If it starts to fall apart prematurely, Victoria’s Secret will let you return undies. I bought a couple pair once, and within a month the waistband was starting to come unsewn. Exchanged for new, not falling apart pair.
Male, never.
I always wash new jeans twice or maybe even three times–not all jeans come pre-shrunk.
To all of you who say that you wash new clothes because of chemicals–you are aware that WATER is a chemical, right? 
Girl, don’t.
I did wash all the new clothes for my kids when they were babies though.
Now, nope.
I almost always do. The major exception is if I have to buy something and wear it immediately, like when I couldn’t board my plane, but my luggage could and I had nothing clean to wear to bed/the next day.
What got me to doing it was wearing a sweater once without washing it first and the dye turning me orange.
Terrifying, or just terrified? I feel like much less of a germaphobe in comparison after some of them.
Thanks all for the replies! - interesting to see the poll results are essentially 50/50.
:rolleyes: Water isn’t going to adversely affect my skin, unlike many chemicals used in the dyeing/manufacturing process. And even if the clothing was washed at the factory, something could happen to it between the factory and the time I get it. See the story about the toxic pants, above. And, as I said, I used to work in a clothing store. I’ve SEEN (and more importantly, smelled) some of the people who try stuff on, and then there are the people who wear something and then return it. You better believe that I’m going to wash everything first.
Guy. Wash all washables, not for sanitary reasons, but to get out folds in shirts and sizing and odors in other things.
My mom was a manager in a department store for years. I’ve seen things. I’ve heard stories. I wash everything before wearing, for myself and our sons. My husband doesn’t always want his things washed first but I think I am slowly starting to convert him.
(Female, if it wasn’t clear.)
Exactly. Honestly all these posts about “chemicals” seem a bit woo to me. Oh God someone touched a shirt I bought, the horror!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a poll here so evenly matched before.
^^ Seriously! These germaphobes crack me up. While I don’t go rolling around in the dirt for a romp, when I buy a new sweater, I just take the tags off, lose the spare buttons (doh!), then wear it like a normal person.
Well that’s fair enough, because they’re not going to sell them. It just seems kind of worrying otherwise.
When I try on clothes, I choose the ones that fit. It’s surprising how often they shrink after being washed, particularly if I dry them in the dryer (LL Bean pima cotton t-shirts will shrink up (top to bottom) about 2" or more and be too short if you make the mistake of putting them in the dryer). Many lightweight cotton pants get stiff and tend to wrinkle badly during wearing if they are line dried to avoid shrinkage. But of course if I put them in the dryer, I risk them no longer fitting when I take them out. Therefore, if I bought the clothes for any particular event, I don’t wash them first since I’d like them to fit at that event. I am in this quandary now. Bought 4 similar pairs of capris pants for a trip. I’m thinking about sacrificing one pair to the washer/dryer (we always wash in cold water, dry with low heat), and it if still fits afterwards, I will wash the others to get surface stuff off. I always wash all linens first, and of course undies.
New Levi’s blue jeans used to have so much dye in them that they’d turn you blue if you didn’t wash them before you wore them. This was worse in summer if you worked up a sweat while you had them on.
Male and I wash everything before I wear it mainly to get the stiffness out of it.
Germaphobes? Seriously? I do the same as you but I also throw it in the hamper to be washed and then wear it like a normal person. It’s not like I put on gloves and use tongs to place everything in a super hot bleach mix with 12 rinses before I deem it fit to wear. What’s the harm in waiting to wear something until after your next laundry cycle? Am I super paranoid or are you super lazy?
Considering the poll is and has been 50/50, I don’t think that it’s true that not washing new clothes before wearing is “normal.” It’s a thing some people do, some people don’t.
I wouldn’t use an SDMB poll as an indication of what is normal behavior.
While it does amuse me to envision people handling new clothes with tongs while wearing a HazMat suit, I’m not suggesting anyone is doing this. Also, considering I do laundry regularly, laziness doesn’t have much to do with it (although I am lazy). I just think it’s completely goofy to wash new clothes before wearing them because of cooties or whatever. If the reason for washing first is breaking the clothes in, or some other such, then fine, but because of department store lint? Come on.
Don’t be so sure about that. http://www.nbc.com/news-sports/today-show/2010/03/retailers-caught-selling-used-underwear/ video link
I don’t usually wash things before wearing them.
It’s not department store lint. It’s mostly the people who have tried those clothes on before, and of course the people who believe that it’s perfectly OK to sort of borrow clothes for an event. That is, someone will buy a special outfit, wear it to the wedding or funeral, and then return it. And they’ll claim that the deodorant and food stains were already on that outfit. It might be interesting to do this same poll, only this time put in another couple of options…such as whether someone who washes has ever worked in retail clothing or not. Before I worked in clothing, I’d only wash if the garment smelled particularly bad. Now, I always wash.
I also don’t like the smell of new clothes. For that matter, I don’t like the smell of many new plastic items, and I will unpack a new shower curtain and put it in the garage for a couple of weeks to let the smell wear off. And even mail order clothing frequently smells bad.