I’m baaaaaack! My little bloggy break was lovely but – Wow! – I missed this space and all of you.
A short and sweet human interest question for you this morning:
What do you do with clothes you’ve worn – either for a short time or in a context where they don’t need to be laundered – that aren’t destined for the laundry basket? Do you hang them back up in your closet; do you fold them and put them back in the drawer? Do you throw them on the floor or drape them across a chair in your room? Do you have a dedicated hook or shelf for clothes that fit this criteria?
I do a mix of everything. I often re-wear pants, sweaters, and dresses multiple times between washes and usually hang them back up in my closet. Worn PJs get hung on a hook, while freshly washed PJs hang out in a specific drawer. Workout clothes that I’ve used lightly will get folded back up and put into the drawer but I mostly hate re-wearing athletic gear (sweat – ugh!) so the majority of the time they go into the laundry after I’m done exercising…except yoga gear which doesn’t get very sweaty.
What do you do?
Header photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash
J
I fold my jeans and put them away. Sweaters I drape over the back of my chair, and then hang them up the next day. I feel like it gives them a better chance to air out than if I hang them up right away. Jammies are folded and put away.
My daughter wears sweatpants in the morning while she gets ready for work, and then throws them in the hamper. I sometimes give them a spray with a fabric refresher, and fold it as though it were washed. Don’t tell her.
Elisabeth
I won’t tell your daughter…if you won’t tell my daughter. I do this with my kids regularly. If I see something in at the top of the laundry basket I KNOW is clean (like a dress A has worn for like an hour), I will pull it out and hang it up or even put it with their clean clothes for them to put away. They’re non the wiser…
Kyria @ Travel Spot
Welcome back! I cracked up at Julie’s comment above about Maya’s sweatpants, probably because I find it weird when people wash clothes like that after one use. For me it depends on the item, my daily PJs/sweats go on a hook, my work shirts, which I usually wear twice before washing, go back on the hanger in the closet. I do not wear workout clothes more than once unless I am traveling, OR if I do not workout and only wore them to walk to the store or something, I would put them on the same hook at my PJs. I wear my PJ bottoms for a week between washing, and PJ tops it depends, but I may wear two per week. Jeans, which I would normally wear for only a couple of hours (I rarely wear jeans any more), would just be folded and put back in the drawer.
Elisabeth
I do the same thing as J with my kids clothes if I know they were just too lazy to hang something up. They do this with PJs and it drives me crazy. PAJAMAS DO NOT NEED TO BE WASHED AFTER ONE NIGHT.
I wash my PJs every few days because I tend to sweat at night and…ugh. But I also don’t change my sheets very often, so maybe that’s my compromise 🙂
mbmom11
I hand up sweaters or blouses that are still clean on a hook so they’re convenient to grab again, and it’s gives them a chance to air out. Pants and sweats – hook. Not back into the drawers. Anything like a tshirt would go straight into the wash. If it doubt, it goes in wash.
Elisabeth
Love this idea of letting things “air out” – I should do that.
Suzanne
Welcome back! This is a fun question. I rewear my jammies several nights in a row, and during the day I stuff them into the cubby beneath my nightstand. Jeans go back on the jeans shelf. Shirts go back on the hanger. If I am rewearing athletic pants (I will often put on a pair of leggings after I have worked out and showered for the day, so I will wear those for the next day’s workout), I will fold or crumple those on top of my dresser. There is an assortment of crumpled sweatshirts on top of my dresser as well. I am a slob. At some point I will sweep them all into the laundry hamper and wash them.
Elisabeth
I know lots of people that fold their PJs under their pillow, but I really don’t like it…I feel almost claustrophobic for my PJs that way (why? when they’re clean they get stuffed in a drawer).
I also fold and leave work out clothes on top of my dresser. We can exchange dresser pictures because mine is COVERED right now – le sigh.
sarah
This is not a category that exists for me. Clothes are either clean (unworn) or dirty (have been on a body and left the house). Dry cleaning has a basket in our closet.
Well! I guess men’s suits are a thing that are worn multiple times before laundering. They get hung up after wear.
Elisabeth
I have never had a single item of clothing dry cleaned IN MY LIFE.
With so many people and so much laundry I can 100% see it being easier to just wash all. the. things. I definitely re-wear most clothes multiple times between washes – some of it is laziness and some of it is that they’re not really dirty so it feels like a make work project (and more environmentally/economically friendly to rewear?)
ccr in MA
Oh, I will be revisiting this post to see what others do that might work for me! I fold my jeans and pop them back in the closet, and put my pajamas on the bed, but for other things worn around the house that I would wear again, I have a spot that they just kind of pile up on. I was thinking yesterday, I should try to find a coat rack that I could hang things on instead, so they would air out a bit. Oh, and I also have a few wool shirts that don’t need to be washed every time, so I do hang those back up.
Elisabeth
I think I need to think more about “airing” out clothes. I think I’ve also heard that putting worn blue jeans in the freezer helps “freshen them up”…but I’ve never tried it.
Nicole MacPherson
Welcome back, I missed you!
This is rarely a problem for me. Almost always, my clothes are dirty. I am constantly spilling something or getting mud on my pants from walking the dog, getting them sweaty, etc. On the very rare occasions that I do not wash clothes I just wore, I put them back in the drawer.
Elisabeth
Aww. Thanks <3
Between working out and cooking so much and having such a big, active dog I can see your clothes likely need laundering. I feel like when my kids were younger my clothes were ALWAYS dirty.
Jenny
Yay, you’re back!!! We missed you! Your question makes me think of an old “Cathy” cartoon. Cathy’s mom is looking at her closet and says something like “This is so cluttered! How can you find your clothes in all of this?” and Cathy says “Don’t be ridiculous! The clothes I actually WEAR are over here” and she points to a chair with clothes piled all over it. THAT IS ME. I know, it’s terrible. All the “clirty” clothes (that’s my husband’s term for it) like pajamas, sweat pants I just wore for a morning in the house, t shirts I wore to run one errand… all end up piled on top of my dresser. I’ll wear them again, but sometimes it gets out of control and I clean the whole thing off. That’s fun, because I end up finding things I forgot I even had. Workout clothes, by the way, are rarely worn more than once, so they never touch the dresser pile. I know… this system probably isn’t optimal but it’s semi-working for now.
Elisabeth
CLIRTY! I love it…though it also sounds mildly sexual? Sorry…not to plant things in your head, but it’s just a bit close to flirty and, well, a particular female body part. MOVING ON!
Hey whatever works, works! No judgement here <3
Erica
Everyone has such different practices for laundry!
I wear outside pants several times before washing and hang them back in the closet between wearings. PJs and inside pants I keep on a shelf and wash when they look or feel unfresh. I generally wash shirts after one wearing. I have a couple of hooks for hoodies, and if I wear a nice sweater or dress for some bizarre reason I usually just air it out and then return it to the closet as if it were clean.
My kids each have a shelf or bin for what I call “half-clean” clothes, but they generally ignore them in favor of always wearing the newest, cleanest, and hardest-to-launder garment they own. Every so often I do a sweep of those shelves and wash the clothes on them.
Related question: what about bras? Clearly they are as sweaty and in need of washing as any shirt, but they also seem to fall apart after about 20 washings so even a cheap bra becomes pricey-per-wear if it’s washed every day.
Elisabeth
I’m with you on things feeling “unfresh” – I definitely think that is how I judge things, too.
Kids have an uncanny way of making as much laundry as humanly possible, right?
Ohhh. Great question! So I wash my sports bras every use or two (definitely every time if I’ve done a really sweaty workout), but I wash my normal bras far less frequently. I used to be so good about hand washing them, but now I just throw them into the laundry but air dry them. I probably wash them every 2 weeks. Eeks. That sounds embarrassing to admit, but I wear sports bras A LOT of the time, so if I’m wearing a “nice” nude or black bra, it’s likely only on for a few hours before I’m back in exercise-type clothes.
Sara
I’m like Nicol above–eek. Sadly, with a 1 year old and a 4 year old, I don’t feel like a single days outfit can escape messy fingers, though that’s probably unfair to them as I am a baby giraffe and ridiculously clumsy and messy all on my own. Also, I think I just find it gross to wear something again that I wore for 12+ hours (if I put it on at 7:00 a.m. and don’t take it off until I put my pajamas on around 9:00 p.m. then I just feel like it’s more than seen its fair share of disgust hah!)
Elisabeth
I think my clothes were a lot “dirtier” when my kids were smaller! There were so many sticky fingers, spit up, and just general life mess to contend with…also I think it’s a nice “luxury” to put on clean clothes when you’re in the weeds of parenting little ones. Something about putting on fresh clothes feels like a little emotional and energetic boost?!
Colleen Martin
I have a rocking chair in the corner of my room where my slightly used clothes sit until I figure out where they need to go. Most of them (work clothes) get hung back up in the closet. I always wash my workout clothes right away because I sweat, but I probably wear my pajamas for too long between washings 🙂
Elisabeth
I have started washing my PJs more often and I think it’s mildly addictive to have fresh jammies. Like the nights I wear previously worn PJs I don’t feel quite as cozy and relaxed?!
Elisabeth
Oh…and we used to have a chair in the corner of our room and we moved it out (into A’s room, who wanted a reading chair), a few months ago because the ONLY THING I USED IT FOR was to store half-clean clothes.
Diane
Well, I have what I call a “floordrobe”…. I feel so slovenly about it all.
I think part of the issue is that I go to bed after my Husband and I’m usually getting undressed in the dark so things either get thrown over the bench at the foot of the bed, or left in a puddle on the floor. (or fall off the bench onto the puddle on the floor.) Maybe once a week, I’ll go through the pile and hang up/ fold things that I think can still be worn again and put the rest in the laundry basket.
Exercise clothes will get aired on the clothes rack (or just hung on a doorknob) – I read somewhere that it’s better to let exercise clothes air out a little, that the air and light help with keeping the seat stains/odors from setting. In the winter, I usually wear a wool baselayer when I go running, so my long sleeved running tops usually last more than one wear.
Then there are the days when I wake up, put on comfy clothes and then fall asleep in them, so the next morning, I just change my underwear. I guess *not* taking my clothes off is also a solution for the what to do with them…
I hope you have a nice blogg-y break! It’s so lovely to read your words (and all these comments) again!
Elisabeth
Floordrobe. This is the best new term I’ve heard in recent weeks.
I think this all sounds very reasonable, especially since you’re often getting changed IN THE DARK.
I’d say once every few weeks I go to bed in my comfy lounge clothes and don’t bother changing into PJs. It really does make life even easier!
It’s lovely to be back <3
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
Welcome back to the internets!
I put worn but not dirty clothes right back in the drawer.
Elisabeth
Simple. Straightforward. Why does this not surprise me!
PE
Everything my children wear tends to go into the hamper. Perhaps if they’ve worn something for a few short hours it will not but that is on the rare side. Their pjs, jeans/pants, shirts go immediately into their hamper. For myself though, I wear my pants (jeans) usually twice and pjs 3 days or so before they go into the wash. It works out to doing laundry about once per week for everyone’s clothing in our household.
Elisabeth
This is what my kids do, too…though like J mentioned above, sometimes if I know it was only worn a short time and/or isn’t dirty, I will put it back in their closet, or even add it to their clean clothes pile to be put away.
Lindsay
Oh, this is so specific and I am here for it! For pajamas, I lay them on my bed so they are there waiting for me. For work clothes I am going to rewear, I hang them back up in a different section of my closet (I have to visibly separate what I wear into the office so I don’t accidentally wear the same thing multiple times in one week or the same thing on the same day in consecutive weeks). For laze-around-the-house clothes, I dump them in a pile next to our laundry basket in the closet (which drives the Mr. up the wall) (but apparently is a Diane-coined “floordrobe” which I am also here for!). Workout clothes in the cooler months go on a rack in the closet for me to rewear; in the warmer and sweatier months, depending on how gross I am after the workout, I either rinse them in the shower and lay out to dry and rewear or one-and-done them….
Elisabeth
That’s smart! Having a different section in your closet seems like an ideal compromise! Also, so brilliant in the way it prevents you from re-wearing the same outfit to work on consecutive days.
Christa Lamb
I have a (dressmaker type) mannequin that I drape the not ready to washed clothes on.
Elisabeth
This feels very fashionable and chic 🙂
NGS
I’m with Colleen from above. In our master bedroom, there’s a cedar trunk where I throw all my gently worn clothing for a second wearing. But (I hope Sarah doesn’t hear this) I wear a lot of my clothes multiple times before washing them. If I wear a dress to work, I probably wear it 2-4 times before washing it and I just put it back on its hanger in between washes. My husband and I just throw our pajamas on top of our bed to rewear.
(Have you heard of that Woolx challenge where people wear the same dress with different accessories for 100 days? I don’t think I could do that, but I have literally worn the same black dress to work two or three times a week now for the last month and no one has said a word to me. I am considering literally having exactly five dresses for workwear.)
(This is the dress: https://www.toadandco.com/products/rosalinda-dress-black?variant=32689538727984. Literally no one notices because it’s the most basic of dresses and I just wear different leggings/tights/hose/scarves/necklaces/belts with it and it’s like a whole different outfit.)
Elisabeth
I also wear dresses many times between washes. I mostly just wear dresses to church or in the summer, and not when I’m exercising so I find they stay fresh (enough) for a long time.
That is such a nice dress and brilliant to accessorize. You’re right – different accessories = a new outfit.
I’ve never heard of the Woolx challenge but am going to look it up now, but I’ve read about a few designers who have a uniform (which feels ironic since they work in fashion, but they say it makes them more creative to not have to think about what they’re going to wear).
I have just accepted my laundry standards would ALL BE APPALLING to Sarah.
Michelle G.
It’s so fun to read about everyone’s laundry habits! My clothes are usually dirty after wearing, plus I don’t have a huge amount of clothes, so I tend to wash them a lot. But if I’ve only worn something for a little while, I’ll hang it back up. I’m fussy about nighties and socks – they must always be freshly washed.
I’m glad you had a nice blogging break and glad that you’re back!
Elisabeth
I agree about not re-wearing socks. They stretch out and…ugh. They are one piece of clothing that I basically always wash (even though my socks never smell!).
The blogging break was lovely but it feels great to be back.
Elinoora
Oh! The floordrobe or the chairdrobe, as we used to call them. I’ve got a bench at the end of the bed where gently worn clothes end until I either wear them again or realise that the season has passed so I wash them and put them back into the wardrobe.
Actually, the insight that a lot of people feel hesitant about either rewearing / putting the clothes back / putting them in the laundry led to the creation of Day 2 (do they sell this in Canada?) (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Day2-Denim-Wash-Clothes-Spray/dp/B07HCZ2NVJ).
Actually, from a sustainability point of view it is good to wash your clothes less. 1.it saves on water and 2. your clothes get shaken about less and last longer 😊
Elisabeth
I’ve never heard of Day 2!
I know it’s more eco-conscious to not wash after every wear; I’ll admit that I mostly re-wear because I’m lazy, but the environmental benefit is a wonderful side-effect.
Joy
We have a chair specifically for clothes we’ll wear again soon. Dresses, sweaters, and pants that won’t be worn again the following day get hung back up if not ready for the laundry. I’m a big fan of rewearing if possible!
Elisabeth
I didn’t know this! For some reason this shocks me.
I love re-wearing and really wish my kids felt the same way *face palm*…but A is going to start doing her own laundry soon so maybe that will shift her perspective?
Gigi
Jeans and jammies go on hooks on the closet door. Shirts, skirts, work pants, dresses, etc. tend to get hung back up. Sweaters get folded and put back in the drawer. I know I should air out the shirts/sweaters/dresses, etc. air out…but I never do. Mainly, because I want to keep it tidy and having that stuff out just feels un-tidy to me.
Elisabeth
Yeah, I don’t really air things out either. I hang all my shirts and dresses and pants and I feel like hanging naturally airs things out a bit more than folding in a drawer? Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
Noemi
I actually created something for this very issue, because I only shower 3-4 times a week and care deeply about what clothes I wear depending on when I last showered. So I want to keep the clothes I can wear again separate from my truly dirty clothes.
I wrote about my solution here:
http://notawastedword.com/a-weird-thing-ive-always-wanted/
Elisabeth
This is brilliant!!! I need a ladder like that!
I shower 4-5 times a week, so a good point that sometimes I also decide what I wear/re-wear based on where I am in my shower cycle. I noticed one of the comments on your post mentioned not washing her bras very often which made me feel better. I wash my sports bras regularly – and, to be fair, wear them the majority of the time, but I wash my “regular” bras…once a month?! Eeks. But they end up lasting a reallllly long time.
Lisa’s Yarns
Welcome back! I missed you!
With the exception of pajamas, nearly everything gets hung or folded and put away. I wear pjs for one night and they go on the floor of our walk in closet because folding them seems unnecessary?
I am known for having 1-2 sweatshirts strewn about the house, though. I will take a sweatshirt off for a workout and then leave it in the basement and then there might be another one in the piano. I am trying to work on this because Phil is not a fan of clutter (but we have young kids so clutter is unavoidable).
Elisabeth
Thanks! I missed being in this space and getting to “talk” with my online friends <3
My kids think floors are closets.
Emily
So interesting. Other than pj’s, clean but worn clothes pile up on top of my dresser. I do not want worn jeans in the drawer with the clean, weirdly. Workout clothes must be washed every wear but I sweat a lot! I once pulled out some thin scarves that had been stored unwashed for a while and it horrified me how musty they were so only clean-clean things get put away.
Elisabeth
Agreed that things get stale fast in drawers! I hang up all pants (except for exercise bottoms), shirts (all shirts – from T-shirts to sweaters), dresses and skirts. I swear things stay fresher longer this way. I don’t have a huge closet but tend to have a pretty minimalist wardrobe so I think that helps, too? I have a family member whose closet is literally BULGING and I get the sense in that context hanging wouldn’t do much to keep things fresh 🙂
Melissa
Everything I’m going to wear again gets hung up. My PJs go under my pillow.
Kate
Welcome back! I had missed your post about the bloggy break, so when I realized I hadn’t seen a new post from you for a few days I had a mild panic that THIS blog had vanished too! So relieved that isn’t the case 🙂
Like most of your commenters, I re-wear pajamas several times and they either go back in my pajama drawer or on top of my dresser. I wash jeans every 4-5 wears (unless they are visibly dirty) and they go back in the drawer too. Socks, shirts, most leggings, cami tops and shirts get washed after every wear. I often wear cardigans with dresses and either wash every wear or every 2-3 wears depending on the sweat situation that day 😉
My husband has a pile next to his wardrobe for the in-between clothes. Early in our marriage, I assumed they were dirty clothes and then he would be frantically looking for them as they were caught somewhere in the laundry cycle… now I know!
My kids also are notorious for putting clean clothes in the laundry — sometimes even when they haven’t been worn AT ALL, but fell out of a drawer or closet when they were rummaging for something else, and they can’t be bothered to put them away properly. Grrrrrr.
Elisabeth
Gah – my worst nightmare to lose not one – BUT TWO! – blogs. Nope just a planned break.
And yes my kids do the same thing; like a dress will fall off one of A’s hooks and she will just “clean it up” by putting it into her laundry basket. What now??!! But I’ll get the last laugh soon because she is going to start doing her own laundry and I’m very curious to see how her “clean up” methods might change.
Ally Bean
A few have mentioned it and I do it, I let clothes air between wearings often finding that is enough to keep them fresh. People wash their PJs after one wearing? Wow, that’s not what happens here. Wouldn’t they wear out faster from all that washing?
Elisabeth
Yup – I think frequent washing does wear out clothes a lot more quickly. Thankfully, I don’t wash after every use AND I buy 95% of my clothes thrifted so I feel like I’m already giving everything a “second” life.
Joy
I have a hook in my closet for my nightgowns. I wear them 2-3 nights, depending on how warm it was at night.
Jeans and lightly worn pants, I fold on open shelves. I have a shelf in my closet that I use for airing out a top if I’m going to wear it again.
Elisabeth
Airing out is DEFINITELY a common theme!
San
My workout clothes are usually so soaked that I have to hang them up to dry first before putting them in the laundry LOL
Shirt, I usually fold and keep on a chair or dresser. Sweaters, pants and dresses, I might hang up/put back in the closet.
Elisabeth
I drape sweaty clothes over a door or the edge of our (plastic) laundry basket and don’t add them to the heaped laundry until they’re dry or else – YUCK.
Stephany
Oh, I love this question and all of these answers! I have been very closely following these comments.
I have a shelf in my walk-in closet that I sort of use as a holding place for these types of clothes. I usually rewear my pajamas until my next laundry cycle (about a week) unless they start feeling stinky sooner. I also usually wear the same pair of jeans until my next laundry cycle. And I have lounge clothes – yoga pants, graphic tees – that I wear for about a week. I don’t tend to rewear some of my shirts because I feel like they get unstructured after one wear (or have deodorant stains, sigh) so I usually throw them in the washer after one wear. (Although that depends – if I only wore the shirt while working from home or for one event at night, I’ll re-hang it up. If I wore the shirt all day, I’ll throw it in the wash.)
FASCINATING TOPIC!
Elisabeth
It sounds like you have a great (better than mine, to be honest) system!
Anne
Sarah and I are almost-twins. The only things I don’t wash after 1 wear are a) sweatshirts, b) fleeces, and c) sometimes jeans. I wear my pj’s 3-4 nights and then change them out. You already know my super-type-A laundry habits, so I will leave it there. 😉
Airing things out, though, is a great idea, if one is not willing to do more laundry. You do you.