How many wears to a wash?

I think some of you should start thinking about the environment. All that soap powder and chemicals going into the sea and electricity being used. I expect some of you are using tumble driers and drying on radiators is unhealthy. Ask yourself does this really need washing? Can I spot clean it, will it do for another day.

Would our mothers be washing things every time we wore something. They were without washing machines and driers.

"Every day, goes without saying," some have written. Pants yes but other things not always necessary as others have written Some people are very smelly or have other reasons for frequent changes but not all.

Think before you wash!

I have three pairs of knickers for every bra. Knickers one wear bras three. I am not a sweaty person. I wear skirts and work uniform skirt does a weak. It is really the smell test. Everyone is different.

I find the thought of smelling clothes to see if they are fit to wear horrible, after all if they do smell, they did when you wore them last, yuk.

If they smelt that much, like DH does, no need to smell straight in the wash. Maybe they smelt at the end of last wear but not at the beginning and again I know and straight in the wash.

My problem is that I change clothes during the day as I go out a lot. I don't feel the need to wash something I have only worn for a few hours.

My main points were the environment so think before you was and "the goes without saying" comments.

I use my eyes n my nose to make the decision to wash or not. Jumpers only if they are marked, I have noticed the more washes things have the less 'good' they look and last.

But in the summer as the fabrics are more delicate and tend to crease easily, it is usually only 1 wear.
DH is getting better but he used to put everything in the basket at the end of the day.

PJs are once a week, but strange that you wear something for 8/10 hours a day for 7 days a week, whereas.......

These days, anything that touches skin gets washed after one wash apart from bras that hang around for a couple more days (don't understand the logic but that's the practice) but it does seem daft when a) we are all much cleaner ourselves and our environment is cleaner too and b) we never used to rush to wash stuff when we were all much younger because it was hard work! A while ago my kitchen and bathroom were out of action at the same time and I had to revert back to washes rather than daily showers and wearing clothes for a bit longer because there wasn't a washing machine. It felt weird. But we survived. It's all about habit really, and how much 'cleanliness' and equipment and product we can be sold by the ad-bods.

Last week I read the blurb of an article that said we ought not to wash jeans at all. That's going a bit far. Perhaps they don't need to be washed frequently but never???

Interesting topic. I am staying with son and family who live in the Caribbean. . Not surprisingly clothes are changed more frequently. But granddaughters only have to have something on for an hour or so and it is in the wash. My family in England will put children's clothes in the wash - even if they have only been worn for a short part of the day. Is this an age thing?

Marmite sounds exactly like my boarding school! Didny bother me at the time but looking back...! HairwSh and bath once a week too.

Agree with ajenela- i think too much washing is bad for the environment and unneceassary. I wash socks and pants after one wear, bra and camisole usually lat a week unless ive been very sweaty (wear sports bra for exercise which is washed immediately. Trousers / jeans up to a week ( sometimes 3-4days, tops after a couple of wears, jumpers and cardigans occasionally if rhey seem dirty. Nightclothes weekly on fridays when bed changed like jingle bells. Husband chenges shirt daily and nightwear (shorts) 3 times a week nut he does swear a lot mote tgN me.

Sorry about typos must stop doingb it on iphone. My fingers are too thick! And sorry i spelled your name weing Marmight!

Everything goes into the washing machine after one wear. The machine doesn't spin properly with too little in it and I'd run out of clothes if I waited too long so it all gets put through quickly.

The exception is my own jeans. They look horrid when washed too often, bleached and tatty. Therefore, I have conducted an experiment. I bought a new pair in September, washed them once and have only pressed them since. They don't smell and still look new as they are often aired and ironed. No one has noticed. If and when they do I'll change my policy.

I have to say that, disgusting as this sounds, I am a cleanliness fanatic and I would be the first to notice if the jeans were 'off'.

Frank Skinner once told of the time that he wore one pair of socks, I think it was all through the winter, till they could stand up unaided! Haven't times changed.

I think weeing has two 'es' polly

So many people are obsessed by cleanliness! My paternal grandmother used to say that too much washing is bad for the skin! We now have a spray or a wipe for absolutely every application and asthma has increased accordingly in the western world. In less developed countries, where life is more natural, asthma is almost unheard of.

Manufacturers of cleaning products are literally cleaning up! You can buy a touch free soap dispenser to avoid touching the 'germy pump' but you washed your hands anyway after touching the pump! There's even an antibacterial washing liquid to play on people's fears now! Detergents are already antibacterial!

I agree with ajanela. Knickers and socks changed every day. Everything else when common sense dictates it needs washing.

Bellanonna . I meant 'wrong' of course.

I lost my sense of smell a long time ago. Now you have all worried me!

Wow! I recall the thread about how often bedding is washed. I was quite shocked at the number of folk who said once a fortnight, or even once a month ? I wash mine once a week! Despite this, like only one other poster, I wash my clothes (aside from underwear) when there is a dirty mark on them, or there is a less than fragrant smell! It seems very OTT to wash jumpers, pants etc daily. It's bad for the environment and the garments will wear out pretty quickly!

Marmight and pollyperkins similar to my boarding school- we were not allowed to wash our own hair- hairdressers came in every 3 weeks. I had greasy hair so I was scratching my head by then. My mother always complained when I brought the sheets home annually that they were grey- they were changed one a fortnight and I had a bath once a week if there was hot water. We all must have been such smelly creatures. This is why I wash my clothes so often now.

As a child it was clean clothes/school uniform Monday and Thursday .
Like the majority here it's clean knickers/socks/tights every day and tops every other day, jeans after 3 or 4 wears but it depends on what I've been doing and how hot I've been etc..
Common sense rules usually ?
Bedding definitely weekly and sometimes more frequently and I iron everything ?

As for smells, I can't stand the smell of modern detergents, synthetic perfumes to mask the chemicals. Some are worse than others, I use as little as possible.
Once a week I wash 3 loads, but bedding on a separate day - drying space, we have outside lines.

To be fair I think we changed 'knicker linings' more than once a week at boarding school. We all had to put our clothes in heaps in a corridor every week to be collected for the laundry. The knicker lining heap smelled indescribable and I remember holding my breath as I walked past! We also had white detachable collar and cuffs for our dresses which were washed weekly, I can't remember the dresses being washed at all - probably done in the holidays! When girls had their periods they washed knicker linings by hand and hid them under the towels on the rail to dry. How horrid!

There really is no need to continually wash clothes unless they are really dirty or
Wiffy.Too much washing fades and wears them out.

If you have a clean body to start with, there should be no need to constantly change clothes, underwear being the exception.

Most of my winter jumpers are hand wash only, so I only wear them for a short time if going out. When I get home, I change into my sloppy indoor attire.
Unless you constantly wear something, it shouldn't need a lot of washing.

Obviously, there are exceptions. Baby sick being one of them. Can't wait to get my kit of then.

pollyperkins My school dress also had a detachable collar and cuffs. Ours were cream and the dress was brown. I was a day-girl so my mum used to wash and starch the collars and cuffs frequently. However, the dress was not washable and so it went to the dry cleaners every half-term (whether it needed it or not ). The material the dress was made of was serge, (extremely itchy, woven wool as far as I remember) and I spent most of my school life with my ruler down inside the back of my dress scratching furiously. If I'd been born a few years later and had a nice cotton blouse for my uniform and spent less time scratching and more time concentrating on my work I might have turned out quite differently...
Sorry to digress... in reply to OP, it's clean not-so smalls every day and all the other stuff 'as necessary', based on usage, climate, activity etc. I try to strike a happy balance between being fresh and presentable, while not spending my life doing laundry and unnecessarily inflicting further damage on the environment.

My dress was green 'repp' - for evenings and weekends in the winter. Also very scratchy material! In the day we wore gym slips with white blouses (of course!). In the summer it was much nicer - grey divided skirts and white polo shirts for lessons and summer dresses in choice of 3 colours for evenings and weekends! I remember so much detail and was only there for 2 years - 1955-7!
I agree it's not necessary to wash everything after one wearing if not dirty - except underwear and socks. And jumpers/cardigans last a lot longer if washed less frequently. My DiL washes all the children's clothes every evening - they go straight into the wash, dirty or not. I used to check clothes and think - that'll do for another day, not dirty! Mind you I iron everything and my DiL s don't, nor my daughter, so it's easier with automatic washing machines and no ironing.

One of the benefits of not washing jeans too frequently is that they gradually become more comfortable and you can bend over in them without your eyes popping out of your head.