apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We hold these truths to be self evident ....

My teen son seems to think his jeans & pants need to be washed after each wear even if he doesn't do anything all day. I just take them out, hang them on the line for awhile and fold them back up. He hasn't caught on yet!

If you're a jean snob and buy pricey denim, you DEFINITELY don't wash after one wear. It shortens the life of your fancy pants to wash them all the time. I average 3-4 wears per wash on the True Religions I bought instead of groceries one month last year.

I've been practicing this method ever since I realized how much it sucks to cart everything down to the coin-op.

And, like the photo, if you air-dry your clothes, you save energy and extend the life of the fabrics.......

Maybe I'm gross but I don't wash my jeans very often. If they aren't stained or smell like a bar I just don't bother.

I go to the gym after work so I have to wash my clothes all the time because what I wear to work I go to the gym after so it would be gross to just fold up gym clothes and reuse them.

Although I follow that practice with my suits (wear and hang up as soon as I get home then dry clean only every couple of months) - my dress shirts do require laundering after each wear.

I have always utilized this method simply because I'm lazy/cheap/have too many clothes so I can get away with it... I mean... because I love the environment!

How do people in Ireland line-dry their clothes? It's freezing and rains almost every day.

@ Megbot: I lived in England for a time as a teenager, so I learned the trick to life without a dryer when the weather is inclement -- the tried and true "drape your clothes on the radiators" method. Oh, and apparently you can still line dry clothes when its freezing outside. The first time I had to pull stiff, frozen jeans off the line outside, I was surprised to find that they were actually pretty dry.

I always wear skirts and jeans several times before washing them, but most everything else I guess I'm guilty of just chucking in the wash without thinking about it. I actually prefer my jeans after they've been worn once or twice rather than right out of the wash ... they're softer and more "broken in".

i used to line dry my clothes regularly until my allergist said to stop as the pollens and such could easily be integrated themselves into my clothing.

I'm a big fan of changing my clothing for different activities. Change if you know you are going to get sweaty, or messy. Certainly don't wash your nicest garments every time you wear them.

Just hanging things up to air out for a bit helps a lot. I even do this with my jogging outfit, and I can wear it three times before I wash it.

I wear my high end jeans at least six times before washing them...okay...I love them so much I sometimes wear them everyday for a week straight. Once I feel guilty that they need some attention I throw them in a cold wash and either line dry or tumble dry very low with no heat. It helps jeans last longer and keeps them from fading.

Megbot,

Have you lived in Ireland? I lived in Dublin for 12 years I had a 30 minute walk to work and wore a raincoat on average 4 times per year. Dublin skies are grey but not always rainy.

If your clothes smell of smoke, etc., but aren't necessarily filthy you can always just spray them with a natural odor neutralizer like XO (what I use). And I rarely wash my jeans, like once every month or two, but maybe that's why I haven't been out a date in long time...

And In Sweden, you usually hang them - either outside or in "drying closets" - but they also have a mesh roller-like machine which squeezes the moisture out and you end up with a freshly-pressed shirt afterwards.

Oh, and instead of buying a brand new pair of expensive jeans, I always buy them at second-hand stores (like Crossroads Trading Co., etc.) where they cost $35 instead $150 .

Hahah, it's funny because as a college student, I have always tried to get away with how long I could go without washing my jeans/shirts/dresses without thinking about how that positively effects the environment.

As for underwear, socks, workout clothes...after one use those puppies go in the laundry basket and then once I run out of clean ones, a nice big load goes into the hot wash.

I own a drying rack- the fold up ones are pretty cheep like 10 bucks and under- and keep it inside with the windows open and a fan on, so during the rainy summer months of Florida, it doesn't really matter if its sunny or rainy.

When I stayed in France, I would be walking through the oldest part of town, full of apartment buildings hundreds of years old, where everyone hung their laundry from their apartment windows to dry. It was all very quaint and European, and once on one of my walks thinking about how quiant and European everything was, the wind picked up and someone's pink lace thong fell on my head!

My laziness is good for the environment! I actually purposely limit the amount of underwear I have because I tend to only do laundry when I run out of clean underwear, which is usually every 1 to 1 - 1/2 weeks. My rule for shirts is if it directly touches my arm pits or if I sweat a lot in it I'll only wear it once before washing. If it's something that I wear over an undershirt I'll usually wear it a few times before washing (I just smell it to see if it it's passable).

I don't wash jeans or other pants very often. I don't like the feeling of freshly washed jeans and they're more comfortable and 2-3 wears after a wash.

Just as I suggested the other day...