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This Cleaning Survey Has Officially Ruined My Life

Brittney Morgan
Brittney Morgan
Brittney is Apartment Therapy's Assistant Lifestyle Editor and an avid tweeter with a passion for carbs and lipstick. She believes in mermaids and owns way too many throw pillows.
published Aug 7, 2017
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Warning: What I’m about to tell you might upset you, but apparently according to a new study from Mulberrys Cleaners, there are too many people out there just… not washing their underwear.

According to the survey—which got responses from more than 1,000 people—while most people (around 85 percent of women and just under 80 percent of men, as you can see on the chart below) said they wash their underwear after 1 to 2 wears, 18 percent of men and 10.5 percent of women said they don’t clean them. Like ever.

Also, if you’re tired of hearing about how millennials are ruining everything, keep in mind that this study also found that 18 to 24-year-olds are actually the ones who clean their underwear the most—only 10.3 percent said they never wash them (still too high a number!), the lowest among all the age groups surveyed. On the other hand, 15.7 percent (the highest number) of middle-aged people said they don’t clean their underwear.

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So, that leaves me with a very important question: If these people are not cleaning their underwear, what are they doing? Does that mean that someone else (a laundry service? their mom?) is cleaning it and saying they don’t clean their underwear was just some weird technical loophole? Or does it mean that they simply wear their underwear once or twice and then throw it away? It’s something to be skeptical of, but in any case, these statistics are a little concerning.

But wait… there’s more. The study also covers the matter of washing bedding. I mean, sure—changing your sheets every week can get a little daunting and sometimes life gets too busy or you have better things to do, so maybe you skip a week or two from time to time. But still, usually you clean your bedding when guests come to stay, right? According to this survey, some people don’t wash their sheets before or after guests visit—17 percent of men and 7 percent of women, to be exact.

In general, more women than men tend to clean their sheets weekly—43.4 percent of women (compared to 31.6 percent of men) said that they wash their bedding every week. And according to the survey—and again, I’m sorry to break this news to you—a full 12 percent of men can’t remember the last time they washed their sheets.

Anyway, if you need me, I’ll be at the laundromat washing my sheets and my underwear and pretending I never read any of this.

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Cleaning