I was washing a wool sweater in some Woollite and was scouring the Internet for miscellaneous clothing care tips becuase I an idiot and have only recently graduated from throwing everything in the washer and then throwing everything in the dryer and blasting it til dry. At least I seperate by color.
Anyway, I was reading about handwashing sweaters (pain in the butt if you ask me) and it mentioned that you should only have to wash it once a year.
Once a year? I generally wash my clothes after every wear. Well my shirts and underwear. Well, my pants take repeated wears before they get the machine. And I suppose I let stuff like sportcoats go a little while in between washing.
The question is: what stuff do you wash after each wear? Is there anything that doesn’t need such regular cleaning? Is it possible I am overwashing a lot of my clothes?
Please feel free to regard me as an idiot in the realm of clothing care. In fact, if anybody wants to throw out any general tips, go right ahead.
Underwear: after each wearing
T-shirts: after each wearing
Outer shirts: every other wearing
Jeans: every other wearing
Hand-washable sweaters: every 3rd wearing unless you have a sweaty day
Dry-cleanables: I’m in a bad zone with mine right now, but I would say every 7 wearings unless you spill something.
I have so many clothes that I only do laundry every 3 weeks or so. I guess what you’re really asking is, how often do I wear something before washing it.
Anything that comes in direct contact with sweaty bits, such as shirts, t-shirts, socks, and underwear, get washed after one wear. Jeans can sometimes get 2 wearings if I’m not a slob. Flannel shirts, sweatshirts, and cotton sweaters will get washed after 3-4 wearings, until the get dirty or covered in cat hair.
Wool sweaters I wash 2-3 times a season. They never touch bare flesh (I am allergic to wool, so I always were a long-sleeve shirt underneath). They need to drip-dry, so I do them at my dad’s house b/c he has a big washer and a nice drying rack.
Dry cleanables almost never get cleaned by me, unless I can get away with washing them in the gentle cycle. i only dry clean when I have no other choice bc/ it’s a PITA.
Underwear and socks, after one wearing. If I’m out of socks, though, I’ve been known to wear a pair for an extra day.
Pants can go through several wearings, no problem.
Shirts – well, it depends. If I haven’t done any sweating, I’ll wear them a couple of times between wearings. I do a lot more laundry during the summer.
I wash everything after one wearing, with two exceptions: sweatshirts that are almost always worn with a t-shirt underneath, and jeans. Those can be worn five or six times without being washed — in the case of jeans, five or six days in a row. We had a previous thread on this subject where a few people thought that was weird, but they were shouted down.
it all goes into the box, either when i get bored wearing it, it smells a little funky, or as is more often the case, i’ve split something all over it (i tend to gesture wildly as i eat).
once i have enough for a wash (dark or white) i wash it.
wool by hand when stinky/stained.
knickers and bras by hand when i run out.
since i own approximatley 352618951 pairs of pants, this is a rare occurence.
the last time a did an underwear wash our flat was festooned with multicoloured smalls for 3 days.
my flatmate was unimpressed.
she’s a wash one, wear one, and one for emergencys kinda gal.
Underwear: After each wearing
Shirts: After each wearing
Bras: when they need it
Pants: After every or every other wearing, depending on their state.
Socks: After every wearing
Pajamas: varies
That sounds about right. I have a gorgeous, fourteen-year-old Dale wool sweater, and I’ve washed it about a dozen times. It’s a pain in the butt to wash properly, but I only wash it at the end of the season before storing it unless I spill something on it. (Some seasons have been so warm, I haven’t worn it at all, so it gets washed less than once a year on average.) I don’t wear it against my skin, so it doesn’t get sweaty. Washing any more often than that would be useless and would only wear it out faster.
Although I live on my own, I still manage to wash a BIG load every day. So I guess you could say that my stuff gets washed pretty frequently.
Jeans: Every 1-2 wearings.
Shirts: Wear once, then wash.
Underwear: Wear once, then wash.
MA1 jacket: Wash every 2-4 weeks.
Towels: Use once, then wash.
Bed linens: Wash and starch once a week.
Dry clean: Never; I refuse to buy such items.
I can’t remember the last time I actually put something dirty into my washer - I just like putting on fresh clothes each day, sometimes twice a day in summer when it gets hot and sticky.
Towels - Once then wash? You’re good. Mine are good for at LEAST a week. Maybe more. I figure, they’re only used on clean skin and hair, so what’s the panic??
I go to the laudromat every Saturday. I will wear jackets, pants and sweaters twice, but anything else gets washed after one wearing. Sheets and towels every week.
Today I got a dryer, and I have to say this is the happiest day of my week. I used to drag out the times between washings, because it takes so long for everything to dry.
Underwear of course got washed after every use, but at one point I had to go into town to buyy more, because they were not drying. Sometimes I would wear pants for a week before washing them. Shirts two to three times.
I only begin to think about doing laundry when I’m down to about 2 pairs of undies. I have a large number of undies, so this equates to doing laundry one time a month. I wear shirts as many times as I can - until they’re stinky or I get something on them. I wear jeans for a long time. We’re talking a week and a half. Hey, I’m a college student - I don’t care. I tried hand washing my sweaters once, and it was a horrible experience. I would rather risk shrinkage and/or ruinage by machine wash.
