It depends on what it is, if you are sweating, and how near the clothes is to your skin
Nobody tells you when you're a kid how much things you have to find out to be a completely successful adult. Laundry, for example, might go unnoticed for far longer than it should. Not that it has to be done—most of us have figured that out—but when and how. I have a girlfriend whose genetic DNA requires her to wash laundry on a daily basis, but I'm not persuaded that degree of commitment is totally required. Laundry has a significant environmental impact, consuming a lot of valuable water and emitting a lot of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, cleaning your clothing too frequently might wear them out and possibly harm them.
As it turns out, the answer to the issue of how frequently you should wash your clothes varies based on the kind of clothing.
General principles
Before we go into details, here are some general suggestions for laundry frequency:
It's about how frequently you wear things, not how long you wear them. According to laundry expert Mary Marlowe Leverette, it doesn't matter how long you've been washing something—about it's how frequently you've worn that item of clothing.
Sweat is a significant impact. If you sweat a lot in your clothing, you should wash them more frequently. Not only can perspiration cause bacteria on your body to stink up the area, but your bodily excretions may also harm your clothes over time, therefore removing them as soon as possible is critical. This also implies that temperature and season have an impact—if you live in a dry climate and don't sweat much, you can go longer between washes. Similarly, you can typically go longer without doing laundry in the cold.
There is a health consideration. While the focus of washing is generally on the garments, unclean clothing can also have a negative influence on your health. According to dermatologist Annie Gonzalez, not washing your clothes frequently enough can cause body acne, irritated hair follicles, and even a rash. No of how frequently you're encouraged to wash your clothes, if you have any skin concerns, you should consider washing laundry more frequently.
Having said that, there is some universal agreement on how frequently particular types of clothes should be washed.
Socks and Underwear
It should come as no surprise that the one area where you have virtually complete agreement is on your underwear and socks—clothing that comes into contact with your most private flesh. According to the American Cleaning Institute (ACI), your underwear and socks should be cleaned after each use.
Bras are more forgiving; dermatologist Alok Vij says you don't need to wash a bra after every single wear—you can stretch it to two to three wears as long as you're not sweating profusely the entire time. Again, perspiration is the key; Vij points out that a few hours of "little sweating" doesn't even constitute as a full "wear," yet a few hours in sauna-like circumstances counts as two or even three wears. Obviously, some of this is up to you, but the basic line is that you don't have to immediately throw your bra in the laundry after each wear.
Sleepwear
Pajamas may usually be worn three to four nights between washings if you don't sweat a lot while sleeping. The ACI recommends that if you shower before going to bed every night, you extend that time even further. Waiting too long, however, is not a good idea—as you sleep, you lose skin cells, germs, and the residue of your skincare products, so your pajamas quickly get filthy, even though they don't look unclean to the human eye.
One caveat is how you wear your sleeping clothes. Do you have anything below them? You can go longer between loads of washing. Are they pressed on your skin? In that scenario, because you're wearing them for several hours every day, you should treat them like underwear and wash them more frequently.
Outerwear
When it comes to what you wear over your underwear, things get a bit more tricky.
Sweaters aren't normally worn on your skin, so they don't absorb as much sweat and grime. Between washes, you can generally go two to five wears.
T-shirts and the like are frequently worn next to your skin, thus they should be cleaned after each use.
Dress shirts and slacks may normally be worn two to three times before needing to be cleaned, but bear in mind that it's not only your skin at stake here; the environment is as well. You can wait a few wears if you're just rattling about your house in them. If you're regularly out in unclean circumstances (and city streets qualify), you should wash them more frequently.
Suits should definitely be dry cleaned, but you can typically get away with multiple wears in between unless it gets too soiled. Depending on how frequently you dress, going to the dry cleaners once a month or two should enough.
Jeans
Denim is a more complex beast than your other items, and it may be a contentious subject when it comes to laundering. In fact, Levi's CEO recommends never washing your jeans because it destroys the material—which is correct. You're slowly killing your beloved pair of jeans every time you wash them.
If you don't want to go to the extreme of never washing your jeans, you still don't need to wash them very often. A typical number that is mentioned is every ten wears.
Raw denim is an even more unique example than regular jeans. Experts recommend that you wear your raw denim apparel for as long as possible before cleaning it. To put it another way, wait until the jeans stand up on their own before washing them.
Coats and winter clothing
Unless you get splattered with slush while commuting or love performing snow angels on a daily basis, you only need to wash or dry clean gear like jackets once a season—generally, give them a good launder right before the cold weather comes and you're good to go.
During the cold season, however, winter hats, scarves, and gloves should be washed roughly once a month. As you huff and puff your way through the winter wonderland, they sit closer to your skin and gather a lot more filth.
Workout attire
You might think that the clothing you wear to the gym need to be laundered all the time, but there's a lot of personal preference involved. Because we sweat so much in our training clothing, it may seem like a waste of effort to wash them all the time—you'll only stink them up again tomorrow. We've all met at least one infamous brat at our gym or yoga studio who clearly never washes their exercise clothes, and you don't want to be that person, but there are no rules here. However, there are a few considerations to consider:
Although there is probably no health risk, allowing microorganisms to establish a little civilization in your yoga suit might lead to skin disorders, yeast infections, and other problems. And if you have a sore or a cut, all those germs might produce an infection.
If you don't want to wash your training clothing, at least hang them to dry between gym sessions. This will at least slow bacterial development while also reducing chafing and skin discomfort caused by moist clothing.
Finally, if you like to wear gym clothing without underwear, that's a big changer, and you should probably wash those every time.
Of course, they are only guidelines. Laundry decisions entail a lot of personal choice and individual circumstance—as long as you're not grossing everyone out when you leave the home or struggling with bad health concerns as a result of your laundry attitude, you're probably good.
#Laundry #LaundryTime
SOURCE: lifehacker
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