flannelette bag, making a tiny, fabric-textured cracking squishy - the purple star-print rectangle in the photo above.)

- Disney Mini Tsum Tsum Plush: soft, has a variety of gentle textures, readily squishable, available at Target and Disney Stores. Also easily hidden in a coat pocket or bag, and I should know, because I have one in my satchel that’s easily stimmed with just by sliding a hand inside said satchel.

(There’s a lot of similar mini plushies as well - you might prefer Puchimaru, Teeny Tys or any of the handmade plush toys made by many of the autistic crafters on this list.)

- Crocheted Stress Ball: the crocheted thread is soft and non-scratchy, and the ball easily slips into a pocket. This is a noisy toy, though, as the ball contains crinkle paper, so for this reason it’s not terribly stealth. The best place I know for purchasing these for non-Australians is Stimtastic.

- Mini Bean Bags: can be made from flannelette, fleece, minky fleece, faux fur. Anything soft and strokeable. If you’re DIYing this or ordering it (several of the sellers on our autistic crafters list make these sorts of bean bags) just have it made small enough to fit in a pocket.

(Note: you can also buy small pieces of these fabrics from a craft store like Lincraft or Spotlight, cut them up into portable swatches and keep a piece in your pocket or bag. You can hem or blanket stitch the edges for neatness, but it isn’t required, and it gives you something soft to stroke, like a minky blanket, wherever you are.)

Less Subtle/More Obvious Toys:

- Tangle Jr Fuzzy: this one really isn’t subtle, but for soft texture seekers, they’re absolutely divine. You will look like you’re stimming (although for some reason, nobody has commented when I use a Tangle on the bus, as opposed to other toys) but they’re too perfect for the soft aspect of this ask for me to ignore them. They’re still easily carried in a pocket or bag, though!

- Marble Maze and Marble Loops: made from flannelette, they’re absolutely wonderful just for stroking, and I make this even better by using a layer of minky fleece for the back. Again, you will look like you’re stimming, but even out and about there’s usually places where you can pull out a toy for private stimming/calming, and the maze can easily be folded up to fit in a pocket. The loop, being much smaller, is far more subtle and even easier to keep on your person.

I hope this gives you some ideas, @abandonedshops, and if anyone has any ideas that I’ve forgotten to include, please comment away!

- Mod K.A.

[image description: a photo of several soft, fabric stim toys sitting on a round red and green watermelon slice pillow and a tree-on-night-sky silhouette quilt cover in black, blue and white. The pillow is sitting on the quilt cover, covered by toys, with a single line of toys sitting underneath the pillow.

Toys from left to right, top to bottom:

- a dark blue, turquoise and yellow wool pompom keychain;

- a white and peach plush ball keychain;

- a red plush heart-shaped keychain;

- a square pink Yoobi chenille coin purse;

- a cream, lemon and aqua Disney Tsum Tsum mini plush Elsa;

- a round-with-bulging-eyes frog face plush coin purse;

- a red, yellow, green, purple, blue and purple striped crocheted stress ball;

- a black, white and grey leopard-print faux-fur bean bag;

- a green, blue, purple and pink round plush ball keychain;

- a red, white, green and black watermelon slice plush coin purse;

- an orange, yellow, light pink, dark pink and purple embroidery thread tiered tassel keychain;

- a pink, orange and yellow tassel leather keychain;

- a fluro yellow, pink, green, purple and blue cord tassel keychain;

- an aqua owl-print marble maze with pink fleece backing;

- a mini purple and full-size orange teardrop-shaped makeup blending sponge;

- a solid red flocked Tangle Jr Fuzzy;

- a red, yellow, green, purple, dark blue and light blue flocked Tangle Jr Fuzzy;

- a rectangular-shaped white-star-on-purple flannelette-covered DIY cracking squishy;

- a white-spot-on-red flannelette marble maze;

- a lemon and light blue stripped bunny plush keychain.]