How many times will you wear a pair of pants before washing them?

Re: the smell test

About 'the smell test'

It's probably only valid of someone else is testing them for you, people can be pretty bad at smelling their own BO.

 

I work out in the morning, so I wear whatever I had the night before as far as underwear and tee shirt are concerned. I have shorts dedicated to working out.

Tom

 

Wear it wash it.

I am so glad you guys are on the other side of the intertubes.

 

I have dedicated work-out clothes and yes these are washed. I wear synthetic wicking fabrics to work out and these get stinky really quick. If I'm training by myself I'll wear them twice (running / bicycling) If I'm going to the gym I wear clean clothes (usually cotton)

After a race, synthetics smell so bad that I feel like burning them. At the end of my last marathon my shirt smelled so bad that it was nauseating even to me. We had to drive home with the windows down the whole way.

I also have dedicated work / gardening clothes. I change into these from my "street" clothes and wash them as needed. They are hung in the garage between wearings. Work clothes are generally old street clothes that have stains or visible wear.

Any street clothes that I've worn and will wear again like jeans, get hung on hooks on my closet door.

Socks and underwear are strictly one time use. Even with frequent laundering I have been wearing the same 10 pairs of Smartwool socks since 2004. They may cost a lot to buy but they last so much longer than regular cotton socks.

To answer future questions you may add:
Towels get washed once a week.
PJ's get washed once a week.
Sheets get washed every other week or as needed.

All but whites are washed in cold water and line-dried.

 

I'll wear a pair of work pants for up to 5 shifts. They are cotton drill. I dress for work before I leave and change as soon as I get home. I always shower just before I get ready for work. Of course if my pants get dirty I will wash them. I wear a shirt for 2 days in winter and normally 1 in summer. I know I don't smell, because my work mates would give me a hard time if I did.

Non work clothes I might wash each time I wear them, like tee shirts but a pair of jeans get washed after maybe 3 days to a week. My dress clothes are always machine washable and will always be washed right after I wear them unless I'm away from home. When I get dressed up I want to be as immaculate as I can be, if it's worth dressing up it's worth being spotless. I don't wear suits. Too often you see someone in a tired dirty suit that looks worse than clean casual clothes. Another reason for not wearing dry clean only clothes.

My son and wife wont put a limb in anything they have already had on until it uses a stack of water, power and chemicals to wash them. I find this pretty disgusting. Why not minimise your impact on the environment? It can be done while looking clean and tidy and without smelling bad. A little deodorant helps.

 

Thank goodness no iSmell feature on the iMac!

All this reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where Wally insists that it isn't necessary to wash his bath towel because it only touches him when he is clean - therefore the towel never gets dirty. The towel, of course, is standing in the corner of the room without benefit of a rack.

The college version of this - buy a laundry bag with a zippered bottom. Stuff dirty laundry as necessary. When bag is full, unzip the bottom & start over. (Which is why I sent my kids to college with 3 weeks worth of underwear). The physics professor son now does his own laundry because he is fussier than his wife - she won't iron his linen shirts or handwash his handknit alpaca & cashmere socks.

 

if by pants you mean trousers: until they're dirty (or about a week, which ever comes first). If by pants you mean skivvies then wear and wash. Socks and under shirts are also a wear and wash affair.

 

depends. if i am having a "neat" week, i might go 3 days, but generally its 2 for slacks. jeans are another story. sometimes a few weeks, sometimes a few hours. jus all depends on what i am doing.

shirts, socks, underware, changed at least once a day. and always after a shower. i average probably 2-3 days a week where i use two pair socks and/or shirts a day

and Pat:

my SO is the same way. she can go 2-3 days without showering and not smell a bit, but she changes her clothes twice daily (work clothes and home clothes) . showers nearly every morning and takes a bath EVERY night.

because of her, there is piles of clothes all over the bedroom, laundry room, bathrooms etc.

 

PJs? What PJs? My mom took away my favourite tiger jammies when I was about five, probably because they were in tatters. Stubborn little snot that I was, I refused to wear anything else, and I've been sleeping naked ever since. :blush:

 

i work with chemicals. i think that excludes me from the conditions in the OP.
pants always go in the washer when they've got brain sections stuck to them. or other unpleasant type stuff.

 

I know there was a post a while back about not bathing/limited bathing time. I need to cross reference the posters.

 

I'm lucky; I'm retired, so it's one of the two best pair of jeans I own per 6 days. Then I wash that on Saturday and get out the next pair. Sunday is dress pants, which may or may not be washed in a timely fashion.

But what I'm sorta-kinda concerned about is that everyone here actually remembers and can articulate within a 24-hour notice how often they wash what.

 

That's where lab whites are a nice option. Years ago I worked in R&D for a pharmaceutical company. As an engineer, I could optionally wear lab whites, which I always did. It's nice to have someone else take care of your laundry: Dirty lab whites? Drop them in the hamper. The next morning they are hanging on your locker, all clean and pressed.

Tom

 

(as Al Pachino, in 'Scent of a Woman' said) Whoo faahhhh

 

I wash my jeans once every 3 months or so. But then I can't smell anything, so I wait until they've moved a few inches after being left on a chair overnight.

 

Well, while Depends may cut down on some of the soil, I don't think they work on the smell factor.

For me, outer clothing gets washed as needed, I do a lot of food prep, so shirts get splattered a lot, and get worn once before washing. If I'm doing yardwork, jeans get worn once; otherwise, they get a couple of days, at least.

 

Yeah.. I wear my jeans until I stain them or they smell! Now my nursing scrubs are different... I have about 50 pairs and I wear all 50 of them and then try and wash them in 2 loads I dont like doing laundry and I like saving water! I only wash things after I wear them if ive been at the bar and dont want everything else to smell of stale smoke and booze! haha