View Full Version : How often do you wash your clothing?
fidgiegirl
1-13-13, 11:17pm
I think we wash things we've worn once and are pretty much clean much too often.
I am getting better at doing the sniff test, but especially with work clothes, if there is any doubt, down the chute it goes (yes, we have a laundry chute! And no fire stories! I love it!) Weekend clothes are better because if we're just hanging out at home we don't care as much if we are sliiiiiightly smelly or got a little food somewhere the day before.
What drives me nuts about both DH and I is that if we have worn something and it is clean enough to wear again, we don't put it away, we just kind of stack it up - me on my dresser and him in the closet, in the way, and it looks like crap - both in terms of looking around the room and in terms of how the clothes then look when we pull them out of the pile. Sometimes just that alone makes me chuck it all down to the laundry. If I'm disciplined and fold things up or hang them, it's all good.
What made me think of this is that my friend asked me to ask when I visited Bridging, a furniture bank in the area that takes used linens, towels, etc., if they had to be washed, and their answer was that they just look them over and if they are reasonably clean, they get parceled out, and they cross their fingers that the recipients will have access to laundry. So they encouraged her to send them over.
But that got me thinking about all the time, energy, money I spend dealing with laundry, and we're only two people, though Gus the little dog is a laundry monster in and of himself, to be sure. And really, because we have laundry facilities in our home and we have natural gas water heater, I really don't worry whatsoever about not being able to afford laundry, either in terms of time or money - which makes me feel, in turn, a tad silly to be worrying at all about whether I wear things once or twice.
How about you?
Miss Cellane
1-13-13, 11:32pm
It all depends on the clothing, the weather and what I'm doing.
Things like sweaters and jackets only get washed or dry-cleaned a couple of times a year. They get worn, aired out over night, and put back in the closet or dresser.
The sweats that I wear around the house before and after work get worn for 3 or 4 days--but really, that's only equivalent to two days of steady wear. At night, they get folded, not terribly neatly, and put in a basket at the foot of my bed.
Work clothes for the office--I wear pants about 2-3 times before washing. Shirts get worn once.
Jeans--two or three days between washes.
Socks and underwear get washed after each wearing.
In the summer, when I sweat more, things get washed more often. In the winter, things get washed less frequently. If something gets dirty, or I spill or whatever, then the clothes go in the wash immediately.
For stuff that I want to wear again before washing, but for some reason don't want to hang up or put back in the dresser, I have a hook on the closet door where I hang the things. If the hook gets full, the clothes go in the wash. Same for the basket at the foot of the bed. The key thing is to make it very easy to hang or fold the clothes neatly. On wash day, everything goes in the wash. I live alone and do two loads a week. It's just easier to wash everything without debating if a shirt can go another day--I just wash it and sort of reboot its wearing cycle.
Work clothes: 1 to 2 days. House clothes, and not going anywhere? 2 to 4 days....and a sniff test.
- Dress slacks, cotton pants, jeans, several wearings (unless it's summertime).
- Tops, shirts, etc, two wearings (at most) between launderings.
- Sweaters, hardly ever. (Once/twice yearly, if that).
- Jackets, coats, dry-clean/home-laundered once a year, sometimes every other year.
- Panties, bras, socks, etc (unmentionables), wash after each wear.
- Winter gloves, toques, scarves, hardly ever.
- Gardening clothes, every few days, or depending on what I have slated for laundry at the time.
P.S. Fidgiegirl, so jealous of your laundry chute, I am!
I just wash things when they need it. That is mostly because I use a laundromat and the closest one is miles away. The only thing I miss from my old life is having laundry equipment in the house. Man, I really, really miss that.
thinkgreen
1-14-13, 4:37am
Have you heard about the student who wore his jeans every day for 15 months without washing them? The jeans were tested and found to have no more bacteria than if he had worn them for two weeks (which they say is the average people wear their jeans before they wash them).
If they don't get dirt on them I wear:
Undies fresh every day
Socks wear twice
Shirts wear twice in summer, three times in winter
Jeans about two weeks
IshbelRobertson
1-14-13, 5:37am
Underwear changed every day, ditto tights.
Clothes. i wear a lot of suits which need drycleaning. As i tend not to wear the jackets in the office, I have the whole suit cleaned after 5-6 wearings.
Blouses and tops - worn once and then washed.
Casual clothes -wear once. Woollens, maybe twice.
I hate the feeling of pulling dirty clothes back on my nice clean body!
Underwear and socks are changed everyday, as are shirts unless worn as an overshirt. (I have a couple of shirts that actually do a good job seconding as a light jacket over a pullover.) Jeans generally last two weeks, being worn every second or third day, but only worn out-and-around. At home, we generally change into casual/leisureware and t-shirts. So I'm not sure we're really saving all that much because we wear different changes of clothes throughout the day.
Pants get worn twice.
Tops once.
Socks and underwear once. Work out clothing once.
Things that get spills go in straight away to avoid perm. stains.
The only time I would do a snif test is if it's a shirt that has been worn for only a couple of hours that day. In which case it would get hung back up in the closet. I can't stand having clothes sitting out or in a basket.
I wear pants/jeans/shorts about a week as long as there are no stains. Sweaters, several times as long as I'm wearing a shirt underneath, which gets washed daily. Heavy wool sweaters, which I wear less often, generally go a season before getting hand-washed and put away.
DH sweats more than I do so his shirts/sweaters always get washed daily.
DH fails to hang up his work pants after changing at home so I generally do it to save myself laundry time and effort.
We have a place in the closet where we put clothing "in progress" to be worn again. Our closet is small; it has high and low hanging bars, and we just drape these clothes on top of the low hanging bar.
catherine
1-14-13, 10:18am
Weekday outfit (yoga pants and turtleneck sweater), every 3 days in the winter, 2 days in the summer.
PJs, once a week with the sheets
Sweaters, as needed, maybe once a month or if I get a stain on one
Undies/socks: once a day.
Towels, on an as-needed basis. I use my towel up to a week without washing it. If you're drying a clean body, how dirty can it get?
I'm NOT a wear-it-once and launder person, just from the energy perspective (both labor + water + gas). Plus, the more you wash and dry your clothes the quicker they wear out. My frugal MIL used to point out that the lint in the dryer is YOUR CLOTHES disintegrating little by little. I just don't think it's necessary to launder every day, and people close to me haven't complained so far.
Oh, and Ishbel's post reminded me of the dry cleaning schedule--I agree that my work jackets and expensive clothes get dry cleaned after 5-6 wearings, but I've cut down on buying clothes that require dry cleaning because I HATE spending money on it. Although it's so nice to have your clothes clean and pressed and looking so nice when they come back from the dry cleaners, dry cleaning bills can add up!
Re: sweaters, I always wear something underneath, so no need for regular laundering.
Workout clothes, undergarments, socks - daily
Work attire, whether its slacks or skirts - multi uses, at least twice and frequently three times
Shirts/tops - usually daily - I live in Florida, and especially this year, there's no such thing as winter - yesterday was 84.
Jammies - twice
Towels - I use mine twice, hubby tends to use a week if I don't grab his to make a load up. A looooong time ago, when our kids were little, we didn't pay any attention to changing towels, or even if you were using someone else's - then dd got a skin infection and soon we all had it. Everything had to be sent to a laundrymat for the "deluxe" scalding wash and dry - did it all in one swoop. Since then, we use towels mostly only once in the bathroom, and then remove them to our room on a special hook for re-use. There is no cross-contamination that way. I wash sheets once per week for a similar reason - can't bear to think about the cooties!
Re: towels, Imerullo, I am fastidious in that department!
- Jammies, aside from the kids, aren't worn much in our house, however, related to the kids jammies, I was once/twice weekly (depending on schedule).
jennipurrr
1-14-13, 12:12pm
Work tops get 2-3 wearings, work pants 3-4. I work in an office it is really hard to get clothes dirty. They get more wear from laundering than from actual wear. I am trying to get DH on that plan, but he has been fairly resistant for years. Sometimes right after he puts his pants in the hamper I sneak them on a hanger and he never knows!
Jeans seem to stretch out on me after a couple of wearings so at that point they get washed.
Underwear, socks and sweaty gym clothes get washed after every wear. Sometimes if I have just done some light excercise I will hang up my gym clothes on my door knob (super sophisticated system there) and wear them next time. Also, depending on level of workout and available clean replacements sometimes I will do the same with sports bras but if they get all sweaty I prefer to launder after each wear.
Regular bras that I wear to work I usually wear a white and black throughout the week and launder at the end of the week. I just have one laundry day here. I wash towels and sheets on an alternating cycle...I change the towels every 3-4 days and wash them every other week. I change my sheets every two weeks which some people find a bit too long, but I've never had a problem with that schedule. I hate laundry! Anything to reduce/streamline is good for me.
Gardenarian
1-14-13, 8:55pm
- Dress slacks, cotton pants, jeans, several wearings (unless it's summertime).
- Tops, shirts, etc, two wearings (at most) between launderings.
- Sweaters, hardly ever. (Once/twice yearly, if that).
- Jackets, coats, dry-clean/home-laundered once a year, sometimes every other year.
- Panties, bras, socks, etc (unmentionables), wash after each wear.
- Winter gloves, toques, scarves, hardly ever.
- Gardening clothes, every few days, or depending on what I have slated for laundry at the time.
I'm in line with Mrs. M. here. I try to make the decision as soon as I take something off - does it need washing, or should I hang it up? No "sort-of-clean" piles. I think I wash things a lot less since I started hanging them back up right away. For one thing, clothes end up getting crumpled and messing looking if you start making piles, hanging them on doorknobs, or on the closet door - then they fall on the floor, the dog sleeps on it - NOW you know it's dirty! I don't even do the airing out thing, just put them right in the closet.
Simpler at Fifty
1-14-13, 10:28pm
Work pants are worn twice and washed. Blouses are worn twice. In summer I do a sniff test on the blouses. I keep my worn once clothing together in the closet. I turn the hanger around so I know I have worn it.
Weekend wear- winter - jeans are worn 4 times before washing. Tops 2-3 times.
awakenedsoul
1-14-13, 10:50pm
I wash my socks and underwear after one wearing. Sheets and nightgown I do once a week. I use two sets of towels per week. I keep my clothes folded and put away. I try not to wash something if I've only worn it once. During the summer, if I sweat in something, it goes right into the hamper. I use clean dishcloths and dish towels daily. I wear a thin cashmere sweater as a liner under my wool sweaters. I hand wash it about once a week. I hand wash my cashmere sweaters and leggings fairly often, since I wear them so much.
Originally posted by Gardenarian.
I try to make the decision as soon as I take something off - does it need washingLOL! Occasionally, I'll make a split-second decision to toss something (or another) into the washing machine that really doesn't need washing, but because I'm starting a wash, in it goes!
I need to adopt a more religious campaign of changing-out/laundering dishtowels/dishcloths, more often. In the department of domesticity fastidiousness, this is one area where I score a D.
Panties and socks I wear once. Long johns I wash once a week, plus all other clothes unless my bird poops on them while riding on my head or shoulder. I wear cotton or hemp clothes that hold their shape, and also,like poster above, don't want to wear them out.
I've started doing the thing I've read about here several times, of putting my hangers backwards on the dowel they hang from and then forward when I've worn something, have washed it, and am putting it back in the closet. This is wonderful for knowing what to keep and what to let go of.
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