Washing new clothes

Certainly some things.
I do recall being totally horrified seeing new mothers putting babies in clothing out of wrapping papers when they’d been brought in to the hospital new from the shops.

I wash all new clothes etc., ever since I saw an episode of House where one man was desperately ill, and it turned out to be the finish on the new clothes hevwas wearing.

Yes - always do a quick wash with tea-towels, towels, sheets, pillowcases and anything from charity shop. Just to get rid of smell and finish. Not usually new clothes, although they never really feel as if their 'mine' until they've had their first wash!

I used to wash somethings but not nowadays. Just thinking woukd my daughter have washed her wedding dress, would I have washed my wedding outfit for daughter's and sons' weddings. Definitely no.

Yes always wash them
I once caught body lice from an unwashed made in India dress
Never again !

tamayra I don’t believe body lice can live more than 24 hours on a non body object so not sure how yours managed to travel from India to infect you

My daughter does. She didn’t get it from me!

I don’t wash my clothes before wearing but towels & bed linen yes.
My DH likes his shirts washed before wearing.
I can remember washing baby clothes too.

If something looks like it needs an iron before I'd wear it, then it will be washed. I hate ironing things that haven't been washed. When my children were at home then I washed all of their new things before they wore them. In fact my daughter would always ask me to put "the smell of our house on them"

I know folks who do this, its to do with the smell from the new item, they cant stand it. Mind you if all items have a chemical finish, maybe we should all be doing it.

No not as a rule but if something had that strange new smell then yes I would.

No I don’t, I buy and wear

I never have, and never will. I suppose it would be different if I had a skin allergy or something.

Only towels and baby clothes. I love the feeling of wearing a new dress or top, and it never looks as nice after washing

Yes I wash all clothes, bedding, towels etc.,

Never! - life is just too short!

Yes. Anything fabric and made in China is finished with formaldehyde, to stop insects living on it. This is a very nasty chemical which irritates the skin, eyes and lungs.

Bedding, towels and underwear are always washed first. I hate the plasticy smell of packaged bedlinen. I don’t wash other items first though.

ecci53 I wonder if that’s what the horrid chemical smell on a load of shirts my OH bought was. I had to wash them, and I wouldn’t normally do more than iron a new shirt before he wore it.

Tillywhiz odd that you had that happen too - I had T shirts advertised as having 'Staynew' from M and S - I think the clothes were given some kind of chemical finish and I felt slightly itchy until they were washed a few times. I'm not allergic to anything - tough as the proverbial old boots - but I did think the finish might have aggravated my skin. Come to think of it I haven't noticed this particular 'benefit' being advertised on any clothing recently, so perhaps others have had the same experience.

I never bother to wash new clothes, apart from men's shirts. That's only because they appear to have a 'finish' to the fabric and all those lines from where they've been folded in the packets - same with children's school shirts.

I also insist on washing new bedding (same reason as the shirts) as well as towels, tea towels and flannels. I feel that towels and tea towels don't dry you, or dishes, properly till that 'new finish' is washed off them.

I wash new towels to improve their absorbency, otherwise I don’t wash anything new before wearing.
My Mum used to wash new bras to soften them, but they were much stiffer then.

Yes my husband does but I don't bother.

Only underwear and bedding as there is always a packaging smell.
Also washed my children's baby clothes... But otherwise no.

Nope!