Unnecessary Laundry

@MasterShardlake any recommendations? I need a couple of new jumpers!

I've been buying jumpers made of merino wool and they seem to be self cleaning! I never wear them next to my skin as tend to get itchy.
Anything with synthetic fibres hangs on to smells, BO, cooking smells etc and needs to be washed frequently The pure wool jumpers never smell so I only wash them they get stained or are obviously dirty..

Yes, washing towels after every use is insane.

My teenage son's stuff gets washed every wear because he's definitely in a stinky stage - his bedding once a week too, and his bedroom already smells like a rabbit hutch, I want to reduce that, not contribute to it by making him re-wear trousers/jumpers

My and the younger one are more relaxed (apart from underwear) and only wash dirty/smelly things.

Food medals 😉

I often drop food or drink down my clothes.

Had to wash my duvet cover after a week this week as had a BCC (basel cell carcinoma) removed 10 days ago and it leaked a bit on my cover - but not that much to go onto the duvet itself.

Ah, yes, the "air is dirty" school of thought. Though tbf depends where you live I guess. What about the pollution caused by washing? The micro particles from our (increasingly synthetic) fabrics?

I answered in respect of water shortages.

What has your reply got to do with that

Mostly I do 2-3 wears combined with a sniff and visible mark test. If your clothes seem clean to you and those around you, they are clean. I clean socks and undies every day. I just found out DH and mother wear socks for multiple days which surprised me.

No wonder the planet is fucked.

@Poppins21 sorry if someone's already asked this but....what are starched sheets?? How do you achieve that, and what does it do?

I teach kids to cook so every day I go home and I smell of onions/garlic/whatever we have been doing that day. Clothes go straight in the wash - they smell very strongly.
I am also training for a marathon so will have 1 very sweaty set of sports kit every day. Clean pyjamas every night because I sweat buckets at night- sometimes it is literally soaking.
My older teenagers both have jobs in fast food places so need uniforms washed after every shift as they smell of deep frying.

I do a load pretty much every day, sometimes 2x day. Drives me mad but I don’t know how I can reduce it.

Am not fanatical about towels or bedding but I cannot bear to smell and after work, I do, so there’s no way I can wear things again.

Even with general language use, normal isn’t confined to the majority.
If it did, then all minorities in doing anything would be considered abnormal

• being self employed instead of being an employee
• taking the train to work instead of driving
• doing any postgraduate degree (masters or doctorate)
• running for public office
• writing a book
• seeing a dentist 3x a year

All of the above are done by a minority of people, but none of the above are abnormal.

Edited to add that 21% isn’t a “very, very small minority”

Well, if you look through all the posts on this thread alone, you'll see you are in a very, very small minority, which, in general use of language, means it isn't "normal".

What about sending millions of microplastics particles into the water supply every time you do a wash? All this crap builds up in water, food chains and ends up in our bodies, in newborn babies. Unless you wear completely natural clothing, no elastics or plastics in anything, then you are contributing to this problem more than you need to.

They get dirty just by wearing them out and about.
Just going outside you get all the street grunge from vehicle emissions. The Tube literally adds a layer of dust to every bit of exposed anything while being too hot to not undo your coat.

Even if you don’t get very wet with sweat, you are still sweating and excreting oils into everything you wear.

I am on team "wear it a few times" except for undies and socks.

I will wear a t-shirt a couple of times and a hoody half a dozen times (unless I get dinner down it). PJs usually for 4 or 5 nights. I don't do a manual job, I WFH mostly, so I don't work up a sweat!

Why are you washing jumpers? How are they dirty? Presumably you're not dropping food all over them etc, not are you sweating into them etc.

Just seems like madness to wash things that aren't dirty.

I wear my clothes for 3 days usually. DH's shirts can only be worn for 1 but he wears his trousers for about a week. It's the kids who create most of the washing with their propensity for tipping food down themselves and forgetting when they need a wee

Jumpers yes, coats no. Coats get washed every few weeks because I do wear 4-5 different ones each season.

We dont have water shortages in the UK even in hot summers, there is plenty of water on and around our island albeit maybe not distributed correctly.

My bills are lower than average for a 4 bed detached house and starting in Jan, will be less than £50/mo for gas and electric. I have a green, smart home. So I can wash and tumble dry and keep the heat at 21C in the day and 18C at night to my hearts content.

It doesn’t take long to do laundry. It’s nowhere near the time investment of going down to the stream and handwashing everything by beating them on rocks and then hanging them outside to dry.

OH does the washing in this house and he overwashes everything, towels too often, washes things again if they get rained on, washes things if the cat sits on the clean washing.

And puts everything in together which I hate.