Saturday seems to be my big cleaning and laundry day, if you could call making sure the necessities of life at least, are made suitable, for the week ahead, big. On Friday, the weather reporters were all saying Saturday would be a rainy day. As often happens, the weather pattern changed, (I like to say weather pattern changed rather than get on the weather reporter bashing band wagon), and we had a gloriously sunny afternoon. I wanted to take advantage of the sun and cool breeze and get bedding washed and hung outside. I made the mistake of saying to DD#2, "Should we get your bed linens washed?", instead of "Strip your bed so we can wash the linens." Her response was , "No, they're still good." Now I love sleeping in fresh laundered and sun dried sheets. It is truly one of life's simple pleasures. Her response though, pleasure factor aside, did get me wondering how frequently bed linens should be washed. Is there a health hazard for going too long? Is over washing just needlessly wearing down expensive fibers? Besides making me wondering why we have so few sheet sets that we have to wash and dry the same day we change sheets, it got me wondering how frequent must other things be washed?
Conventional wisdom would say that the less you wash and dry and item, the more cost efficient upkeep will be. Less water, less soap, less electricity or gas if using a dryer or warm water for heating said water means the cost of doing the laundry itself is reduced. Wear and tear, it seems should be mitigated with fewer washings of the clothes or linens themselves. We are not strangers to the sight and smell factor. If it looks clean, and doesn't smell, it is good to go. So here is a simple poll.
How often do the following items need to be washed? The choices are: D-Daily (single use) T-Two to Three times W-weekly and finally S-sight and Smell always rule.
Bed linens D T W S
Towels D T W S
Jeans D T W S
Dress shirts D T W S
T-shirts D T W S
Note the question was how often do the items need to be washed, not how often do they get washed in your home. I have my answers in my head, and we'll leave it with that they are not necessarily the same response for each question.
Monday, April 27, 2015
8 comments:
Join the conversation. Your comments are welcome. Dissenting and different opinions are welcome as makes for good conversation. I moderate comments to be sure I read them all and stay ahead of the spam. Advertising products or services without permission will be deleted, as will anything that may be harmful to others-read promotion of debunked "experts" and conspiracies. If you're a blogger, feel free to include your blog URL.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Interesting post and I'll be interested to see what others say.
ReplyDeleteI don't exactly know what you mean by "2 to 3 times"?.....2 to 3 times Montlhy?
Ok, here are my answers--any clothing be it jeans(tho I don't wear those), dress shirts or t-shirts it depends what activity I am doing whilst wearing them. Generally all clothing(except underwear) are 2-3 wearings between washings.
Towels if they are used for drying and not for cleaning, once a month. You should ostentatiously be CLEAN after bathing when using a towel so it's just water and a bit of exfoliated clean skin.
Bed Linens depending but usually every second week. I have a medical conditions that sometimes necessitates more frequent bedclothes washing but you don't want to get into that. lolz
My youngest child OTOH, if given his druthers will wash his clothing after 1 wearing, even if he dons something for only a couple of hours and he desires to tumble dry his clothing EACH TIME before he wears something. (There goes my electric bill!)
Yet he would keep his sheets on his bed until they turn GRAY!
He doesn't see the incongruity in this at all....... ;-)
I meant after 2-3 uses. I think your son and mine could compare notes but that changed once he paid for laundry on the clithes front. Thankfully the sheets situation changed as well.
DeleteI was sheets once per week. Towels twice a week, underwear gets changed every day. T-shirts I wear two days and pants maybe three or four days.
ReplyDeleteI love the smell of air dried sheets. Can't hang laundry out where we live, which sucks.
Gill in Southern Ontario, Canada
We have a short outdoor drying season. Part of why its a pleasure as we can't experience it year round. Good to hear from you.
DeleteIn our household it depends on the weather.... I wash the bedding more if we've been too hot over night. Towels are probably washed every two weeks; jeans every four or five wears; and T-shirts are washed every two wears max. It also depends on time available and whether I feel like a 'domestic goddess' this week!! Jx
ReplyDeleteI battle on the towel front and getting them dried and reused. I don't think I'll ever being feeling like a domestic goddess but happy that my standards seem the norm.
DeleteHey there, Following form Sonya Ann's blogger group!
ReplyDeleteSheets-Weekly but if I had enough pillowcases to wash just one load a week, I would change them every day. (We sleep with 3 pillows each)
Towels-Daily most of the year
Jeans-I wear them twice usually between washing
Dress Shirts -I wear them twice also
Tee shirts- Daily
I live in the South, it's hot and humid and about 6 months of the year we take 2 showers and wear 2 sets of clothes. In the summer hardly anything gets worn more than once without a wash.
Thanks for commenting Anne. Great thought on pillowcases. They do see to need more attention. Heat and sweat seem to be the difference in frequency and I see why. We have some sweltering days even in Minnesota.
Delete