Avoiding unnecessary laundry (items, book, sale, best)

[SkyLark2019]

I'm guilty of neglecting the laundry for different reasons...but I did notice some thrifty aspects to waiting to do the laundry....

Pro-tip- just spot clean denim garments with a clean wet rag. If you don't really dirty up denim, you can get a few wearings out of jeans and jackets.

& If you lay out damp bath towels our hang them up on a closet rod or shower rail, they can dry out and you can use them again. Handy timesaving tip & give the towel a longer life. (Nice towels are expensive these days.)

Get a cheap laundry sorter set up in your laundry room & do delicates one load at a time. It's cheaper/faster than handwashing. If you go to laundr0mats, just bag everything up in laundry bags or canvas bags, or baskets.

[Size18]

I remember back in the day when my children were little, the washing machine never stopped. Pyjama bottoms, t-shirts, and diapers. Having raised all my kids in cloth diapers, diaper laundry was regular... every second to third day when I had one in diapers, and every day when I had two in diapers.

To cut down on needless laundry, my kids lived in diapers (rubber pants over double cloth diapers), t-shirts and socks. Aside from a couple pairs of pyjama bottoms that would suffer an occasional nighttime wetting, diapers and crib sheets made up the bulk of the washing I did.

I used old-fashioned vinyl bibs at feeding time always, and when my kids were in the highchair, seldom did I have them dressed in anything more than diapers.

I wear an apron (always) when in the kitchen, and hubby wears cotton coveralls or grubbies (work clothes) when working outside, which is a saving grace when it comes to keeping clothes clean.

Fast-forward to today, towels and unmentionables make up the bulk of laundry in our home.

As for aprons on older kids, I say if it works in your home, go for it.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

My child wore a bib but it wasn't so I didn't have to do laundry. My child always put on clean clothes in the morning. Wearing the bib helped to head off permanent stains. Lots of foods leave marks that won't come out. I was trying to cut down on how many new shirts I had to buy, to keep his clothing presentable longer.

[tickyul]

I avoid clothing-colors that easily show grease/grime/dirt.

[metamorphosis]

Originally Posted by selhars

ANYone -- at any age -- can get a stain on a top, or have food fall off a fork into their lap.

So let's not act like it never happens. Eat "without making a mess?" Yes. But it's not an absolute that a person should be able to eat without ever getting a stain or spill on their clothing. That's life. It happens.

Can anyone of us say they've never had spaghetti flip a dollop of sauce on them? Or they've never spilled any soup? Or that nothing has ever fallen from a forK?

For those reasons I do put a napkin in my lap or tuck one in my neckline. Depending on what I'm wearing, food being eaten, the likelihood of a mishap, and fanciness of the restaurant

But immediately upon getting home I also change out of "public /street clothes." And all at home clothes can get stains without it being an issue -- or already have stains.

Is a 16-year-old wearing a bib over the top? I think so. But OP, you do you.

As kids are being trained in their table manners, I'd suggest being careful of the explanation for the bib. It's not that the the child is a slob. It's that they have to learn to eat so food doesn't spill. But the bib could be a reverse incentive.

If a person wears a bib all the time, they don't have to eat neatly -- they can be as sloppy as they want with no consequences. They may not develop the desire to not want to spill. Why should they?

As for doing laundry often, being single I can go months without doing laundry. That's how much clothing I have.

Points for this entire post.

[LoriNJ]

I have been wearing an apron at mealtime for years. Mainly because I got sick of having to wash clothing because some spaghetti sauce got on them, or the ketchup bottle squirted little dots of ketchup on me, etc. If my apron gets stains, who cares. But if a nice shirt gets stains, and the stains don't come out in the wash, then that shirt is no longer wearable to work. I convinced my husband to wear an oversized short-sleeve shirt while he's eating and it has saved plenty of clothing from becoming unusable. And I don't have to hear him cursing when he spills something on himself.

[Sand&Salt]

I think whatever you can reasonably do to cut down on laundry is good, for all sorts of reasons. We get by on once a week laundry. Our outer clothes all air-dry to preserve their life.

We sit on a partially reclined couch and watch movies during dinner. So occasionally something "drops". Dh takes off his shirt, lol. My anatomical shelf catches an occasional drop too.

We def have at-home clothes and immediately upon coming home from anywhere, we ditch those clothes and get into the homie clothes (ripping off that bra coming in the door!). So our "going out" clothes last forever.

I once lived with a corporate guy who would sit and watch TV until bed in his suit and tie. UGH!!! I don't know how he could stand it, but dang. He looked good.

[Ceece]

I was lazy in the past and would toss whatever I was changing out off on a chair or the dresser instead of immediatly putting it away. This resulted in piles of things that I'd end up washing becasue they got wrinkled or mixed with something that should have gone in the hamper. I'm much more thoughtful these days and hang up/put away things immediately if they are still clean and wearable. I also have 'house clothes' and do my best not to spill, but sometimes things happen. If I get sweaty I put those things right in the hamper because I can't stand the thought of being stinky.

[artillery77]

You know what is expensive? Buying new clothes all the time. A great way to wear out clothes is to not wash them after you wear them once.

Here's what happens. Picture a thread in your garment...now picture a tiny droplet of sweat hitting that thread. It's going to dry as a clump of oil on said thread. Now you have two choices:


1. Wash it and the soap will intermix with the oil to get rid of it from the thread.

2. Wear it again, and if another droplet of sweat hits that same thread, now you've got a dual layer of oil.
2a. Allow it to build up and you've now got a lot of weight on that thread. It may break....and put more stress on the other threads
2b. Allow to many layers and soap may get rid of the top layers, but not all of the layers....and you're starting with oil already as you go to your next multiple wearing rounds until cleaning.

Now even if you clean it every time, you're not going to prevent some deposit action from happening. What happens to really old white undershirts around the armpit? Eventually that will happen. You speed it up tremendously if you don't clean you're clothes often. Especially if you have a lovely mixture of spilled food and body oil happening. That's why pretreating works....and you just dump extra soap on a given area.

It's one of the reasons why the dry cleaning industry will never guarantee anything aside from a professional clean. Yes Mr. Yummy, we will clean your 11 shirts and one pair of pants....but no way are we guaranteeing those pants are not freaking gross on the other end....it'll be better though.

Now if it's clothes you don't care about and you don't care how clean they are/are not....by all means wear them until they shred...but if it's clothes you like, it's probably much cheaper to actually clean them after each wear than to try and save money by skipping cleanings.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by artillery77

You know what is expensive? Buying new clothes all the time. A great way to wear out clothes is to not wash them after you wear them once. ..........

I'm not even thinking about how washing might effect the durability of the clothing. I just think it is gross to get up in the morning and and put on dirty clothing.

My clothing does last a long time, but it never occurred to me that laundry had anything to do with it In fact, I assume that washing fades the colors.

My clothing (and shoes) have life cycles. When they are new, they go to town. When they start to show a little age, they get worn around the house. If they start to show wear, they get demoted to gardening.

Life of the clothing is helped by buying basic styles that won't go out of fashion before fall is over. Also, for things that I really want to last, like my ski jacket, I buy quality. Perhaps find it on sale, but top quality brands, known to be durable and functional.