Not-really-dirty clothes

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At home, I wear sweatpants and baggy t-shirts; they go on a hook behind the door when I take them off to go to bed, or into the laundry basket if I'm done with them.

Clothes I wear when I leave the house (only happens maybe once or twice a week) go on a clothes rack the previous tenant to my flat left here. If I didn't have that, I'd probably just dump them on the floor...

Jeans, jackets, jumpers get worn multiple times; t-shirts usually only once (maybe twice if I'm only quickly popping out to the shops the second time).

The idea of putting clothes I've worn back into the cupboard seems really very wrong to me, and always has done, even before I got so OCD.

I do tend to wear the same clothes a lot. I wash them a lot in between too, but as people don't see that, I do sometimes wonder if they think I never wash my stuff...

I don't have a dryer, so when things come out of the wash, they get hung up on a dedicated clothes rack to dry. Newer clothes, that are only worn when I go out, get hung on the end of that rack, if I've only been out running errands for an hour or so. It seems wasteful to throw something clean and relatively new back into the wash, where the agitation is just going to wear it out prematurely. It's not like I was out sweating in it for 8 hours or more.

Things I wear around the house may be worn daily for the better part of a week, before they go back in the laundry, but again, I'm not doing anything to get them dirty, unless I spill food on them. Those go on the valet in the bedroom when they're not in use.

I cannot abide people throwing clothes (or anything else) on the floor. I will not live in that kind of slovenly squalor.

I have a large Ottoman. I throw my stuff on that. I try to put my suit jacket on a hanger, but some days I'm just do tired I throw it on the Ottoman, too. I always wash underwear after one wearing, but pants and shirts are a different story. I have a sedentary job so there is not reason to wash clothes that have no odor to them.

i'm pretty inconsistent about this lately i just wear clothes until they are dirty and sometimes a bit beyond that. maybe i'm too lazy to wash them or i just don't feel like it. i've been having alot of trouble making it to the shower at least every 3 days, so i'm really messy and dirty right now

before i was a neat freak and once something is worn it is considered dirty and goes in the dirty clothes bin.

I just wear them again until I have a shower. Then I leave them somewhere before they get washed.

I usually wear my trousers and shirts two or three days when they aren´t dirty or smell. Then I wash them. When I want to wear the clothes of the former day again I keep them on a cupboard in the bathroom in the evening when I change my clothes to sleep.

I keep re-wearing my "not really dirty" clothes until they become dirty, and then I put them in the laundry. I can wear the same shirt and pants for three or four days in a row, but I would feel weird wearing something one day, wearing something else the next day, and going back to the first thing on the third day; it would feel "contaminated" in a way only my OCD-leaning brain understands.

If I've even put something on I have a hard time not considering it dirty.

For example, if I put on a shirt backward and it's all uncomfortable, I'll take it off and it still feels dirty, or if I have to take socks off for even a moment I don't like to put them back on. If I wake up in the morning and I have a clean right sock and all of my left socks are dirty except I wore one for three minutes to go check the mail yesterday it's still hard for me to not consider that one dirty, so I'll be really upset that that's the sock I have to wear that day.

I used to wear jeans once and then wash them. They would wear out really quickly and then I'd have to buy new ones. Then I read that most jeans manufacturers don't recommend washing jeans anyway. I stopped washing them more than once a month(although would still switch pairs daily). I would just hang up the pair I'd worn, instead of putting it in the hamper. Then one time I had to travel and I could only fit two pairs of jeans in my travel bag. And I accidentally washed one of them on high and it shrunk, making it no longer fit, so I only had one pair of jeans, and I had to wear it for a month. It fit better and was comfortable. So I no longer feel that jeans have to be washed so frequently. As long as things aren't spilled on them, jeans can be worn multiple times and still not cause that concern for me.

I do that thing where I might put in on for a minute and then take if off and can't put it back on with underwear.

Do all your socks have a designated left and right?

I have found that the secret to jeans is to wash in cold and hang dry. I wash all our clothes in cold with Charlie's Laundry Soap and they do really well and last a very long time.

Like many others, I have my own OCD system for dealing with worn clothes

Underwear and t-shirts and socks (anything that touches body skin directly): wear clean daily then in the dirty clothes bin once off
Most of the tops fall under the above category except winter jumpers which are worn over 2 layers and can therefore be worn more than once before being washed

Skirts and jeans can be worn a few times before being washed but they can't go back into the cupboard unless they've been outside, 'airing' for a couple of days and only if they've been worn only once or twice before that could they Maybe go back in the cupboard. But mostly they stay outside on the radiator rack.

Jackets can be worn more than once in winter when they are worn over other layers. In spring and summer when they are worn just over a t shirt or another thin top I find that the sweat gets on them and I can't stand the smell so very often they have to be washed after one wearing.

Usually stuff is not allowed on the floor, except in the bathroom where it is acceptable to leave dirty clothes on the floor while having a shower but then it needs to go into the dirty clothes bin. Sometimes I get distracted and forget to do this and then feel horrible when I walk into the bathroom and find it on the floor. ugh.

I voted "other" because it's a combination of things:

I have just a few sets of clothes for work, and I am part-time, so I will keep the same set for several days (sometimes up to a week if they're not too awful). They get hung in one section of my closet (the far end) away from the clean stuff, with the stuff I wear in the house (I want OUT of my work clothes as quickly as possible when I get home!) as a "buffer" zone.

I was surprised (pleasantly so) to see that I'm not the only one who does this.

One exception: underwear and socks get changed every day.

I only buy crew socks. Never tube socks, because tube socks would bunch up where the tops of my feet meet the fronts of my legs.

My pinky toes don't stick out anywhere near as long as my big toes, so unless a sock is designed perfectly left:right symmetrical it is going to fit better by default on either my left or right foot.

Even if a sock is perfectly left:right symmetrical, it will not fit correctly. The heel will bunch up on the inside edge of my heel, and there will be unfilled space above my pinky toes. That unfilled space will mean that there's loose sock material which bunches up in my shoe.

The tops of the socks have to cover my ankle and not be below or significantly above.

And I should also mention the seam where the toes are. I will only buy certain brands of socks where that is very small or non-existent.

If they're not just right, any of these things can be unbearable.

Most new socks seem to naturally stretch a little to fit either foot, but once they've been made to fit one foot they can't be worn on the other foot, because it would create a notch of empty sock at the pinky toe where the big toe for the other foot was when the sock was on the other foot, and that would drive me insane.

Basically, I only keep pairs of socks if each has a left, if each has a right, and if they're not causing horrible sensory issues.

I have to add that, definitely, underwear is on clean every day and put in the laundry hamper after wearing. Socks also -- for me there's no second-time go-around allowed for socks or underwear, strict rule.

But other clothing can stand two wearings before washing -- and I agree with the jeans comments that they can go around more times, and actually hurt more from vigorous or frequent washings.

I wash my jeans on short cycle, cold wash, and hang-dry them, but still they can show the wear and tear sooner if they are washed after one wearing all the time, so I'm easing back on jeans washing. The only ones I like best I have to buy from overseas! Want to preserve them carefully.

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hahaha same here!! ! Every single one of my GF's hated how I left dirty clothes on the floor until it was time to clean them. I think we aspies underestimate the power of scent... it doesn't matter if you've worn it one day or two days and it still smells and looks clean... to the keen stranger's nose, he will pick it up.

How do we want people to remember us? As the stinky/unpleasant smelling person to be around or as the clean-cut, self-reliant type who always smells clean and is just fine to be close to (while working, shopping, having a small convo, etc...) even if you just stand near people for 1 minute in your whole day it is worth the effort to leave them with a good impression. I think we close ourselves off from a lot of opportunities by not paying more attention to how we smell...

....now all I need to do is convince myself of this lol

I went with put them on the floor...as I will usually just throw clothes I can wear again on the floor for the next day...though sometimes I throw them in my laundary basket like on top of the dirty clothes.