Unless doing laundry is your favorite hobby, we thought sharing tips on how to lighten your laundry load while conserving water and energy would be helpful this week.
Although we wouldn’t have a viable business if not for the thousands of items you allow us to clean each day, we want to help you maintain the quality and integrity of your clothing. We also want to encourage you to help our environment by reducing your water and energy consumption.
A good rule of thumb when determining how “dirty” the clothing is after wearing is divide clothes into two categories: Items that have direct contact with skin and items that don’t.
The first category, items close to the body (such as underwear, hosiery, work out clothes, swimwear, T-Shirts, tanks, camisoles, and some tops and dresses that are in close contact with the underarm area), should be washed after every wear. Bras don’t come into direct contact with the underarms so they can last 3 to 4 wears if you rotate them so they have a 24 hour break between wearings.
The second category could have some variables such as dirt or staining incurred from wearing, in which case you would wash after that wearing. But, to keep it simple, here’s a rough guideline on how often you should wash particular clothing items, assuming no visible stains or soiling.
JEANS: Denim is one of the most durable materials and gets better with wear. Washing too often (heat, water, detergents) can make your new jeans look old quickly. Jeans can be worn 4 to 5 times before they need a wash.
DRESS PANTS/SLACKS/ SKIRTS: If you work indoors in a clean, air conditioned environment, you can get away with wearing them 2 to 3 times, bearing you haven’t spilled anything on them. To help them last longer, change out of them as soon as possible when you get home and hang them up immediately to allow the wrinkles to fall.
SUITS, JACKETS & BLAZERS: These items don’t require much upkeep since typically you wear a dress shirt, blouse or T shirt under them. Check the areas that contact the skin such as collars, sleeves and elbows and spot clean them if necessary. Unless there is a visible stain, Jackets can usually be worn 4 to 5 times. Always dry clean your suit jacket and slacks together each time to prevent uneven fading.
SWEATERS: If you wear another garment under the sweater, you can usually wear it a few times before it needs washing. If you wear it close to your body, you should expect to clean it after one to two wearings.
SLEEPWEAR: Even if you shower before bed, we all sweat at night. We also shed skin cells so we recommend washing your PJs after 2 to 3 wearings.
Being in the cleaning business, we love fresh, clean, crisp clothes and we love helping you look your best in them. But, over washing your clothing wastes water, energy and money while shortening the life of your clothes.
Check our Promotions page regularly to take advantage of future Limited Time Offers on shirts, blouses, knits, pants, shorts, etc.
If your items go straight into the laundry basket after every wear, we can still lighten your load with our Wash, Dry, Fold Service. We’ll pick up your items, wash, fold & return them in a reusable box. Each box you return to us, we’ll take a $1.00 your next Wash, Dry Fold Order.
– S.O.
