For your laundry conundrums

They’re your favorite jeans. You just got done wearing them a second time, so you begrudgingly throw them in your dirty clothes hamper. You secretly think you could do a load for just those jeans. That’s silly, you tell yourself. You gear up for wearing the pants you never feel comfortable in and excitedly think about laundry day. Did you really need to put those pants in the hamper though?

Laundry can be tricky. Unless your clothes have a visible stain on them, how do you know when to actually wash and when to wear? 

The American Cleaning Institute says to wash your clothes rather often.  According to them, jeans should be washed after wearing three times, bras should be washed after two to three wears and t-shirts should be washed after every wear. 

However, Nina Willdorf from All You magazine says clothes can last a little longer than that. Willdorf says jeans should be washed after wearing them five times. You don’t want to wash jeans too much because they will lose their color. You also don’t want to wash them too little because that causes jeans to lose their shape. 

Wash your jeans inside out and air-dry them to keep them soft.

According to Willdorf, bras should be washed after wearing four times. Willdorf explains that it’s good to give a bra 24 hours after wearing to regain its elastic and to hand wash after that fourth time. 

Knowing what I do about textiles, I would say to go with Willdorf’s recommendations. It is always good to be clean. However, with certain fabrics washing too much causes the clothes to wear out a lot faster, causing you to spend money on a new piece when you really didn’t have to. 

Certainly don’t walk around in dirty clothes, but utilize the full length of time you can really wear an article of clothing. 

If you are more active like me and frequently head to the gym, check out Rebecca Zamon’s article about a study done for workout shirts. If you had an easy day at the gym, you may be pleasantly surprised at how much laundry you don’t have to do!