Laundering frequency & closet organization

I might be preaching to the choir here, but for years I would wash everything after one wear. I would wear jeans a few times, but other items hit the wash regularly. Only recently have I realized it's not only not necessary, but downright detrimental to your clothes and so, since joining YLF, I've been going further between washes. And with the BF doing it all together - towels with jeans with shirts - things were worse for the wear ha ha.

On to the point at hand! I used the reverse the hanger trick, to see what I was and was not wearing, in order to cull things last year. Once I got that worked out, I started turning the hanger around a) for brand new purchases until they got worn and b) for any tops or dresses or jackets that had been worn. This has been very helpful for me. I could only lay so many 'half worn' items across the banister at the top of the stairs or on top of my dresser, as was my prior method. So I would end up wearing those items twice in about a week and then toss it in the wash so I didn't have a growing pile of half worns. Now, with my hanger trick, I don't feel the need to grab that same item or items within one wash cycle and I'm doing a lot less repeating but not over laundering my clothes, either

But what I really want to do is expand this to ALL my clothing, not just what's on a shirt hanger. I had the idea that perhaps with my jeans I could change my stacked piles to face the waist band out if worn, and face the waist to the back of the closet if freshly washed. For my skirts, I'm debating hanging from the hem instead of from the waistband, but wonder if that's bad for the garment. I could do that with my hanging slacks quite easily. Not sure how to deal with sweaters, either. Here I stack them on a shelf, home in CA they are in a dresser drawer.

Do you have any organizational tricks, specifically relating to worn, but not yet dirty, items? I'd love to hear 'em!

14 years ago

Anonymous

I have a pretty small wardrobe, so I can usually remember. Our temps fluctuate 40 degrees in a day, so there is a lot of changing clothes and tops that were just worn for a few hours. I try not to hang up any half worn tops, I leave them on a chair in my closet and try to wear them again in the next day or so before tossing them in the wash. I wear jeans and denim skirts/jackets several times or until I spill on them.

(website)

Veteran

Thanks, Claire. That was basically what I was doing but I felt I was cycling through many of the same items and not accessing half of my closet. I do have a good 150+ items, though. And one of my goals is to wear a lot more of it. Flip the 20%, 80% of the time ratio, if you will

rae

Most of my items are hanging, but what I usually do is turn the item inside out after it's been worn - that would work for folded items, too.

And I have a clothes pile, too, only there is no method to it. Only the madness of rejecting an outfit and then running out of time to put it away correctly. o_0

Duh, SO obvious!! Thank you Rae! Sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees HA!

Oh, and then the dirt of the outside world doesn't get onto a clean sweater should they get stacked together - bonus! I am okay with 'my' dirtiness much more than random 'their' dirtiness lol.

"I am okay with 'my' dirtiness much more than random 'their' dirtiness."

LOL. I do believe I've uttered that exact sentence before. So true.

DeclawedJaguar

I use a sniff test, which -- now that I think about it -- sounds kind of pervy, doesn't it? If a worn item smells fresh after wearing, it goes back on the hanger as is. Any trace of an odor puts it in the laundry basket. In the summer it means washing everything after one or two wears. In the winter it may take 4-7 wears for an item to get dirty. I do wash a lot of items by hand, to prevent premature aging.

Kate

I have a smaller wardrobe, but I don't want to put too much brain power into remembering

For all of my bottoms and blazers, they're either clean or dirty. If a pair of pants don't have anything gross on them and don't smell bad, I just hang them back up normally. Same goes for skirts, shorts, and blazers. If something is wrinkled but not dirty, I steam it and then hang it back up normally.

I have other items that get washed after every wear. Unfortunately, this usually includes tops, since I tend to walk someplace most days, and tend to sweat when I walk.

However, there's about a 50/50 chance that my cardigans won't smell bad at the end of the day. I also have lounge clothes that I wear around the house, and those can be worn several times between washes too. I ended up just using a drawer of my dresser to hold those items. My sports bra hangs out in there too, since I only have one and don't wash it after every use, but do wash it every time that I do laundry.

The other thing I like about the drawer is that I can check it quickly before I do laundry, and pull out some not quite dirty items to wash if I have a bit of extra room in the load or think that I might want to wear an item twice in the next week. It's a lot easier having everything of this sort in one place.

I think a lot of it comes down to what works for you, and everyone will be a bit different.

ETA: Oh, and I wash everything at home using this gem (http://www.breathingwasher.com/) (for the record, I would much rather have a washing machine) and hang everything to dry. This also helps limit the wear on my clothes.

Jjsloane

I hang up my outfit at the end of the day on the closet door to air it out if it's been a normal wear day and no stains or spills (otherwise wash for sure). If it just needs a little freshening I have a new dryer with a steam refresh cycle that is fantastic. Saves dry cleaning everytime. I really have no system to figure this out just trust that I deal with it at the time of taking it off.

DeniseP

Active Member

About thirty years ago, an older woman that I worked with told me (then in my late 20s), that "you can wash your clothes to death."
She wore nice clothes and always looked fresh.
And I have remembered that over the years.

I agree with Declawed Jaguar...I do the "sniff test" too. If it looks or smells dirty, it gets washed. Otherwise, my clothes get worn several times between washings.

One reason I don't wear fragrance is the perfumed smell stays in my clothing. The next time I'm ready to wear that item, it smells of fragrance and not fresh.

Another thing I've always done, but sometimes it's unreasonable -- wear short sleeved tops with my jackets, blazers and cardigans, rather than sleeveless ones. That keeps the underarms from touching the fabric of those items that can't be easily washed/cleaned. It keeps those pieces clean, and free from odors.

Lastly, like Clearlyclaire, I have a smaller wardrobe now that I've been a part of YLF and purged the contents of my closet. I pretty much remember what's dirty!

lyn*

Mo - Thanks for the hanger idea for new purchases! I think I'm going to do that too!

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