Congrats on the XD-9! I have a ton of cleaning equipment but I use very little for my 1911 that I carry, shoot, and clean every day. I use a brass bore brush well oiled for the barrel, on a cleaning rod and pass it through about five times. Then I actually use a shotgun bore swab, like a thick cotton swab that I believe is for a 410 shotgun, and I wrap a cotton patch around it and pass it through the bore, change the patch and pass through several times again. Then I use a green toothbrush soaked with oil and scrub down the inside of my slide and around my firing pin, around the hammer, and especially the slides where most of the wear occurs, and on the outside/face of the barrel where it gets dirty. Then I take that same toothbrush and wrap a white t-shirt around it and clean up as much oil as I can from all around the slide and barrel. I use very little oil at all on the lower, mainly just use the same soaked toothbrush followed by the toothbrush wrapped in T-shirt for the lower rails where the slide rides. Then with the same white T-shirt I wipe down the outside of the gun. I also use my green brush for the handguards and anywhere else there is dirt or debris.
*Toothbrush
*White T-shirt
*Rod with wire brush
*Oil
*Cotton patches
*Cleaning rod
If you let your gun get really dirty you may need some harsher cleaner for the bore like Hoppes number 9, but I usually just use a good gun oil and never use solvent. Solvents are hard on plastic.
Just a couple suggestions: If you pass a wire brush through your barrel never reverse directions when the brush is in the barrel. Also be careful not to touch any metal parts of the cleaning rod against the inside of the barrel as you don't want to scratch it.
By the way, the toothbrush I use is a specially designed brush for cleaning guns, the same brush I used in the Army to clean my weapons. I believe that this is essential:
