Ok I’m not talking about undergarments, I’m talking about jeans, pants, shirts, sweaters etc…etc…
The reason I ask is: My wife is an under-trained neat freak . She loves the idea of being neat but fall short on most occasions. I have a pair of Jeans I wear when I am working out in the garage, I hang them up in my bathroom - which she never uses, and I wear them when I see fit. I wash them probably once every 3-4 uses, sometimes more. If I spill some oil on them or some other such soiling, I’ll throw them in a load of laundry…but if not, and I’m just phutzing around I do not wash them.
My dress shirts I can usually get a couple wears out of because I have a t-shirt on underneath and I am not a sweater (someone who sweats profusly).
How about you? Are you a washaholic? Or can you stand not washing everything each time you wear it?
I used to be more of a “one wearing” kind of gal until I got too fucking fat to fit into all my jeans. I’m operating on one pair, so I will go multiple wearings between washings. Ditto on the sweats.
Also, I work from home, so my cats are the only ones who see me most days, and they don’t care what I wear as long as I have a warm lap for them to doze on.
Pants get a few wearings between washings, usually, and skirts can go quite a while because they don’t really even touch my body since I have nylons on.
Tops are one-wear only. Sometimes a sweater can go a couple wearings if I’ve got a shirt under it, but it’s gotta pass the sniff test. If I smell deodorant, into the wash it goes.
Things get washed more often in the summer, because of sweat, and obviously they get washed if I spill anything onto them.
I’ll always wear jeans twice without washing them and Sunday pants (which just get worn for two hours and then put back) may be able to go longer, like 5-6 wears.
But not the shirts. If I wear a shirt then it gets washed. Sometimes I’ll wear the shirt for two days, like on a lazy weekend, but as soon as it comes off it goes in the hamper.
Underwear and socks always get thrown in the hamper.
I also allow my pants to go through two or three “wearings” before I wash them. Also, when I get home from the gym, I shower and put on a t-shirt, which I will wear to the gym the next day. So technically I get two wearings out of those as well.
Everything else gets washed even if I only wore it for an hour. I don’t have any sense of smell, so I can’t do the sniff test and I get kind of paranoid that I might be stinky. I’ve given up asking the family if my clothes smell bad–they always sniff, shrug, and say, “It’s okay.” Okay??? What does that mean? Do you mean, “Can’t even tell it’s been worn” or “I don’t care since I’m not the one wearing it”?
Socks and dress shirts are always single use before washing. Jeans and pants for work I can wear a couple times. Tshirts that I just wear around the house I’ll rewear. (I change as soon as I get home from work and tend to only wear them a couple hours)
Most stuff is single use before washing, but as mentioned above the ‘sniff test’ does come into play at times.
This covers my washing habits pretty well, too. Well, except for the whole “skirts” and “nylons” thing. 'Cause that would be kinda weird, however sexy it might make my legs look…
Washing stuff that doesn’t need it, every time you wear the item in question, sounds like a good way to make your clothes ‘wear out’ more quickly.
That’s a shame. Have you tried turning them inside out before washing? Or using the delicate cycle?
I can’t get any wear out of cheaper knits. They totally lose their shape and shrink and go all wonky. But I’m having better luck with knits from Land’s End. No pilling or shrinking or losing shape. Some I’ve worn for years, washing after every wear.
I wear my jeans for three or four days, but everything else gets washed after one wear. I only work two days a week, which helps.
Jeans - 3-4 wearings, or when they get dirty
Work shirts - 5-6 wearings, or when dirty (I wear Hawaiian shirts to work, so they don’t get very soiled during the course of a day)
Everything else goes from my body to the hamper (well, except the socks. There the chain is feet - floor - cats - hamper)
No. Jeans usually go 2-3 wears, especially if no one will see them and I don’t spill stuff on them.
Sweaters usually go several wears, because I can’t just pop them in the washer and forget about them (and I usually wear a shirt of some sort underneath, so deoderant and such is on the undershirt, not the sweater).
Dressy clothes often go several wears, especially if I don’t eat in them, because each wear is likely to be only a few hours.
T-shirts depend on my mood, and whether some one is likely to see me wear it again.
Anything that comes into contact with skin gets washed after each use, for the most part. I wouldn’t wash a hoodie that I threw on over a short sleeved tee after one use, but I’d wash it if I just wore the hoodie without the shirt underneath.
The only things that have a consistent “one use only” guideline with me are underwear and socks that were worn with shoes. Otherwise, I use the stain, usage and scent test on most of my clothes. I have a ridiculously sensitive sense of smell, so I can tell when my clothes smell “worn” to other people well before most others can. Jeans can go anywhere from a week to three weeks, depending upon what happened while I was wearing them. T-shirts get at least two wearings as long they stay clean, and more casual t-shirts will turn into “lounging around the house” sleepwear, which can go a week or longer before washing. (I rarely actually sleep in my sleepwear.) Nice clothes get washed as soon as they get wrinkly or are introduced to an environment where they pick up weird smells (smoke, food, stuff like that).
I used to toss all my clothes into the clothes hamper as soon as they got used, but I ended up reverting to this system while in college. 1. Laundry facilities are always packed when you live in the dorms. 2. Laundry costs a lot to do all the time. 3. You learn that you can get more wearings out of clothes than previously expected without looking or smelling dirty.
I usually wear a pair of pants three or four times before washing, unless they get muddy or something spills on them. Sweaters can probably go 5-10 times, again as long as nothing happens to make them visibly dirty. Coats get washed or dry-cleaned maybe once every several months. Everything else I wash after one use.
Nothing get worns more then 3 times. Jeans are usually 3 days, everything else is two days. Unless of course I spill something on it or it looks dirty.
Jeans? I go embarrassingly long without washing them. I’ve only got one pair, as I’m VERY specific in what jeans I wear, and the local Levi’s Outlet store closed. Also, I’ve got an office job, so they really don’t get dirty unless I spill something on 'em.
