How many wears to a wash?

Ha ha! Like that 70,s government advertisement "Save water; bathe with a friend"

Wot, didn't see yourself in a dog bath then Rather share a bath with a plasterer.

When I was a child my aunt used to give me clothes for Christmas and birthdays. She always used to say " I chose a dark one so it won't show the dirt". We used to know a lady who was in her 70s in the 1960s and she explained to us how she would sponge the collars and armpits of her dresses and that was all the washing they ever got. Presumably that was what you did when you couldn't afford staff to look after your clothes any more

I stick to the knickers every day and bra after three or four days. With everything else it depends how clean it seems. I've got one or two tops that always look abit scruffy when they've been worn once.

Amazon plasterers bath.....4ft x 2ft x I ft. Someone on the reviews bought one for their granny! £32 Inc delivery.

Thanks pomp. I think I'm going to get the plasterers tub. I hope it doesn't tip over when it's full of water! When our sheets used to get a little hole in them, I used to put my toe in it and rip it. Wot a nasty girl!

WOT, how about something like this
www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Deep-Plastic-Water-Bath/dp/B006PG5GN4

I used to hate getting into a bed with 'sides to middle sheets'.

Mu mum did the same, I still have some of those sheets (not on the bed, in the garage as dust sheets)

I remember my mum unpicking my dad's collars and sewing them back on the other way round. And sides to middle with sheets. Gosh, we seem lazy compared to them.

Yes, starboard, I've seen a big plasterers tub on bay!

Years ago a man would wear a shirt for a week as collars were detachable,. It was easy to simply button on a clean collar. What a good idea- it should be re-introduced. I've had years of the men in our household all wearing a clean shirt every day.

Knickers every day or 2 pairs a day if I go out in the evening, if I am not going out I don't wear a bra, and I wear a vest which I also keep on at night under my nightie - if I am staying at home I might wear it all the next day and night again! I wear natural fabrics and find that merino/cashmere/wool jumpers can be worn for up to a week. I have trouers for going out in and change into jog bottoms at home or for local shops - the indoor trousers last 2 days, the going out trousers depends on how much I go out. Nightie lasts a week. Socks a couple of days. I also have the smell test - I couldn't besr to wear anything that smells - I read that at one time people in cold northern climes sewed their children into their clothes for the winter, the mind boggles! wot I feel for you, I have in the past lived without a bath, how about a very large plastic bowl You could sit in, in the shower! Do you have any friends or family with a bath you could visit sometimes?

I change my knickers and socks every day and tops every two days. Leggings also as they dry very quickly. We changed our bath for a shower as the bathroom is so tiny but I desperately miss having a bath and have even considered staying in a hotel to get one! Trouble is, can't afford it really and most hotels only have showers nowadays! I even thought of having a tub installed into my largish bedroom. I looked on ebay for a tin bath but they're mostly vintage high cost items.

Ha ha, The eyes popping out of head whilst bending in your jeans is a great description, and applies to me, I wash my jeans after 2/3 wears , knickers I change twice a day, as I work in evening so change after my shower , then again in morning, bra does for 2 days, tops , depends on what I spill on them, socks every day,

We had bath under lid as well bath used to be weekly I used to go with a friend to public baths. Where there were baths in cubicles and a lady showed you which to go in and timed you I used to be fascinated don't know how much it cost know my mum said we couldn't afford it friend was only child I had siblings . Think some with little ones now change their clothes too often then moan when they have lots of washing I used bibs and only changed their top clothes if wet or stained ??sorry I digressed daily wash for under wear and socks when needed for others night clothes twice a week ,

Undies get changed daily. I don't understand wearing a bra more than once. The elastic distorts and it doesn't fit as well, I find. The thought of old skin cells and the oils the skin secretes being on them is off putting to me, as well.

I don't wear anything else more than twice and now that the youngest (of four) is away at uni and the washing machine isn't constantly churning, I consider it a bit of a secret luxury to have clean clothes every day. Water is something we don't lack where I live and it's also very soft so I don't use that much washing powder. I rarely iron, I find judicious drying and folding is enough for today's modern fabrics.

When we lived abroad we had a steward who took care of the household chores. He used to change our bed linen every day, which was wonderful, but because water was at a premium there, I reluctantly had to tell him to cut down and he managed to restrain himself to twice a week.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 ?

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.

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!