Tuesday, April 10, 2012

What's With all the Washing?

I did a load of laundry this morning. I generally do a load once every three weeks or so. I'm not trying to conserve or anything, it just takes me three weeks to dirty enough stuff to fill up my enormous machine. I've never really thought of myself as radically outside of the norm in this area, but whenever I peek my head out from under my cozy little cabbage leaf, I start to realize that laundry plays a much bigger role in the life of the average American than it does in mine.


When I was researching washing machines a few years back (the 40 year old Kenmore finally gave up the ghost and had to be replaced) I was astounded to learn that in most American households, the washing machine is nearly the biggest appliance energy hog, second only to the refrigerator.


I would provide a reference, but I can't remember where I read it, and I think things are probably changing now that washers have become more efficient and televisions have become bigger and less efficient! Nevertheless, this statistic totally blew my mind, and once again left me feeling a tad bit like a visitor from the planet Krypton.


I really couldn't figure out how something that is used so infrequently could consume so much energy. Then I read that the average American household does nearly 400 loads of laundry per year! Four Hundred Loads!?!?! To say I was incredulous would be an understatement. I mean, I know that I live alone and everything, but even when I was a kid our family of 3 only did 2-3 loads per week, and that was in a tiny washer made in the 1960's!


Anyhow, an old friend from college was complaining recently that she was always doing laundry, so I decided to ask her about it. She said that between her and her partner they averaged 2-3 loads per day. Yup, you read that right, PER DAY!

"Well, you see, we each go through three changes of clothes a day... there are work clothes, and working out clothes, and hanging out around the house clothes... and then there's night shirts for each of us, and towels... and once a week we have to do the bedding... so that's one load for the sheets, one for the mattress cover, and three for the blankets..."


Is this just me, or does anyone else out there find this level of obsession with laundry to be ridiculous? I mean, forget the environmental burden it places on the planet... what about the toll it takes in terms of life energy? I asked her if she didn't think that was a tad bit over the top and her response was something like "I'm willing to sacrifice a lot for the sake of the environment, but I'm not willing to live in filth."

The thing is, I don't think she's alone. I mean when I was reading washing machine reviews, there was a woman complaining about some machine she had purchased, saying things like "well, it does a good job on the simple stuff... you know, things that you pick up off the floor that nobody can remember if it's dirty or not..."


OK... now, I guess this would put me in the category of crazed radical, but it seems to me that if you can't tell whether it's dirty or not, it is, by definition NOT DIRTY! Has the detergent industry succeeded in convincing people that human skin is somehow toxic, and anything that might have come in contact with it for a few minutes must be cleaned and sanitized?

I guess this makes me an extremist, but I still adhere to the apparently outdated notion that if it doesn't look dirty, or smell dirty, or look stretched out of shape, it doesn't need to be washed!


I mean, it could be that Americans are just adhering to the old "cleanliness is next to Godliness" line of thinking. But if that were true, you'd think there would be some consistency to their behavior. But a recent study found that less than half of the people using the public restrooms in Grand Central station washed their hands afterwards! EEEEWWWWW!!!

So let me get this straight, Americans are apparently terrified of germs when it comes to laundry but can't be bothered where fecal matter is concerned?


But wait... it gets even stranger... I saw a report on the news a while back about people who have been dubbed "Tide Bandits." Apparently, criminals have actually started stealing Tide laundry detergent and selling on the black market to fund their nefarious activities. I shit you not...


Seriously? I mean this sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch! But apparently the stuff is expensive... and people clearly go through a lot of it. I dunno... it's taken me nearly 2 years to use up the tiny bottle of eco-friendly detergent that I bought when I got the new washer.

Anyhow... I guess this sort of thing is just inevitable in a society that revolves around selling people things. You convince people that they are surrounded by scary out of control things like ring around the collar and body odor... and then you can sell them gallons upon gallons of chemically laden crap guaranteed to protect people from the horror of appearing human in front of their neighbors and co-workers.


And what's the approach of the typical environmentalist on this stuff... let's see, we need to buy more efficient machines, and buy "eco" products, or better yet, make your own cleansers. Don't get me wrong, I think all of those things are good things to do, it's just that it sort of strikes me that it would be much simpler if people just waited until things were dirty to wash them.

I suppose there's no point in even broaching the subject of line drying...


I dunno, maybe I'm just a filthy hippie or something. What do you think? Have people gotten out of control with their laundry habits, or is this just me?

61 comments :

  1. I rewear things until there are noticable (to me) smells or spills on them. My grandma taught me well; she would wear clothes two days in a row (to work) as a school teacher. My teenage daughter's clothes get smelly faster than mine though, so her stuff gets washed more frequently. My son is obsessed with clothes and he changes often but I do NOT wash them every time he takes them off. They get the smell/look test.

    I still go through a bottle of [concetrated dye-free] detergent every month. And line drying is the best.

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    1. I'm sure that having kids is going to necessitate more laundry just because... but I'm heartened to know I'm not the only weirdo out there who still uses the sniff test!

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  2. And why wash the blankets every week? Not necessary.

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    1. I know! I try to make sure I wash them once a year, but that's about it!

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  3. Sing, Sister! I could carry the marketing-based obsession idea further with body sprays, shampoos, soaps, mega-anti-perspirants. But, " ... live in filth ..."? LOL!

    We took out our rig's washer/dryer and opted to go to the laundromat when necessary. I did our 3-weeks' worth of laundry today and it fit comfortably in the triple loader. Brought it home to the desert and hung it out to dry. Speaking of "bringing it home," did I make this about me? I'm just sayin', I agree with your assessment.

    I should also admit that I don't work now, so I might be concerned about "didn't she wear that yesterday?" if I were. I think then I would just shuffle my work clothes so I didn't wear them consecutively.

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    1. I think I probably did a bit more laundry when I was working... and I did the rotate the clothes thing. And I'm right with you in terms of the "personal hygiene" products - which frankly always seem more like personal toxicity products to me! I think all of this is just part of our societal terror over not being able to control the fact that we are human beings. We hate anything that reminds us of our "animal" nature.

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  4. 2-3 loads per DAY? Felix Unger didn't clean that much. Well, except when he lived with Oscar.

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    1. Ha! Well, I think I'm definitely Oscar in that equation!

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  5. That comment looks awfully bitchy when it's in print. Sounded much less cranky inside my head. I grew up with drought and water rationing and Not Doing Laundry unless it was a full load.

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    1. No worries... I'm right there with you. I fear my jaw probably made a horrible clanking noise as it fell on the floor when she told me that little factoid!

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  6. That is just crazy! For our family of 4 with two VERY dirty little guys, we do an average of 3 loads a week. However, The Hubs does his work laundry at work (woohoo for washing machines at the fire station!). So if I added that in along with the frequent nighttime potty accidents, we'd be up to about 5/week, which would be 260. That sounds like way too much-more than I care to do! I do get away with doing less laundry by allowing the boys to go nudey booty/only in undies most of the time. If I didn't have kids or a husband, I'd imagine I'd rarely have laundry to do too. 3 smelly, messy, dirty boys changes EVERYTHING. Be thankful, very, very thankful.

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    1. For a family of 4, with two small boys I think you are doing fabulously!

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    2. Sounds like peoples' laundry habits are out of control. Before baby, we (2 adults) averaged one load every 1-2 weeks. My husband wanted to wash sheets more often (and with HOT water), to help with dust mites and allergies, but I just wasn't on board.

      Even with the baby, it's usually not too crazy as far as regular laundry, more like a load a week, sometimes two. But then you add in 2-3 loads of diapers per week, and the total number is definitely getting up there!

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    3. Well, having a baby in diapers is certainly going to necessitate more laundry, but it's a much better alternative than using disposables.

      I do sympathize with Matthew in terms of the allergies, although dust mites aren't a problem here because it's not humid enough. My allergies tend to hit in the late summer and although I hate to do it, I've found that the only solution (other than the medically induced coma) is to keep the windows closed and use the AC during the height of fireweed/ragweed season. Changing the pillow cases more frequently helps too, but I'm far to lazy to change the sheets more than once a month. The other thing that helps is to bathe at night right before bed to help keep the bed free of pollen.

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  7. I am 100% with you on this one.

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  8. Agree with ya all the way. The only problem we have with washing is that when DH is doing outdoor work, he gets REALLY dirty; doesn't help that he's either in mud or vehicle grease. THOSE things we don't re-wear, but jeans and shirts & stuff that were worn and obviously have not smell/dirt/farm "stuff" on it? They get "fwapped" out on the porch to remove any loosely clinging stuff (or cat hair) and either folded up and worn the next day (or two!), put on the line in the sun to freshen up a bit, or if we were out in the woods, a five minute stint in the dryer on HOT to kill any ticks or chiggers. (Best and most frequent use of our electric dryer, BTW! Otherwise line drying is our M.O. around here.)

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    1. Airing things out is a really great idea. Trying to remove the cat fur from clothing around here is a bit of a futile effort though! :)

      When I'm in the messy part of gardening season, I tend to keep a pair of "dirty jeans" and an old denim shirt on a hook in the closet. If I can remember to put them on before I go out to shovel manure or otherwise cover myself with grime, it really helps to both cut down on the laundry and to keep my "nicer" stuff from getting stained etc.

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  9. Nope, not just you I think folk are out of control with the cleanliness thingie or maybe I'm just a slob.
    Underwear gets changed every day, socks every 2-3 days, everthing else is weekly.Blankets once a year(unless the cat throws up on it)sheets every 2 weeks.
    We do a load once a week and hang to dry outside in the summer, in the basement in winter.
    I make my own soap powder and don't use fabric softener.

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    1. I am so heartened to learn that I'm not the only person who wears socks more than once!

      I've never made my own laundry soap... I sort of have a fear that it might cause soap scum or something and somehow destroy the new fancy washing machine. (Well, I suppose it's actually 2 years old now... but that's still new as far as I'm concerned.) Do you have a high efficiency machine? Has the soap ever caused you any problems?

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    2. I just have a regular old machine, the more I hear of the front loader the less I like them.I don't know if you need to use a special soap powder-this one doesn't suds very much but everything gets clean.I believe the soap scum problem is caused by hard water...which we have but I don't notice any difference with the homemade soap powder.
      My socks only last 2 days because they're store bought- when I wear my handknit pure wool ones I get a weeks wear out of them.

      I love your posts with all the kitties-so funny.
      Marie

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    3. Hi Marie,

      Hand knit pure wool socks... sounds like heaven!

      I share your misgivings on the front loader thing, everything I read about them made me shudder. I ended up with a high efficiency top loader... didn't really buy it because it was HE but mostly because it was big enough to handle the king sized bedding. The huge capacity sort of cuts both ways as it literally takes me months to dirty enough dark stuff to do it in a separate load. But when there's a kitty "incident" than involves a lot of washing of bedding, the thing is a complete and total godsend.

      Anyhow, the instruction booklet that came with it sort of made it sound like it would blow up if you used anything but HE detergent, so even though I prefer soap to detergent, I'll probably stick with the official stuff because I'd really kick myself if I ruined the thing by using soap.

      Glad you like all of the pictures. To tell the truth, for me blogging is mostly an excuse to spend hours cruising the interwebs in search of cute kitty pictures!

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    4. True. I never wash my sweaters.. I wonder why that is.

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  10. I know a woman who washes her towels in hot water, then uses double or triple fabric softener, in the second or third rinse!!! She and her husband are drowning in debt, yet she insisted on a set of front loaders, even thought her traditional set was only three years old. She only uses gain detergent, and will frequently RE-wash towels that have been in the linen closet because they smell "musty". She also lives in a 2000 sq. ft., 3 bedroom house( on a military installation, so she has no choice about the size, though I daresay, she'd bitch about that if it was any smaller!!), and the "only" place she has to store her spare blankets is on her guest bed. So, being stored out in the open, with her dogs laying on them, she also washes those blankets several times a year, EVEN THOUGH SHE HAS NO GUESTS!!!!

    My family of 3 does 2-3 loads a week, including a load of my husbands very dirty work uniforms. He has a set of PTs and socks, a set of ACUs and socks, civvies and socks, undies, swimming/workout clothes, everyday- we're military. We have a potty-training toddler with a very small wardrobe, and me, a SAHM. I wear my clothes until they run into the laundry room and jump into the washer. I specifically requested a house on post with a clothesline, and I make my own detergent. We have a few thousand in student loan debt, and a few thousand in savings.

    My friend can't understand how that is.....

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    1. Wow. I think people wrongly associate the smell of perfumes and fragrances with "cleanliness" when the truth is fragrances are probably some of the more dangerous ingredients in the chemical soup that is modern cleansers. Because of allergies I stopped using any and all scented products a number of years ago, and I now can't figure out how I ever stood them. Maybe the nose grows more sensitive when it's not assaulted by overpowering smells all the time, but it's seriously gotten to the point that I can hardly stand to walk down the cleaning aisle at the grocery store!

      I love this line: "I wear my clothes until they run into the laundry room and jump into the washer." That about sums it up for me too! :)

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    2. On a similar subject-- bathing/showering. I remember when I was 5 we moved into a house with one bathroom, no shower. I didn't take a shower until I was 16 (I'm 40, btw, grew up in Oklahoma, both parents college-educated) we took weekly baths. I remember people started talking about showering A LOT when I was in my early 20s. Like, at work, stories would start with, "When I was in the shower..." Maybe I was paying attention for the first time, but all of a sudden, people seemed to center their lives around their daily shower/shampoo. To the degree that I thought I was THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD who didn't. I felt a lot of shame about that, for years, like a sign was floating above my head that said "FILTHY" or something. I worried and worried about it, wondered what was wrong with me, for several years, to the point that I'd start taking showers daily, so that I could feel whatever it was that other people felt when they showered that made it so wonderful. And I never did, still don't, so I quit! I finally met some punks, hung out with them, then later, some hippies, and finally felt normal, finally- people who loved things that smell good, but don't believe that they have to stand in a shower for 45 minutes a day to feel good about themselves!!! Now, I DO NOT BELIEVE IN DAILY SHOWERS FOR MYSELF, as well as for much of the population. I just do not get that dirty. Sure, a shower feels good, and I do need one- about 2x a week in the desert where I live now. And, I'm willing to bet that most people don't, either. And please spare me the," I work out for 2 hours every day and I need to shower, blah blah" If you do, great- please shower cause you really do stink- but, really, who has the time to work out 2 hours a day!!!! I don't get that!!!!
      Sorry to hijack, and sorry to ramble!!!

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    3. I totally agree. The morning shower seems to be a reflexive act more than anything else. I think it gets exacerbated by hairstyles which seem to require washing and blow drying as steps one and two.

      I really only did the daily shower thing when I was in high school and got sucked into the whole popular culture vortex. Then I went to Norway on a student exchange program and my host family actually staged an intervention because they were so concerned about my "unhealthy habit" of daily showering!

      These days I use the same standard for washing myself as I do with my clothes... I wash when I'm dirty! I am sometimes guilty of a longer hotter bath than I really need, especially in the depth of winter, but nobody's perfect!

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  11. I think you nailed it with this: "if people just waited until things were dirty to wash them"... I do laundry about as often as you (why do more when I have plenty of underwear and rarely do anything strenuous?) and was flabbergasted that some people do laundry every day. Growing up, my family of four generated about two loads a week. An extra load if we were doing sheets, which got washed, what, once a month? Sleeping is not a high sweat activity.

    I'm annoyed that the environmental movement often focuses on *buying* differently rather than simply using less.

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    1. I wonder if it's really the environmental movement who advises buying things differently, or if it's traditional magazines/publications/blogs and companies engaging in greenwashing. I am seeing the use less/go without message more and more these days.

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    2. "Sleeping is not a high sweat activity." Totally agree! Maybe it's because I tend to bathe at night before going to bed, but I just can't understand how people manage to get their bedding dirty enough to need washing every week!

      And Candi - you make an excellent point. It's not necessarily the environmental movement that's pushing all of the "green" products, it's the giant marketing machine trying to capitalize on the environmental movement!

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    3. Gotta disagree here. You lose a pint of sweat overnight. I certainly do!

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    4. Seriously? I sort of can't imagine being warm enough at night to sweat that much. I'm lucky if I can keep my feet warm enough to keep them from going numb!

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    5. Yeah, I have a million tog duvet and always wake up in the morning with a badass 'fro.

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    6. Yeah I sweat insane amounts at night. I go to bed freezing and then wake up in a full body sweat almost every night. I usually try to make it to two weeks before I wash my sheets but sometimes they really do get smelly before the 2 weeks and I wash, but I do line dry!

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    7. Holy Moly! This has happened to me once or twice but usually only if I stay up too late. I think your body temperature naturally goes down at night, so if you stay up too late you get really cold... then I have a tendency to over-compensate and end up waking up because I'm hot. But it's much more likely for me to have to get up in the middle of the night and put on extra layers or even soak my feet in hot water so I can get some feeling back into them. Hmmm.... I wonder what it means...

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  12. I think most/many Americans just aren't taught to conserve resources like people in other countries, whereas Europeans do things like laundry differently. Or at least that has been my experience.

    I was someone who wore something once then put it in the dirty clothes until I was 15 and we had an exchange student from Scandinavia. I noticed that she reused the same towel every day and often worse clothes several times without washing them and started copying that behavior. I've been like this ever since, but it doesn't seem to be the standard American behavior.

    I do wash 2 loads a week for 2 adults and three cats (they have a way of helping dirty things one way or another). One of my clothes and one of towels, sheets, etc. The boyfriend washes his own clothes. I need to be better about line drying and hope to install and outdoor line this spring, cause there just isn't enough room to dry things inside.

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    1. Another excellent point. I know my perspective on this stuff changed radically after my year in Norway. I remember when our little group of exchange students first got to Scandinavia they put us all in an intensive language school for 2 weeks. When our teacher arrived on day 2 wearing the exact same outfit that she had worn on day 1, we were all shocked and horrified! Of course, by the end of the year I had descended to the point where my jeans were lucky if they got washed once a month!

      And don't be too hard on yourself in terms of line drying. I did much less of it when I was still working. It's not really that it takes so much time, it just requires a certain level of flexibility around the weather that can be hard to pull off when your schedule is determined by outside forces.

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    2. This post hits a nerve. I am guilty as charged. I am totally over laundered. But in my defence: I don't have that much clothing so I run out of it quickly.
      And I couldn't post a comment here. I had to reply to the last comment. Strange.

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  13. You know where I stand on this one... I am right there with ya! Great content for that book you're working on (wink!)

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  14. This post hits a nerve. I am guilty as charged. I am totally over laundered. But in my defence: I don't have that much clothing so I run out of it quickly.

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    1. Ahhhh... apparently we have more work to do in converting you into a dirty slob like the rest of us! At least you don't wash your sweaters each time you wear them! :)

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  15. You're a dirty hippie. ahahahahahaha

    I probably shouldn't weigh in, 'cuz I'm a savage and all, but people are in deep denial about what walking petri dishes we all are. We do laundry once a week, and it's generally just 2 loads. (We have EXTREMELY small communal machines.) I do like my grandma taught me--take the work clothes off when you get home and wear them 1-3 more times. I wear the same super stained, nasty ass grunge clothes most of the week while at home. We use inexpensive, generic plant-based detergent. We're still here, we still have friends and the Life Nazis have not come after us for not touting the party line.

    Excessive laundering=too much tv and too many "house beautiful" magazines.

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    1. Yes yes! I don't really have work clothes these days, but I still have "nice" clothes which I wear when I plan to come in contact with other humans. I put them on, go to wherever I'm going, then when I come home I take them off and jump back into my grimy yoga pants! I love being able to justify all of my slovenly behavior by calling it "green"!

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  16. As usual I come in as kind of a tweener but I don't thing at all excessive since I still have two teens at home. I do a load of laundry for each person per week, plus one load of towels, and a load of sheets as needed. I still hang dry everything besides jeans and towels.
    Like some others I rotate my work clothes, wear two or three times before washing. Pants are usually laundered every two weeks since my wardrobe is minimal. Workout clothes for me are usually two sets a week (but I workout at home not at a fancy gym where other people might get offended, lol) and my favorite are my tye-dyed hippie beach cover up dresses that are my at home wear which I also sleep in. I usually wear the same one for about a week - hippies unite :)

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    1. I absolutely did more laundry back when I was still working. I'm sure that having minimal interaction with the outside world helps...

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  17. My own perspective is that machine washing clothes destroys them. I have one pair of jeans that I haven't washed since I bought them around a year ago. I air them outside occasionally and that is it. I'm sure I've worn them more than 200 hours!!!

    I also have a velvet jacket that has never been washed
    and I wear it partying, so it will have got sweaty at times. Again I just air it out once in a while. The jacket is from the 1940's and it would fall apart if I washed it.


    If you wash your clothes every time you wear them you will destroy them.

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    1. Ha! I'm relieved to learn that I'm not the only person who has some articles that have never been washed. I couldn't do it with jeans because I inevitably spill something on them or get them dirty when I'm out and about, but I've got a few pairs of dress slacks and blazers that have never been washed!

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  18. I think this is a case where individual circumstances differ and can create different outcomes. I have a desk job and I rotate 2 pairs of pants as my office wardrobe is limited. I wash them in cold water. My husband has worked excessively dirty jobs where toxic chemicals (airplane mechanic) and oils seeped into his clothes on a daily basis. He is finally in a job where he stays fairly clean but now he sweats quite a bit as his job is very physical. While I do the sniff test on his outer layer flannel shirts, everything else is washed after one use or he would be offending customers.

    I do line dry regularly. Due to severe allergies, in pollen seasons I pop the clothes in the dryer for a few minutes after pulling them from the line to remove some pollen. That has worked very well. Again on the allergy subject - I had major nighttime asthma until I read a report about washing sheets in hot water weekly. Since doing this, I have not needed my rescue inhaler, which was an amazing improvement for me. I lower the water level and use a shorter cycle, and this is the only thing I use hot water for. As for sleeping not being a sweating activity...you guys are apparently not perimenopausal/menopausal! LOL

    I use a fragrance free detergent due to skin sensitivities, so I can't say that I associate scent with cleanliness.

    One final thought....my dearly departed FIL had a twice a week bathing routine and did laundry sparingly. His body and clothing odor were so profoundly bad it was overwhelming :( In public, the reaction was extreme. I am NOT saying anyone else has that going on, but he certainly did. This was the way he was raised during the Great Depression. My husband was raised this way and said he was ostracized for smelling bad as a kid and as a result, is a bit of a freak about throwing everything into the hamper, even if it's been worn for 5 minutes. So yeah, I regularly pull certain things out and put them back in the closet. It's a survival tactic for me because I'm the one who does the laundry! LOL

    Very interesting post and comments. I realize I'm "on the other side of the fence" but my choices, like yours, are made with consideration and not done because I'm cruising on automatic. It was good for me to revisit my choices; I think that's good with all things :)

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    1. Hi Misty,

      I absolutely agree that the circumstances should dictate the washing... that's sort of what I'm saying here. I don't believe people should have to wear dirty clothes, I just think we need to let reality dictate what is and isn't dirty, and I think that's exactly what you're doing.

      I too suffer from allergies, and during ragweed/fireweed season in August I generally use the drier. I never thought of just putting it in for a few minutes though, maybe I'll try that. I totally think you need to do what you need to do for your health. Heck, during the height of allergy season the windows are closed, the AC is on and I'm just happy if I can stay out of a medically induced coma! Bathing at night before bed and keeping the animals out of the bedroom also helps a lot in that regard.

      I also don't think people need to walk around smelling offensively... perhaps I just sweat less than your average bear... this is likely as I'm rarely warm enough to have full feeling in all of my digits let alone break a sweat! That's what the sniff test is for!

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    2. I totally got that; I always appreciate how open minded and gracious you are.

      My FIL was a really unique situation; he seemed oblivious to the fact that he smelled bad :( Unfortunately it is what sticks in my mind when I read topics like this. That's my own ball of wax.

      I am also highly allergic to ragweed; hopefully my new practice holds up to that test! I had never considered bathing at night - great idea :)

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  19. ..."but my choices, like yours, are made with consideration and not done because I'm cruising on automatic. It was good for me to revisit my choices; I think that's good with all things:)"

    Perfect- thank you

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  20. Wow, a lot of comments here! This was interesting post because I had no idea that Americans did 400 loads a year. I'm not surprised, though. My partner and I do one load, occasionally two a week. We don't have many clothes and usually wear them more than one day in a row. We wear the same workout clothes all week. Most people wear new (clean) clothes every day, including workout clothes, so I can understand why they'd be doing so many loads of laundry. We also don't wash our bed sheets or towels every week, which is probably unheard of for most Americans.

    And not to offend anyone, but most Americas are larger people. Larger clothes take up more room in the washing machine. My partner is literally twice my size. If we stack up our folded laundry next to one another and we have the name number of articles of clothing, his stack is twice as big as mine.

    But in general, I think most Americans are unnecessarily clean-clothes obsessed. They won't wash their hands after using the bathroom, but they won't wear a shirt for more than one day? Makes no sense.

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    1. That's a very interesting point about different sized humans. And I'm sure some people sweat/smell more than others too.

      In general I don't really care how much laundry people do, I just can't imagine being willing to subject myself to that much work unless it's absolutely necessary!

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  21. I do laundry a few times a week, but my washer has a 6.5 pound capacity :) When shopping around, I was baffled by the size of most washers. It would take me weeks to pile up enough laundry to fill most of them. I don't care if a washer can fit 25 towels; I only own 5, and they get reused. And I get clothes dirty; I'm a swing dancer, and I get SWEATY when I'm dancing. But I still like doing smaller loads. And I wash everything on cold. AND I line dry in my basement.

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    1. Well the enormous capacity definitely cuts both ways. I used to do one load of whites, one of brights, and one of darks, but now it's all thrown in together (well... except for anything dark and cotton because it will leach color onto everything else... those I generally do by hand.) But being able to wash the bedding at home instead of having to drag it to the laundromat is totally worth it!

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  22. definitely not just you...I 100% completely agree!

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  23. Wow, whatta great conversation! I am glad there are

    others similar to me in the dept, altho, I may take it

    even further. One of my secrets that god bless his soul,

    my hubby nods and smiles about, is that I never let bath

    or shower water go to waste. When someone is done, I

    harvest the water via 5 gallon buckets or sucking it out

    w/the shop vac. Then I either water the garden with it,

    "flush" the toilet, or I do laundry. We have an older

    model machine that I was able to try this out on...it

    has some kind of issue where it takes about an hour to

    fill up with water. So I have time to supplement the

    trickle with 5, 5-gallon buckets of recycled still-warm

    water. When it goes to rinse cycle, I allow it to fill

    up with it's own water so everything comes out clean.

    Then I line-dry everything, sometimes leaving it out

    till a rainstorm hits it so as to get a double rinse.

    Then I put it in the dryer on no-heat for 15 min to

    fluff the items and remove any remaining cat hair. As

    for getting a lot of wear out of my clothes, I wear

    shorts/pants until they are visually dirty. Tops I wear

    until visually dirty and then I flip them inside-out and

    they become pjs, workout wear or gardening clothes, Then

    they are ready to be washed. The advent of tagless

    clothing items assists the ability to flip tops inside

    out for multiple uses. My neighbors no longer comment

    "Did u know u have your shirt on backwards?" they just

    smile and nod as well. And I bet some of em secretly do

    the same thing.

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    1. I'm totally chuckling about leaving the clothes on the line until the next rainstorm... around here that could be months!

      I used gray water back when I was doing all of the laundry by hand, mostly because it was convenient. And I sorta stopped worrying about conserving water when I got the new washer because it uses so little.

      Actually, here in Denver it's technically illegal to re-use gray water. Crazy, I know... but there was a story on the news a few years ago about a guy who had rigged a hose to the drain on his washing machine so he could use the gray water on his lawn... he got caught and they slapped a hefty fine on him!

      Yes... the water laws in the west are CRAZY! You can't even capture rain water because technically you don't own the water that falls on your own property.

      There's been a big campaign to conserve water here, but it was more successful than they counted on, so then the water company raised the rates because people were using so little that they couldn't bring in enough money! Plus... the more water we save, the more tap permits they issue, and the more of the prairie they pave over with ticky tacky houses and McMansions. So I dunno...

      I have an environmentalist friend who says that with the laws we have, it's actually better for the environment to waste as much water as possible because it keeps the urban growth down! So who knows!

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  24. I'm baffled at the 2-3 loads per day, and the comment about the crazy towel washing lady. It reminded me about a blog post (on frugal dad, if I'm not mistaken) about how the guy was saving a lot by not washing his towels every day. And the people who commented were shocked that he was doing that in the first place! I guess deep down it's a cultural thing. I see american blog posts about line drying or washing dishes by hand, like these are major accomplishments in simple living -- while I haven't met a single person who owns a dryer or a dishwasher (oh, how I yearn for a dishwasher). And living in the home of the sun (that's what the native name of my city means, so you can imagine) I can't live without my fridge, but there are folks who do just fine without one. Again a cultural thing -- my mother stuffs EVERYTHING in the fridge, so do many people I know.
    About my laundry habits, I don't really trust my nose to perform sniffing tests on shirts, and I suffer from some mild sudoresis, so they get used 2-3 days max. I wash my underwear by hand (keep them soaking in a bucket in the shower and rinse them while the lemon juice is acting on my hair), and I'm afraid I'm less than diligent with my bras (which go through sniffing tests) and jeans (some have gone as far as a year without washing now that I don't have dogs). Beddings get done once every one or to months, when my allergies start acting up. Towels every once or two weeks, earlier if they don't dry properly and get a musty smell.
    Those greywater laws are terrible. The water that comes out of the washing machine is usually clean, and could be used at least for the next load or to wash the floors. I admit I have no idea if such laws exist on my area, or laws regarding rainwater harvesting for that matter. Meh, even if they do I'll still do both until I'm caught anyway :P

    ReplyDelete

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