To worry about not washing new clothes before wearing them?

[strawberryjeans]

I usually wash everything that we buy new. I haven’t washed the dress I’m wearing today, got it from Sainsbury’s a few months ago.

Is it that bad? 😅

I wash clothes from charity shops. New clothes no. If it had been dropped on the floor and had ‘floor dirt’ on it I think I’d notice and not buy it!

This is an eye opener, I never knew it was a thing!
Questions to those who wash new clothes:

• do you try clothes on in shops?
• how do you deal with dry clean only items? Do you dry clean these before wearing for the first time?

Washing bed linen seems even crazier. It's not as if anyone in the shop tries it on. It is fully packed. If you can't use that straight off the bat, how can you bring yourself to (eg) eat a packaged sandwich?

Is the concern "chemicals" in some vague sense? There are laws that make products safe for users. If you can't trust manufacturers to comply with these, how do you buy anything at all??

And yet in spite of all these dire tidings, I have yet to perish from not washing before wearing.

I only wash to remove gacky fabric conditioner scents from Vinted.

Ah now I would wash bedlinen first because it has a weird smell from the packet plus weird creases.

As for chemicals on clothing, there are strict rules on this in U.K. Don’t buy from Temu though if you don’t want lead and arsenic poisoning. Anyone see that documentary last night?

Do you have proof of this @Pepperama ? How would manufacturers get away with using strong carcinogens above legal limits?

Do you genuinely think clothing retailers are using illegal levels of toxins on all their clothing?

If that was the case, surely retail staff would be breaking out in rashes and illnesses on a daily basis?

I've never washed new clothes. I don't always wash clothes from the charity shop either; if they smell fresh I don't bother.

It's one of the many things which Mumsnet has taught me that some people do but which had never crossed my mind to do myself.

Always wash new things due to the formaldehyde/chemical smell of new stuff. Second-hand too due to the reek of perfumed conditioner. With Ecover. Don’t buy dry clean clothes.

Precisely.

Not a non event when you contract impetigo from a brand new cardigan.
GP said it was obviously something I'd worn because the impetigo was a clear pattern only on my back, shoulders and arms. The area covered by the strappy top underneath the cardigan was impetigo free. Hadn't worn anything else that could have caused that pattern.
I was like you but have gone from never washing new clothes to washing everything.

PP mentioned the programme about levels of chemicals in Temu clothing
https://www.channel4.com/press/news/truth-about-temu-dispatches-thursday-30-may-8pm-channel-4

I always wash new clothes and bedsheets before I use them. I think they feel and smell better once they've been through the wash.
I do try clothes on in shops though and will wear them if I can't physically wash them. E.g. bought something on holiday and want to wear it the next day.
R.e. question about dry clean only, I don't tend to wash occasion wear until after the first wear.

I never wash new clothes. I think I did initially when dd was born, but that quickly changed. I hate washing at the best of times!

I've managed to reach my late 60s without ever having washed new clothes.

I've not died, I've never had a random skin condition, I've never had dye come off on me. I think you'll live

No!! Why on earth would I . Even with the alleged formaldehyde/disease threat .
Part of the pleasure of new stuff is that crispy new feeling,it’s never the same after washing.
Honestly it’s a wonder humanity has survived this long if there’s that much danger from new sheets

Things like formaldehyde (not alleged, it’s very much a thing) are the sorts of cumulative carcinogens that aren’t great over time, though. Also if you can’t get washed clothes to ever look nice ever again, you’re doing it wrong. It’s like saying a hot dog won’t kill you when you eat it - of course it won’t, but it’s adding to the other unavoidable shit in our environment and repeated eating of said hot dogs full of carcinogens are unhealthy. Chemicals have cumulative effects so you don’t really know which of the shitty things in our lives cause what illness, you can only make your best effort to reduce the amount we’re exposed to. Look up different industries health risks, it’s about the accumulation of it. Sitting in the hairdressers once in a while having your hair done won’t kill you, but being a hairdresser is bad for your health. It’s the build up.

It’s mind boggling to me someone would put a newborn in clothes drenched in formaldehyde, and then take the piss out of us snowflakes who don’t want it on us and our kids. Yes, there are chemicals everywhere, but some things are avoidable so I’m avoiding those things. I also don’t wear shoes in the house and think that people who walk shoes into the house are mad… Sorry 😅

How the hell have we survived as a species.

We haven’t survived that well as a species, we’ve fucked the planet and lots of people are riddled with ill health, cancer affects a staggering amount of people, autoimmune conditions are rife and the NHS and local services are crippled by the weight of everyone’s needs.

I nearly always wash new clothes because when I was younger I worked as a nanny for a fashion designer and once we went to China and I went to a clothing factory. It was not a clean environment.

Rat piss 😂😂😂😂

There's definitely rats piss.

I never wash new clothes! I'd feel I was washing the new off them! 😊
I also don't think that any item that has been touched by another human being poses a health risk if it comes into contact with my skin. If an item is obviously soiled from being tried on or returned I'd not buy it in the first place.

If people want to wash their new clothes before they wear them, that’s fine, but I wish they wouldn’t spout bullshit pseudoscientific paranoid nonsense, or act like a child and say “Eww, gross, it’s got rat piss on it” to other people to make them think they need to do it too.

Exactly this... no, of course not washing new clothes isn't going to make you keel over, in the same way having a cigarette or being around second hand smoke won't make you keel over. It doesn't mean it's not harmful. Each to their own but I personally don't want to expose myself to things like formaldehyde, carbon disulphide, PFOAs etc unnecessarily.