How long do you wear a pair of pants before you change?
 

I will wear a pair of jeans or slacks every day for about two weeks before I change them and wash them. I of course change them sooner if I spill something or they get extra dirty or sweaty or whatever.

How long do you go? I'm talking about jeans, slacks, cargo pants, regular everyday pants, not suit pants or anything requiring dry cleaning.

I wear my jeans once before washing... On rare occasions I will wear the same pair twice, usually if I forgot to do laundry.

I wear pants/skirts until they are dirty. If I've sweated profusely, or spilled something, into the laundry they go. Otherwise, they go back into rotation. I don't wear the same pair 2 days in a row; in the case of dress clothes, it may be a week or two before I reuse an article.

My general rule with laundry is, "If it don't stink, it ain't dirty."

I usually wear a pair of jeans at least twice before washing unless they get dirty or sweaty. Dress pants are usually once or twice before washing, usually my cat gets to them and sheds all over them before I have the chance to wear them a third time (mostly white calico + black pants = either washing or using a LOT of tape trying to de-fuzz).

Usually a week or so. I wear shirts/tees/sweaters/etc at least twice before washing. Once if it's summer and I sweated profusely.

Yep, that's pretty much the same with me, too. Of course I change my underwear and socks regularly, since those are dirty within minutes of putting them on... but my other clothes get a few wearings (if not several weeks, in the case of my jeans--and I'll wear those for several days in a row, too) before I wash them. I don't really sweat unless I'm working out, so I wash those clothes after every wearing (I also don't like the idea of creepy crawly bacteria on my skin, from the gym).

Sweaters and Pants usually get about a week or two of wear before washing unless dirty or smelly. I will usually have a couple of pairs on the go at once and switch them up.

T-shirts, socks & underwear get changed daily. I never wear a sweater against bare skin - always with a t-shirt.

I wear the same clothes until they are dirty. Because I live and work on a farm, three days is about max.

for jeans/cargo pants, it's usually a week. underwear/socks/tshirts every day.

Same here.

I change socks and underwear daily.

I change my pants every day.

My trousers I can wear for a week max, but often change after a day.

Yeah, same as most, I wear my jeans for about a week worth of wear before changing. Shirts, usually a day or two. Socks and undies are a one time and wash thing.

Until the pants are unclean, I will continue wearing them. This usually lasts around a week unless I've been busy with yardwork or other activities that produce dirt and sweat. Same with t-shirts. Socks and underwear are changed daily.

I wear pants 2 or 3 days before washing them. Shirts, socks and underwear gets changed daily.

I switch off between a pair of jeans (there are three pairs to choose from) and a pair of dark gray corduroy slacks, depending on which is appropriate for what job I'm doing. A pair of Adidas track pants also get into the rotation (they're my default babysitting pants). Both typically get worn several times before they go into the dirty laundry. I do laundry once a week, and the cords and whatever jeans I've dirtied get washed then.

My rabbit sheds too much to let me get by wearing the same anything two days without a wash.

It depends on the jeans. If I bought them to wear into them, I don't wash them for the first few months, but I only wear them maybe three times a week and never two days in a row. If they're regular jeans? I generally only wear them a few times before washing them, and again I don't wear them for two days in a row. Jeans have to be given a break or they'll wear out really quickly. Some people wash a pair of jeans twice a week, which seems like a waste of money to me.

I'm really surprised at how many wear something over and over before washing it. I wear it once, it's in the wash. If I happen to run out of pants, I might grab a pair of preworn jeans, but only if I'm not going someplace other than the local grocery, but even then the "ew factor" is strong.

Seeing as I don't ever wear pants about never. But for my shorts it's usually a week or so unless I do something pretty dirty in them. I'm at work most of the time, so the only time I'm wearing anything else but work clothes is minimal at best. Shirts are pretty much a one time use item as I'm a sweaty bastard, although I've warn a few a couple days in a row if I wear them for a minimal amount of time.

You want the jeans to wear to fit your legs and rear before it wears to fit the spin cycle. I can't imagine jeans getting too dirty in one day.

Jeans can be worn for many days without washing. It is hard to make them look lived in without living in them. Also you singled out suit pants, but if you buy wool suit pants, even lightweight wool you can wear days because wool does not trap odors like synthetics. Also, get a power steamer. I use a Saeco piccolo steamer and I can blast the wrinkles and dirt out of dry clean only suits and pants. Saves a lot in dry cleaning.
One more tip in a real pinch, if your undies are dirty, turn them inside out.

So the sargeant says to his troops in the field. "I have some good news and some bad news, the good news is you all get a change of socks and underwear. The bad news is Bill, you change with John. Frank, you change with Peter."

Yeah, I am a nothing-but-jeans guy, except during the hottest part of summer, and then I am mostly a jeans-shorts guy. I'll wear jeans for 7-10 before discarding to wash, provided I don't sweat excessively, or spill anything onto them, etc.

Everything else I usually change every day, although I'll rotate a shirt through 3 or 4 wearings before tossing in the wash, given the same provisos as the pants. On occasion, I'll recycle a pair of underwear if I'm short, but I usually try to be a little scrupulous about the stuff that hugs my more pungent areas....

I'm surprised. I thought I was going to be in the minority in re-wearing my clothes. Hey, getting to the laundromat is a pain in the ass. I say if it doesn't look dirty and doesn't smell dirty, it's not dirty.

I am apparently in the minority insofar as I will wear a pair of socks two days in a row if they're not disgusting. I think this is a sign that I need to buy more socks, actually, but I'm nothing if not stubborn.

I wear my shirts and pants until they're dirty or smelly. I rotate though my clothes, naturally. But I have no problem wearing a pair of pants, then wearing same pair the next day. I used to get shit about it from the girls at school all the time. But hey, durable clothes are not cheap. And my washer/dryer are tough on my clothes. I don't come from a wealthy family, and buy all my own stuff. Clothes are precious. heh.

Maybe I'm the only one that notices this, but, plain shirts (t-shirts or long-sleeved shirts) sure are expensive in Canada. Most stores in my area are about $25-$30 each! Because of this, whenever I can afford to, I travel to the states to get shirts ranging from $6 - $18 each. Yay!

I guess you could say I take enough care during the day wearing my clothes to not worry about how dirty or damaged they are by the end of the day.

In the winter I switch through a couple pairs through the week. Only because I'm short and my pant-bottoms are soaked by the end of the day, and have a nasty salt line running along them. The curse of the short legged. Haha.

Now, underwear and socks, I change daily.

A lot of my new shirts need to be handwashed as do my bras, so waiting to build up enough for a load isn't a problem anymore.

Sort of a side-note here, but this weekend, I was watching a movie from the 50's starring Sandra Dee, and her character was rich and complaining about her beau seeing her wear the same coat twice... oy vey. I'll never understand.

Ditto, though i usually only change trousers when they are dirty. Currently all my clothes have a nice covering of boot polishing thanks to me needing to bring mine up to standard, so i currently look very gothlike as i've decided to go in all black clothes to avoid doing some washing.

I'm down to half a pair of socks, so it looks like i'll probably have to get on it today.

THANK YOU!!!

You guys are gross!! I wear all of my clothes once before they go in the hamper. Some of my coworkers and family wear even work clothes 2-3 times before washing but I think this is gross. The only possible way I will wear something twice is if I only wore it for an hour or so the first time OR if I forgot to do laundry before work and I have to put a pair of pants in the dryer that are the cleanest I have in the bin. Even then I put a dryer sheet in with them and feel disgusting when I put them back on.

The "ew" factor is socially/culturally programmed into us, like so many other ideas of what's "clean" vs. "dirty." (There's a famous book by the anthropologist Mary Douglas on the topic, called "Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo.") E.g. try living in rural Africa for 2 months, with one pair of pants and no running water... laundry maybe once a week. Dirt was the least of my worries, in that situation.
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Forgive me if my memory is wrong, but aren't you also the one who is a bit anal about brushing your teeth? ;)

I vaguely remember something about thoroughly cleaning the toothbrush first in case of overnight fungal growth? :)

I tend to sweat more than your average Joe, so t-shirts and dress shirts get one full days' wear. If they've only been worn for a few hours, they get folded and put back in the cupboard. Jeans and trousers get the same treatment - if they don't look or smell dirty they're OK.

I don't have a big problem with wearing socks two days in a row either, but mandy freaks out when I do that. :p

Busted!@!!!!!

I don't get my pants that dirty over the span of a couple of wearings, so I really don't worry about it. I don't really sweat that much, nor do I do many things that would get my pants dirty. It's not as if I'm wearing smelly pants out and about. I don't wear my pants to the point that they start smelling; they go into the dirty laundry long before I reach that point. And once clothes go into the dirty laundry, they don't come back out. I don't fish clothes out of the dirty laundry. That's just ew.

If I am doing something that is going to get my clothes dirty, like cleaning the house, a pair of preworn jeans is certainly the order of the day. The clothes I wear get washed once a week. I believe that any more than that is a waste of resources--money, time, water, and electricity.

I have wear a different pair of pants each day but I only toss them in the wash every few weeks (unless I spill something on them). I change out of them as soon as I get home and put on shorts.

i wear them til they stink or look particularly filthy

You might want to see someone about this.

:crazy:

Like most of the population, my shirts, underwear and socks go into the wash after a single wearing - stuff like jeans and sweaters (not directly exposed to sweat glands, etc) get worn several times before getting washed.

You don't even want to know. Hell, I only change my underwear semi-annually.

What's wrong with cleaning a toothbrush?
I rinse mine out with steaming hot water for several seconds and give it a good shake. At work, I do that then dry it off before putting it back in its container.
Mine too get rarely dirty-maybe the occasional spaghetti sauce or gravy drip while cooking-but they get soft, bent up, wrinkled and I smoke.
Clothes to me should be like bedsheets, fresh smelling and crisp.

I rarely wear long pants. Where I live it's very humid and I go through a couple t-shirts a day, three if I hit the gym. Same with briefs. As for my cargo shorts or khakis I usually get at least one full day out of them before it's hamper time.

Since someone brought up tooth brushes... I rinse mine in hydrogen peroxide after each use.

Work in a food factory so have to change into uniform daily. So I wear jeans all week (to and from work) and track daks after I have a shower when I get home. (Those for a week too) as I am clean when they go on and only worn for 4 hrs or so . T shirts, jocks and socks changed daily.

You brush your teeth at work? What's up with that? :oogle:

t-shirts and shirts = 1 day (t-shirts maybe two if it doesnt smell too bad)
pants and jeans = a week if i havnt spilled or messed anything on it.
socks = 1 day i dont care if they still smell ok...thats just nasty.
undies = change every time i bath (that is even if i bath twice in one day...a new pair of undies is always needed and they have to be ironed. there's nothing like getting into a fresh smelling, ironed pair of undies :) )

the whole toothbrush thing, i rinse too before i brush...you never know what crawled over it during the night. and i really dont see what's so wrong with brushing your teeth at work ngdawg...i would if i could. :)

i wear my clothes until they evaporate off me.

You can wear underwear multiple times, just shake the shit out of them.
Socks and underwear do get changed every day, though. But there are times when I am getting up on a Saturday and going to ride the bike or do chores, so the old underwear gets slipped on. It's only for a few hours and then I will get cleaned up for the rest of the day.

Am I the only one who is fervently hoping you don't mean that literally?

I eat at work too. If I don't brush'em in the middle of the day, they get that icky feeling by evening and food causes stale mouth. Everyone should brush after they eat-food left between the teeth or on them can cause bad breath, cavities and gum problems.

One day while drinking a beer in a bar called "The Logger" I ended up in a conversation with a professional fisherman. I know irony. I'm not talking pro-bass type fisherman. I'm talking a "long liner." Don't think "A River Runs Through It" think 'A Perfect Storm." His brother was (is?) on the A&E series "The Deadliest Catch." He was pretty drunk and I asked him about his work and being out for days. Mainly I was thinking about my Navy days when he abruptly volunteered he could get four days minimum out of a pair of underwear. According to him first you turn them around, then inside out then around again. See no problem four days minimum.

I've made it a point to never wear my underwear more then 24 hours since that conversation. I'm also more likely to excuse myself to take a leak more quickly when speaking with people I don't know.

On a long family vacation consisting of three weeks of touring the United States by train, someone complained about being out of clean underwear and needing to do laundry. My dad said to just turn them inside out and wear 'em again. WHAT? Ew! Dad said, "That's what I do." Double EW!

We still rib him about turning his underwear inside out.

i wear my jeans ONCE, before washing them.

I wash clothes 1 a week, and i Hang dry my clothes, except for socks, underwear.

I iron all my shirts, and pants before I wear them. no exceptions!

If i was to wear the same pair of jeans the next day and try to iron them, the knee part bubbles up from the day before, and then they are harder to iron. So once, and then in the hamper they go.

I am also shocked that people wear them more than once. I feel like everyone is looking at me like I have OCD or something. haha.

Same. I'm in Texas. You don't wear clothes more than twice. Ever.

The exception is when you are camping or hunting. Or surviving a hurricane that wiped your house off the map.

I'm amazed at all the ironing going on... right down to the undies, in Mandy's case! :D I must say that I have ironed maybe one article of clothing in the last 18 months in Iceland... a dress shirt, for a conference presentation. Otherwise, I do not iron. When I was teaching high school, I had to iron my clothes every day, but damn that got annoying. I do it when I absolultely have to--but not right now. :)

I have one pair of long slacks and a guayabera (traditional Yucatan style white) shirt for more formal events. I iron them. I was going to iron them for a double wedding this past Sunday but was told most people would be wearing shorts and button down shirts. So I went in a Hawaiian style shirt covered in parrots and a pair of khaki style shorts. Of course once I got there everyone else was wearing long pants and guayaberas. I grabbed the host by the arm and asked "Hmm, you said shorts?" To which he replied "Well it's kinda cold tonight." Ya it was cold, think it dipped down to 75F that evening. I'll be ironing the next time I'm invited to any weddings.

i would wear a pair of jeans/pants for about a week before washing unless of course they have dirt or sweat on them. i won't wear the same pair twice in a row though. i like to rotate so it looks like i'm not THAT slobby :)

I'll just wear jeans one day if I'm wearing them at work. On the weekend, I'll often wear them both days if I haven't done something very sweat-inducing the first day. Same with shirts.

I'm surprised by this thread. Like others, I thought most people wear once and wash, which is what I do. Now that I think of it though, I suppose I am being fairly wasteful by washing jeans that are likely perfectly fine to wear again. The electricity, water, detergent, time and effort that goes into washing garments that don't need it I'd suppose would really add up in short time.

Yup. They really aren't dirty, at least not within a day or two (assuming you havent' spilled anything on them, ran a marathon, etc). It's cultural perception that creates the need for such a strict definition of clean vs. dirty, in this case.

Hmmm...not only do most TFPers have dirty minds, most of them also wear dirty clothes :lol:.


Assuming that I wear the article of clothing all day:

Shirts--Unless I wore a t-shirt under it, usually get washed after one wearing (Houston humidity). I might go two wearings if I did nothing but sit around the air-conditioned house, or I plan to wear it for yardwork.

Jeans--Two wearings because they relax & get too baggy. I might go three wearings, but only if the third involves yardwork or something similar.

Dress pants--Three to four wearings, unless I get them dirty. It also depends on the color & the fabric.

Underwear & socks--Everyday, except maybe if I going to do yardwork or something similar.

At my job we have uniforms for work so whatever I wear into work is taken off about 5 minutes after walking in the door, then put back on after work and a shower so I can get 2 weeks EASY out of a pair of pants or shorts, just depends on what I do after work, many times I have some beat up old shorts or pants I kick around the house in so I might even change into those after work making the clothes I put on before work last even longer.

Well it depends on the environment I am in.

I spend most of my time in Mainland China. Some cities tend to be cleaner than others and my trouseres (usually sportswear) hardly gets dirty. In those cities I changed my pants every 2 weeks. But in those highly polluted cities, where I never dare to wear light-colored pants, in 2-3 days I find my dark pants covered with dusts that I have to change them.

I have a dryer that gets all the wrinkles out for me. I just have to be quick about hanging them up before they get wrinkly from sitting around too long. I haven't ironed a piece of clothing in three years, and I try to avoid it at all possible costs. Even when I go to my parents' for Thanksgiving next weekend, I'll ask my mom to iron whatever needs ironing (as it's bound to get a bit wrinkled stuffed into a backpack on the way up there). I hate, hate, hate ironing.

I used to throw everything in the hamper when I took it off.

Now, I wear pants or jeans twice. Tops, shirts, tees, only once.

Ironing? :cringe: Only when absolutely necessary.

i will iron a shirt occaosionally, if it is REALLY wrinkly. that's about all the ironing i do.

My wife expects my shirts when we go out anywhere to be ironed. I disappoint her in that regard quite often.

Go to dinner = shave and iron the shirt
Go to Lowes = stubble and t-shirt

Yeah, I'm not ironing another to go to Lowes.

i haven't ironed a shirt or a pair of slacks since i got out from under the umbrella of uncle sam. wash and wear shirts, if they're of any decent quality, do not wrinkle if washed properly. slacks - same way, unless they're the dry-clean kind. underwear? one pair a day, max...

When I worked in a kitchen, the chef jackets were provided but the pants were not. I had two chef pants and I wore each 3 days. I washed them on Sunday. Pants/shorts got 2-3 days as I smoke a lot and they get that smell or beer/smoke I have to change them. Now I work in blue jeans and polos so I change the polos everyday (I have 5, I rotate them) but the pants I try to get 2-3 days out of if I don't go to the bar both days. Most of my jeans have holes in them so my boss doesn't like it when I wear those around customers, so I'm limited on "nice" jeans. When I'm home I'm sitting in a hoodie and sweat pants, those get washed maybe every two weeks.

Jeans/pants usually get worn several times with some time off hanging in the closet between wearings. Skirts likewise. Tops (blouses, tee-shirts light cotton shirts) not more than once or twice. Sweaters, suits jackets (anything that gets dry-cleaned) also several times. Panties, socks (my feet sweat) only once. Bras once or twice.
I always give anything a sniff before putting it on. If it has any kind of off-odor, I don't wear it.
If I've been out to a place with a lot of cigarette smoke, those clothes always go directly to the laundry room, I don't want them in my closet or hamper.:no:
I also carefully hang my bathtowels so that they can dry out/air out, and use them several times. My Mom taught me that we should wear things out by WEARING them, not by WASHING them.

I'm on the road now, alone in the car. I'll probably wear the same jeans and a couple of shirts for the four days it takes to drive from Boston to Western Kansas.:)

Lindy

I love the fresh smell of anything dried on the clothesline outdoors.:thumbsup: But I can't imagine doing any more ironing than I absolutely have to.

I seem to be with the rest of you. Pants are usually worn a couple of times before they get washed unless they get something spilled, obviously dirty, etc. Shirts, socks, underwear are changed daily. I sweat too much to wear shirts more than once, unless they are just being worn around the house in the A/C. Socks/Undies get changed after showering, whether that is once, twice, or three times a day..usually it's just once.

Jeans don't need to be washed unless they don't smell fresh or start to get baggy around the knees. Shirts can be worn twice with an undershirt if they don't get dirty or sweaty. Pants can go about three wearings if they're ironed and don't get dirty. T shirts once or twice. Socks and underwear are worn once and washed (anything else is unsanitary and smells terrible.) suits and formalwear can be aired and steamed then brushed between wearings and never need to be cleaned.

That's what I do and is pretty much the same as the Esquire Big Black Book of Style guidelines. Most of you are destroying your clothes by overwashing, especially your jeans, and it wouldn't hurt for a few of you to be checked for OCD.

Yup, I can be quite dirty. On weekends, sometimes I'll only shower once (out of two days) if all I do is sit around.
On weekdays, I walk quite a bit and change my shirt daily.
My pants get about a week's use, sometimes a little more.

I once wore the same pair of socks for a week. :O

Thanks to the responses in this thread, I'm now up to 2-3 days for pants and shorts! It helps out alot with the fact that I only have 3 pair of pants that I can wear to work. Now I can wear my two good pair of pants to work M-F and 5 shirts (Got to change those). Less laundry. Thanks TFP.

neat freaks, prepare to cringe.

i dont wear underwear.

these pants have been hugging my legs for a clean 3 months.

*bows*