I only wear the edible kind…and they just dissolve away after a week or two 
Toss 'em?
bras go when the underwire breaks through the fabric or starts twisting up so it’s all funky to wear.
underwear goes if random holes start appearing or the elastic in the waistband or leg holes is showing. yep.
What I normally do is save up all of the underwear that is on it’s last leg. Then, I take them with me when I go on my yearly vacation to Europe. I always end up buying a whole shitload of goodies while in Europe and never have enough room in my suitcase…so, I wear underwear and socks one day, then throw them away at days end. The hotel maids think I’m strange, but who cares?
Eric
It really has nothing to do with the state of my underwear but rather with my state of mind. After I’ve had them for awhile I begin to feel like I deserve some new underwear, toss out all my old ones and buy new ones.
I have the same system as Scarlett67. When I get new underwear, some of the older stuff goes, although usually before anything develops holes.
I keep bras forever. I am incredibly finicky with bras and how they fit, so I can’t throw them out with the same regularity I do my underwear because a lot of times I just plain can’t get ones to replace them. I also have a $10-or-less rule when buying bras, so that makes things harder.
I wear (gasp!) good strong men’s shorts, simply cause they are more comfortable and last forever. When the elastic goes, I use them for cleaning rags. You can’t do that with women’s danties.
My tiny cotton sports bras get tossed when the hooks start digging in.
What’ really fun is when the hotel thinks you’ve accidentally left them behind, and mails them to you! I find it’s best to take a pair of scissors to them before dropping them into the wastebasket.
Do they still work? (I mean everything in its place :))
I never thought of doing that. I’ll have to try…sure sounds more comfortable.
More or less. I can wear non-underwire bras - if you can’t, it might not work. And it doesn’t work as well as it did before the wire was removed or as well as bras designed not to have wires in the first place. But to the casual observer (which most people are), but it works well enough. Nothing moves around in a way that it absolutely shouldn’t nor is it in a place where it doesn’t belong.