to as how long ‘stuff’ lasts for you and your family

[Merryoldgoat]

I’m doing to laundry after a week of sickness so we’re folding a mountain.

My towels are looking threadbare.

Underwear has developed holes

Stuff looks old even though it not.

I need new sheets even though the current ones are only about 2 years old.

I feel like I’m constantly replacing stuff. Am I the only one?

I don’t buy cheap stuff but it’s not the most expensive you can get. All 100% cotton etc.

Are we just hard on stuff or is this standard?

I only tumble dry if I can't line dry like today

I have tumbler energy eco guilt so only use sparingly. Kids stuff (2/4yo) stuff falls apart but has to be washed always.

Sheets and towels barely ever washed and rarely tumbled and lasting ok.

Maybe drop your standards op!

Towels are mostly at least 15 years old. Bedding, anything from 3-30+ years old! I tumble everything too.

The dses have had the same towels since they were babies, they are now 18 and 17. DH and I bought new towels about 4 years ago from White Company and his is threadbare now but mine is fine🤷‍♀️

Sheets, we replace every few years….

Knickers, they don’t seem to wear as well and I need to replace some which are about 5 years old.

Pmsl at this thread. I have some towels that were a wedding present ... 27 years ago. Yes, they are a bit hard when they come in from the line but they dry a person properly and soften up after first use. Dh uses those . Some of my better towels I bought from Peter Jones when I used to work near there ... maybe 1999. I have hand towels and tea towels that are so old I can't remember their origin.

We are still using pans, crockery and cutlery that we were given for aforementioned wedding in 1994. All absolutely fine.

My dining table and chairs are from the 1960s. My Ikea bookcases are at least 20 years old. My dd sleeps on a bed that I bought in 1986.

The only new furniture we have in our house is our bed (10 years old must replace the mattress soon) and 2 sofas which are about 7 or 8 years old. Everything else is inherited or second hand from Ebay.

We really do have to get used to consuming less "stuff" or our children's future is fucked.

I don't work hard to have to dry myself with a frayed rag of a towel which doesn't feel soft. So I suppose that's why you wouldn't.

I'm not saying you have to keep them 20 years. The OP was saying she wants to replace things when they look a bit less than new. That's just what happens to anything. It is possible to find a happy medium between binning something that's less than pristine and drying yourself with a dishrag but then this is the internet, home of the false binary and gross exaggeration.

I tended to use the older towels for pets

You need to think about our social and economic system which means people feel they don't have time to air dry. Rather than putting the responsibility with individuals.

That's what I'm getting at. We are in a system that doesn't encourage the right decision making, that makes us too busy for these things. But that doesn't entirely negate individual responsibility. Yes, our social and economic systems rely on greed and a throw away culture, but that isn't going to change unless individuals campaign for and try to enable that change.

Washing and tumble drying is the main thing that wears out linens.
Cheap thin fabrics or polyester wear out or go bobbly.

You don’t have to replace things as soon as they start to look used though. Isn’t it detergent residue that makes towels go hard? If you google there are some things you can try with white vinegar, soda etc.

My tumble dryer destroys stuff really quickly, but I figure it's less hard on my joints if I don't have to hang it all out.

I always notice though, that my parents keep things like duvet covers much longer. They have some that we bought in 1980 still on the beds. I feel a bit luxurious having newer stuff, but it is nice I think. Maybe I'm terribly profligate though.

Crikey. I've got bed linen that's over 30 years old. It wouldn't have been top dollar either.

Underwear, average a five pack a year. Towels were bought four years ago (two bath towels and a hand towel per person). Sheets bought four years ago (two per bed), one has ripped but replaced with second hand flannelette one.

@Neondisco You need to think about our social and economic system which means people feel they don't have time to air dry. Rather than putting the responsibility with individuals.

For a lot of people "not having time" is just a lazy excuse. My sister doesn't even own a washing line, and puts literally everything in the drier, but she only works 3 days a week. She has plenty of time to air dry, but just can't be arsed too!

Likewise our next door neighbour. She only goes to work 1 day per week (works from home other days apparently, but still only part time), and I've never yet seen any washing on her rotary drier in the garden.

I've no doubt "some" people are genuinely too busy, out of the house all day, etc., and find it more difficult to air dry, but a lot are just either lazy or disorganised. That's fine, they're allowed to be, but not when they try to claim the moral high ground about "today's society".

Almost all of our towels date from before we moved into our current house, which we bought in 2012. None of them are hard, although some are a bit stained. I've cut up a few old towels into smaller bits so we can take them out for general cleaning up. They're hard but they still absorb water just fine.

We've got about 3 sets of bed linen each, dating from 2012 and some more a bit more recently. It doesn't get threadbare. We always get a high thread count. We don't have a tumble dryer and don't use fabric conditioner. We're in London though so very hard water.

Underwear from supermarket. Towels and sheets from IKEA (one of the cheapest but not the absolute budget ones).

I definitely think tumble dryers wear stuff out - all the stuff in the lint filter used to be your fabrics! I got rid of ours. Takes 5 mins to hang stuff on the line or airer. Still using towels and bedding from when I was a student 8 years ago and it’s not worn out, despite being a cheapo towel bale from Asda and primark bedding! I do think some people are harder on stuff than others though. The only clothes I ever wear out is jeans but DP gets holes in all sorts.

newest sheets 10 years old, oldest sheets 30 years old. All still look like new. Knickers only last a year or so because I like marks no vpl and they are very fine. I tumble dry everything because my sodding back won't allow washing line or whirligig use. T shirts (cotton traders) last around 5 years then go for dusters. Towels mostly 10 years old but oldest are around 15 years, again always tumble dried. I use a towelling robe to dry off and I bought new last year, old one very threadbare lasted me 12 years, again always tumble dried.

I don’t have a tumble dryer. I do have Christy towels which belonged to my grandmother ;-) she bought them in 1980!

I have a towel that belonged to my Grandma, she died in 1976 and had it a fair few years herself.
I think I win.

I reckon it's the hard water.
I posted above that my towels and bedding last for years, what I didn't think about was that the towels are very course and rough. They are like that after a few washes.
Our water is so hard if you descale the kettle you can see scale again within days.
I know tumble drying softens towels a bit but I rarely use the dryer.

It's not the tumble dryer op as I use mine loads too.

Socks: crap these days. Some I barely 4 months out of, few last a year.

Bed sheets: I have loads of stuff used lots which is around 5 yrs old and fine, although the two sheets that are white look a bif dingy now, although I did a 90 wash with whitener last year with good results.i have some pillow cases nearer 10 years and those are now looking worn/thin/faded.

Towels: fine at 5 years. The ones I have that are 10 years old probably only have a couple of years left in them.

Are you using too much detergent or putting things like vanish in every wash? We did that for a while on DH white shirts and they all went threadbare fast.

Ok - related question:

If I get white towels will it be easier as I can soak them if they go dingy?

How do I keep them white?

I’ve checked my bed linen - it’s actually only my sons’ that looks shitty and that’s because they’re grubby little buggers - my three sets are from when I moved here 7 years ago and are ok (JL) but the boys are not as good so I’ll replace those.

I think maybe I’ve been hasty with the towels.

I do use fabric softener - I really don’t like doing laundry without it but I could leave it out of towels and bedding.

I have, however, saved myself a couple hundred quid by keeping all of my older son’s clothes for the younger - just broken open the 5-6 years bag and a whole summer autumn wardrobe is in there which is a real relief as I’ll only need to refresh the older boy.

Takes 5 mins to hang stuff on the line or airer.

It doesn't, though, does it? I am using the tumble drier much less at the moment because I'm trying to be green and I'm on mat leave so I'm around to put it out and take it in but sometimes I feel like I spend half my life either pegging or unpegging loads full of baby and toddler clothes that take me ages to put out piece by piece but which I could have just chucked in the tumble drier in literally 10 seconds.

We have been married 21 years. Most of our “stuff” was wedding presents. We started to replace it about 4 years ago, although we go though masses of tear works and kettles and toasters.