• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

How often do you wash your clothes?

Borky

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
121
Reaction score
1
Personally, I wash/dry clean my dress shirts after every wearing. Same goes for polos if I'm not wearing an undershirt, otherwise its every 2 wearings. Sweaters on the other hand get washed once a month.

Is the frequency of my washing/dry cleaning shirts decreasing their life span and setting me up to buy new ones frequently? Can anyone offer some advice?
 

j

(stands for Jerk)
Admin
Spamminator Moderator
Joined
Feb 17, 2002
Messages
14,663
Reaction score
105
It depends on you more than anything else - your wear habits, sweat/odor level, etc. Personally, I don't see the point in washing something before it needs it. For t-shirts, that usually means about 20 hours of wear or so (I usually change in the middle of the day after work, so it could be quite a few wearings) unless it's been hot or I've sweated in them, been around smoke etc. For dress shirts, I rarely wear one all day and usually use an undershirt, so I might get a few wears out of them. But I won't re-iron a worn shirt since it can set smells, stains, etc. For sweaters, they get a lot of use since I don't wear cotton ones and wool ones don't hold onto odors much. I steam them occasionally and wash them rarely.

BTW, you should not dry clean most shirts, they should be laundered.
 

Borky

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
121
Reaction score
1
Originally Posted by j
It depends on you more than anything else - your wear habits, sweat/odor level, etc. Personally, I don't see the point in washing something before it needs it. For t-shirts, that usually means about 20 hours of wear or so (I usually change in the middle of the day after work, so it could be quite a few wearings) unless it's been hot or I've sweated in them, been around smoke etc. For dress shirts, I rarely wear one all day and usually use an undershirt, so I might get a few wears out of them. But I won't re-iron a worn shirt since it can set smells, stains, etc. For sweaters, they get a lot of use since I don't wear cotton ones and wool ones don't hold onto odors much. I steam them occasionally and wash them rarely.

BTW, you should not dry clean most shirts, they should be laundered.


So how do you get the wrinkles out of a dress shirt (in order to wear it a second time) if I shouldn't iron it before washing it first and washing it that frequently isn't good. I wear cologne frequently, so I don't want the smell to get stuck in the collar area or sleeve area where I apply it.

Also, the no dry cleaning thing, any reason why? I always thought dry cleaning my dress shirts was the best way to preserve them. However, my local dry cleaner also has a "launder" option too where they launder them, press them, and starch them, should I use that from now on?
 

j

(stands for Jerk)
Admin
Spamminator Moderator
Joined
Feb 17, 2002
Messages
14,663
Reaction score
105
So how do you get the wrinkles out of a dress shirt (in order to wear it a second time) if I shouldn't iron it before washing it first and washing it that frequently isn't good. I wear cologne frequently, so I don't want the smell to get stuck in the collar area or sleeve area where I apply it.
If a shirt were really wrinkled I wouldn't wear it again, or I might wear it under a sweater or something. For lightly wrinkled shirts, you could try hanging it in the bathroom while you shower to steam it out a bit. Also if it had a cologne smell (or other smell) I wouldn't wear it again before cleaning it.

Also, the no dry cleaning thing, any reason why? I always thought dry cleaning my dress shirts was the best way to preserve them. However, my local dry cleaner also has a "launder" option too where they launder them, press them, and starch them, should I use that from now on?
I couldn't tell you the technical reasons why, I've just heard/read repeatedly that dry cleaning is not a good way to clean cotton items. The best thing for them is a wash in water with detergent and then being ironed while still damp (no starch). With this system (do a search for ironing techniques) my shirts come out very crisp and last a long time (usually, long enough for me to get bored of them or replace them for fit reasons). But keep in mind that I don't wear dress shirts all day at work, I wear them after work generally, so they will last longer generally.
 

wheelerray

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
157
Reaction score
0
I launder shirts every 2nd wearing, except in the winter when I wear tees underneath. I'll then go to every 3 or 4 wearings (10 hours per day).

More importantly, I hand wash my shirts, then hang-dry, & iron while damp (or dampen with spray bottle).

Pants I steam & reset crease after every wearing, then allow to hang for a day or 2. I dry clean only as needed to remove soil and stains very infrequently.

Sweaters maybe once per season (short season in CA).
 

Get Smart

Don't Crink
Joined
Oct 27, 2004
Messages
12,102
Reaction score
271
dry cleaning should preserve color better than washing, but all that chemical soaking will shorten the life of cotton, so I hear

I wash shirts after each wear (unless it was a quick 2 hour-less wear-age)

sweaters, trousers and suits, as they need it

jeans....washing? huh??? sacrilege
alien.gif
 

argoth

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
197
Reaction score
0
I have my shirts washed after every wearing, regardless. I have become rather lazy and have started having them picked up and dropped off by my local handwash dry cleaner weekly (oxymoron? sure... but what do you call a dry cleaner that launders your clothes?).

Trousers I tend to wear two or three times before sending them in, but very dependent on wear. I, being young and stupid, am rather hard on my clothes at times. I tend to duplicate colors and styles and rotate through them.

I usually wear sweaters over a dress shirt, so they only get taken in once or at most twice a season.

I always have everything cleaned before storing for the off season.

Arg
 

Artisan Fan

Suitsupply-sider
Joined
Jul 17, 2006
Messages
32,196
Reaction score
377
I wash my shirts and all basics after every wearing. I Dryel or dry clean some sweaters every 1-2 months depending on condition.

I generally avoid the dry cleaner as much as possible. Suits only see a cleaner every 1-2 years but get brushed after every wearing.

I usually get three wearings from dress trousers before a cleaning and I try a pressing if they are still in good shape.
 

Tomasso

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
4,067
Reaction score
19
Originally Posted by Artisan Fan
Suits only see a cleaner every 1-2 years

I usually get three wearings from dress trousers before a cleaning

How do suit trousers differ from odd trousers?
 

lurker

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
70
Reaction score
0
If you wash your clothes yourself, generally what is the best water temperature we should use? Any difference for cotton, polyester, stretchable stuff, etc?
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 60 38.7%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 11.0%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.4%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 18.1%

Forum statistics

Threads
505,164
Messages
10,579,132
Members
223,884
Latest member
chalky
Top