apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

LOL. Doesn't everyone?

Sniffing clothes? Yes, ma'am! Although my grandmother would roll over in her grave if she knew, the bottom line is that I live in an apartment without a washer and dryer; I have to either cart (and pay for) my laundry up and down four flights of stairs, or hit a laundromat. Neither of these things do I like doing - I'm a business woman and my schedule's much too busy to do this eighteen times a week.

My clothes schedule is normally like this:

1. Towels get reused until they smell funny (up to 7 times!)
2. Sheets get changed every two weeks, pillowcases every week.
3. Undies are used once (duh) and thrown in liberally if/when I do a load of darks.
4. Jeans are used until they're either muddy or stiff.
5. T-shirts can be reworn two or three times easily.
6. Dress shirts can usually be worn four or five times without an issue.
7. Bras get a 7-10 day treatment. I buy durable bras, so this isn't an issue.
8. Dress pants usually can only be worn twice before needing a wash.
9. Table linens - if it's dirty, toss it in.
10. Socks can only be worn once, unless they were only worn around the house for a day or something.
11. Robes can be worn and worn and worn until the kitties have either fuzzied them to death or I spill something on them or they, too, get stiff.
12. Curtains and rugs get taken outside and given a firm beating to get rid of the dust. If the curtains or rug are too heavily soiled, I'll dump them into the wash.

Since all of my work slacks are dry clean and they are the majority of what I wear, I don't do much laundry (I also don't dry clean them, I just brush them down and hang them to air). I do a load of under clothing, gym clothes, socks and whatever else to make a full load every week and everything else in about four loads once a month-ish.

To keep them nice, work clothes get hung up right after I get home and only get washed if I spiled something on them. Since I wear camisols all the time, this includes tops. Towels get re-used until they smell funny or I think about it, which isn't often since damp isn't really an issue in California (I figure I'm clean when I use it, why shouldn't I re-use it?). Sheets get a similar treatment, although pillow cases get washed weekly.

Having tons of the single use stuff helps a lot.

During the rule of the ottoman empire, textiles were woven with precious metals, and the fabrics were burnt periodically to recover the gold and silver.

When did we start compulsively washing things? I know it had something to do with associating cleanliness with better health, but come on! Hasn't the pendulum swung the other direction? All this anti-bacterial soap is making us sick and weak.

I am not a hippie. I am not a hippie. I am not a hippie.

My towels get reused by the hubby, or I, until they don't smell nice and fresh. That takes a bit, but we hang them to dry in between use.

I have a small trunk in my bedroom. I wear clothes once, then fold them up, and place them on top the trunk. That way I know they aren't clean, like laundry clean. Then I rotate other clothes on and off the trunk pile. After a couple of wearings, I toss the trunk clothes into the wash. I don't really do much that would get me dirty, so this isn't a problem.

I think one possible solution here is to reduce laundries, this is like the dishes, if you have many of them you wash them, I don't have many laundries and we are two as well, we only load our washing machine once a week and it's enough for us. Also, until we get that brand new washer I saw at Frigidaire parts we have to be cautious with the energy and water consume.