Do you wash new clothes before you wear them?

[TheMidnightLibrary]

I’ve just bought a lovely green jumper from TK Max. My friend asked what I was wearing this evening and I replied “my new jumper”. Her question was would it be washed in time? I must confess it hadn’t crossed my mind to wash it!

What do the serial washers do with dry clean only clothes? Are you seriously adding another £20 to the cost of eg a jacket, a fancy top, dress before you wear it?

For what it’s worth I’ve just been out with a group of 10 women (all aged 39 to 50, 7 have at least one child) and I posed the new clothes washing question. All said ‘no why the fuck would you do that? It’s the only time they look properly nice’. I shared some of the reasons given in here and they all thought they were they batshit. Maybe it’s just Mumsnet.

Always, otherwise I get a rash and a headache

I love it when a MN topic gets extended to a discussion over a bottle (or just maybe a few more) of wine on a girls night out. 😀🍷

You could just hand wash it that’s what I do with all of my dry clean only stuff.
But to be fair, I don’t know why anybody would buy that kind of clothing in this day and age

I wash dry clean clothes in the washing machine or I hand wash them.

So do I? Gentle 30c wash. The only exception is wool coats/jackets and lined skirts.

Dry cleaning seems to involve lots of mucky chemicals.

I try to, I don't like chemical smell of new clothes and I believe they're covered in something to prevent mould etc. I most certainly wash all my kids new clothes, they get contact dermatitis otherwise. I once caved in and allowed my daughter wear new pants before washing (to avoid meltdown on the morning) and she came home from nursery looking like her skin was burnt.

No. Absolute lunacy. I don't clean my toilet every day either. Mumsnet is crackers.

Are there rats on your toilet?

No. The nice feel of new unworn fabric is one of the pleasures of new clothes.

Probably as likely as rats on new clothes.

It is however highly likely that rats will have been in contact with packaged grocery foods. I assume all those who wash new clothes also throughly scrub down all their supermarket shopping before it enters the house too.

Known allergic reaction to ‘chemicals’ used aside, washing new clothes is indeed absolute lunacy.

Yeah I always wash new and second hand clothes before use for me and my family.

I never washed new clothing but a family member now works behind the scenes in the clothing industry and says the clothing will likely have traces of formaldehyde on it and various other chemicals which help to prevent mould, creases etc. She said factory floors are often filthy, even for high-end suppliers. So the clothes will have a lot of hidden dirt and dust before they reach their destinations. So I always wash new stuff now. I used to think that brand new meant clean - apparently not.

Baby clothes, underwear and anything second hand yes. Otherwise no