How Often Should You Wash Your Clothes?

It’s important to take care of your clothes. Part of taking care of your clothes is washing them or getting them professionally cleaned.

But how often should we clean our clothes (either washed or dry cleaned)?

Well, the answer is not one-size-fits-all.

It depends on a myriad of different factors, like how often you wear the item in question, in what environment you wear it, what the weather/climate is, and what material the item is made of.

The reason this is important is because many men spend a lot of time and money cleaning their clothes when they don’t need to.

Let’s break this down by frequency…

#1 – Wash after every single wear.

Underwear. Socks. Undershirts. T-shirts used for working out. Gym shorts (or any other exercise garment). Anything visibly dirty.

You knew that already (or at least I hope you did).

Anything that sits directly against your skin should be washed after ever single wear. There is some wiggle room when it comes to dress shirts (worn sans undershirt) if you’re just sitting in an office chair all day and not exerting yourself much. But, really, it’s good to launder them after each wear to get any sweat or deodorant off them.

I sometimes will just hang up my oxford shirts and wear them a couple times in a row. But that’s usually only in the winter when I am not getting sweaty during the day. But, to be on the safe side, dress shirts fall into this category.

This category is the easiest since it should be obvious to wash things like your undergarments after each wear.

These are the pieces that don’t need those delicate wash settings. Hot or warm water (you don’t need as much detergent as you think) and a normal dryer setting should be fine.

#2 – Wash every handful of times worn.

I know some people will be creeped out by the fact that I am telling you that it’s ok to NOT wash certain clothes all that often. But, in reality, most of our clothes are totally fine going a few wears without being cleaned.

If you’re not getting actually dirty and you aren’t doing anything to get sweaty then why would you need to wash everything every time you wear it?

I already mentioned oxford shirts. They can go a couple wears without needing a wash, especially when it’s cold out. Also, OCBDs and dress shirts are often worn in combination with undershirts which means they aren’t sitting directly against your skin. Totally fine to go a few wears without washing them provided you’re wearing an undershirt and it’s not the dead of summer. Otherwise, they belong in the first category.

Same with things like flannel shirts and cotton sweaters. They’re worn over other shirts and as long as they aren’t getting dirty, they can be folded up and put back in the closet, or tossed over a hanger to air out if needed.

Pants don’t need to be washed every time either. I know they sit against your skin for the most part, but jeans and chinos can be hung up between wears and still be fine the next time you reach for them.

If the item is cotton, it can definitely go in the washing machine (and dryer!). Those things do not need to be dry cleaned.

But please, oh please, do not put your jeans in the freezer! I’ve heard that ridiculous advice too many times to count and it’s one of the stupidest things in menswear. I’ll probably write an article about it at some point soon.

#3 – Hardly ever needs to be washed.

These are the items that, really, hardly EVER need to be cleaned outside of extenuating circumstances.

Sport coats. Wool sweaters. Coats. I can’t even recall the last time I got any of these items of mine cleaned. Especially my sport coats. I have a handful of tweed jackets and it may be five years since they’ve been dry cleaned.

And yes, I said “dry cleaned” as your wool items shouldn’t be placed in a washing machine. That’s obvious for something like a sport coat, but make sure you don’t put any wool sweaters in there either.

Now, I don’t wear my sport coats every single day, but I wear them regularly enough. But they’re practically outerwear. They are so far away from my body when I’m wearing them (separated by, at the very least, by something like an oxford shirt and undershirt and sometimes a sweater!) that they don’t pick up any sweat or body odor over time. I’m also not rolling around on the ground in them. So, how dirty can they possibly get?

For my wool sweaters, I just hang them up at the end of the day. After many wears, I’ll fold them up with a dryer sheet and that makes them smell good again.

What about suits?

Suits, in my opinion, straddle the line between this category and the previous one. Considering suits are usually a thinner wool than something like a robust tweed sport coat, they tend to look a bit more rumpled if worn more than a few times in a row. In those cases, especially if you live in a warm-weather place, it’s best to get your suits cleaned after a few wears when they start to look a little shabby.

For me, though, I don’t wear my suits every day and I live in a place where it doesn’t get very hot. I can hang up my suits after each wear and the creases will fall out pretty reliably. The next time I reach for the suit, it looks fairly pristine.

There is also the need for suits to look crisp for things like interviews and important meetings. Tweed jackets and wool sweaters don’t require that level of polish, so it doesn’t really matter if they’re a little worn-in looking. For that reason, suits should be cleaned as often as necessary to maintain their appearance.

That all said, I personally don’t get my suits dry cleaned all that often. But the level of frequency is a bit more than my sport coats and sweaters.

It might seem trivial to talk about how often to clean your clothes, but the way we take care of our clothes has a knock-on effect on the rest of our lives.

If you clean your clothes too much, you’re spending time doing the laundry, ironing, or going to the dry cleaners. If you’re getting your clothes dry cleaned, that costs a good bit of money.

Your time and money are important and they need to be allocated wisely, like toward your family. You might think that you’re doing just that because you care about your appearance and want to represent your family well with what you put on. That’s a great thing, no doubt! But if you’re cleaning your clothes too much, your time and money are going in the wrong direction.