After reading all of the posts in the purpose of underwear thread I thought it would be interesting to find out…
How many times do you wear certain items of clothing before laundering?
Me:
Jeans - 3 times
Leggings or dress pants - usually 1 time
Shirts (blouses, t-shirts, tank tops, sweaters) - 1 time
Top layers like cardigans - 3 or 4 times
Skirt/Dress - 1 time
Loungewear (sweats, etc worn in the evenings) - 3 times
Tank top that I wear for sleeping - 3 times
Socks and underwear - 1 time
Bras - 4 times
Clothes that I wear for walking the dogs (worn 2 hours/day):
Winter/cold weather (leggings, thermal shirts, heavy socks) - all week (they’re under a jacket and snowpants)
Nice weather (hiking pants, t-shirt, socks) - 3 times (pants usually get muddy)
Obviously, if something gets dirty before the optimal wear time is up it gets laundered.
Everyone knows you can wear underwear four times
Day 1: Regular
Day 2: Flip it around.
Day 3: Turn it inside out
Day 4: Flip it around again
Slightly more seriously:
I basically wear my clothes until I think they are dirty. If I wear a shirt lounging around inside the house in the winter (with an undershirt), I might wear that puppy 5-7 days in a row. It makes your clothes last longer since washing them beats them up.
It depends also on how you define “wear.” If I wear a shirt all day, like I used to do at work, I would only wear it one time. Now if I wear a going-out sort of shirt (as distinct from a lounging around the house, or a working around the house, shirt) it will probably be for no more than a couple of hours. That shirt gets worn a few times under those conditions, especially if wrinkles aren’t an issue. Trousers even more so.
Years ago I was at a summer language course thingy in a not-quite-first-world nation, and we all had to wash all our laundry by hand. In a sink. This was a multi-week thing.
Quite a few folks held to their native standards at first, and spent their whole evenings washing, wringing out, line-drying etc. that first week.
That shit got old fast.
I’ll never forget hearing the guy standing next to me say, musing out loud, “You know … jeans are never REALLY dirty.” We all decided instantly that he was a genius and that truer words were never spoken. Hand washed our undies and such after that … but fuck wringing out and line-drying jeans.
To this day, I’ll occasionally get undressed, toss my socks etc. into the hamper, then look at my jeans and repeat those immortal words. “You know, jeans are never REALLY dirty.”
Undies-one and done.
I have a hoodie that has become soft, thin and faded. I might wear that around the house for days. Love that thing. If it gets soiled, (usually coffee or food related), i throw it in the washer and dryer with whatever I’m washing at the time. My tees I wear around the house, wash when obviously dirty. Going out clothes? It’s debatable. I have a whole basket of tees and pants only for wearing at the concession/food truck I volunteer in. They are basically ruined for anything else. They smell of popcorn and chili dogs. Not suitable to wear in any indoor space. It is fun to do it and watch for people recognising the smell. Pavlov, himself, would be proud of the drooling going on.
This is one thing I am compulsive about. I am not wearing dirty clothes. In times of great poverty, I would still go to the laundry once a week to wash clothes/
With the exception of cardigans, I wash everything I wear in public after every time I wear it. This is less because I am obsessed with cleanliness and more because I honestly don’t really care, and if I start being flexible, I will start wearing clothes that smell.
I have three sets of house/lounge/sleep clothes. I rotate through the week and wash them all on Sunday.
Most days I wear the same clothes all day, usually the underwear at night, and that’s it. Once worn for even an hour it has to be washed. Don’t know why, as long as the clothes are relatively clean I’ll keep wearing them if I have to. Aha! The key factor here is that after I shower I want clean clothes to put on, and I shower almost every day.
I can’t be the only one taught to wear blue jeans until they smell. My record is a month. The last time I saw this poll on Twitter a lot of people chimed in if you’re washing your blue jeans more than once a week you’re prematurely ruining them.
I was taught it’s easier to keep something clean than it is to get something clean. The more you wear clothes, the dirtier they get, and the harder it is to get them clean.
I used to wash jeans after ~2 wears, but have evolved to washing them MUCH less frequently lately - they just don’t need it (note I’m not doing actual sweaty physical labor in them or anything) and it helps them keep their original/dark color a lot longer.
