Poll: do you wash new clothes before wearing?

[dwest]

We wash all new clothes, socks included, except waxed, gore-tex, evening gowns, and tuxes.

[fearfaoin]

Thanks guys. I'm going to have a hard time
trying on pants now. Funny story, the lice
that dogs get are a different species than
the lice which we call crabs. This has put
my wife in the awkward spot of telling a
veterinary client that her husband's claim
that his crabs came from the family dog
was not based in fact. Now she has another
alternative to offer the next irate client in
that situation...

[s1m0n]

Clothes, no. Dishes, yes.

[emmline]

Cain't buy jeans without trying them on. Going to have to risk it.

[dwest]

Cain't buy jeans without trying them on. Going to have to risk it.

I order mine, wash them and then try them on. If they fit great, if they don't, I charge the cleaning fee, time and materials, to the catalogue when I return them.

[Denny]

Cain't buy jeans without trying them on. Going to have to risk it.

been doin' fine with it fer 40 years...

I did add an inch to the waist somewhere about 15-20 years back.

(I've been mail order most of my life)

[Innocent Bystander]

My parents kept a Drapers Shop in Ireland. I used to sell jeans, bib & brace, singlets, simmets, undershirts, dress shirts, work shirts, socks, you name it.

People would sometimes don a garment (not an undergarment) before leaving the shop. Wash it? nope. If they returned a garment, sometimes we would wash it.

And I tell you, none of our hosiery, garments or undergarments ever had crabs or offensive smells. Hmmph! Dirty people, there, by the sound of it!

[brewerpaul]

I order mine, wash them and then try them on. If they fit great, if they don't, I charge the cleaning fee, time and materials, to the catalogue when I return them.

And they pay it??

A little formaldehyde is good for you: it is a preservative, after all...
My wife washes everything she buys: I'm about 50/50. I know it's odd, but I LOVE the feel of brand new jeans, and they only feel that way once, so I enjoy it. I usually wash intimate apparel (aka underpants) before wearing.

[SteveShaw]

I know it's odd, but I LOVE the feel of brand new jeans, and they only feel that way once, so I enjoy it.

It's not odd. It's normal. I'm sitting here hoping against hope that the thousands of members of this board who are not posting to this thread are just as aghast as I am at the sheer, er, (struggles for word that won't offend psychologists...) strangeness of the people who wash brand-new clothes before wearing them. I have never met anyone this end who does this kind of thing, not that I always ask of course, but I just know they don't...Weird, peculiar, odd, downright eccentric...

I usually wash intimate apparel (aka underpants) before wearing.

Be rational. The Chinese guy who packed your new undies in their multipack polybag almost certainly didn't try 'em on first, and even if he did he almost certainly wasn't suffering from some vile transmissible pox, and even if he was the germs would be long-dead before they got to you. And if you worry (entirely needlessly) about whether someone has tried on the jeans you've just bought, just buy from Marks and Spencer in future. Everyone who shops there is the same as me - they've always had a good shower before shopping, are wearing clean boxer shorts fresh on that morning (down girls) and have bathroom cabinets full of potions just in case they think they might contract boils/verrucas/crabs/fleas/leprosy/ringworm/scabies. Live a little, launder less and save the planet. Those detergents will do you ten times more harm than any stray skin flake!

[jsluder]

I'm sitting here hoping against hope that the thousands of members of this board who are not posting to this thread are just as aghast as I am at the sheer, er, (struggles for word that won't offend psychologists...) strangeness of the people who wash brand-new clothes before wearing them. I have never met anyone this end who does this kind of thing, not that I always ask of course, but I just know they don't...Weird, peculiar, odd, downright eccentric...

I wash new clothes before wearing them, but not because I'm afraid of catching some disease or parasite. I just don't like that "new clothes" smell. (I don't like a "new car" smell, either.)

[SteveShaw]

Buy reputable brands. I do and I have no idea what a new-clothes smell is. A faint, ephemeral whiff of wrapper maybe.

[Seonachan]

[I'm sitting here hoping against hope that the thousands of members of this board who are not posting to this thread are just as aghast as I am at the sheer, er, (struggles for word that won't offend psychologists...) strangeness of the people who wash brand-new clothes before wearing them. I have never met anyone this end who does this kind of thing, not that I always ask of course, but I just know they don't...Weird, peculiar, odd, downright eccentric...

Most clothes now are treated with formaldehyde to keep them from skunking in transit halfway around the world. Aside from it being a carcinogen (and much nastier than either skin flakes or laundry detergent), it causes many people, especially young children, to break out in a rash if they wear unlaundered new clothes. It never occurred to me to wash new clothes until I started breaking out every time I put on something new. And I can tell you it's no fun to try to soothe a baby who's turned all red and itchy from a soft new blanket. I personally find it much more weird, peculiar, odd, downright eccentric . . . to willingly give myself a rash than to wash my new clothes. But that's just me.

[jsluder]

Buy reputable brands.

Golly, I never thought of that! Thanks Steve!

I'd probably think your reputable-brand new clothes stink, too. Especially after you've tried them on.

[BillChin]

What prompted the poll was a post about a Good Morning America segment from
http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-do-yo ... iref=spotl

>>

Of the 14 new items tested for germs, their impartial NYU microbiologist found an alarming number of respiratory secretions and skin and fecal flora (germs) on shirts and jackets. I ask you, how does poop get on a shirt?

... more at the link >>

Now some replies to that report retort that there is dirt and poop all around (cell phones and desk phones are among the worst germ/dirt hosts), but for some folks it is a bit much.

The stereotype would be a low percentage of Europeans washing new clothes, and a high percentage of Japanese washing, and Americans in between. The anecdotal from the replies is in line with the stereotypes.

[SteveShaw]

http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/medi ... maldehyde/
and
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/fact ... rmaldehyde (shows that you'd probably have to soak in a bathtub full of it every day to risk cancer from it)

Stop worrying!