Each one of us has a difference preference when it comes to doing our laundry. Some of us would prefer to do our laundry daily or once every two days. Some would accumulate their dirty clothings (and underwear) for about a week or more and then wash them all at one go.
Personally, I wash my clothes on a daily basis. But I have friends who generally prefer to accumulate and do their laundry on a weekly basis. Let us look washing clothes daily vs weekly.
Washing your clothes daily
1. Reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by piles and the stench of dirty clothings
There are things in life that is out of one’s control (such as the weather and other people’s responses) and there are things that are within our control. Piles of dirty clothings that sit somewhere in our home would serve as a constant reminder of unfinished task.
If you are responsible for the laundry of others…. you need not wait for a week. In just two or three days the pile would become really noticable.
2. Dirty clothings attract bugs and would make the room smell
If you always keep the laundry basket with dirty clothings at a particular place, after a while when you happened to pass the area at night you may find to your surprise cockroaches and bugs jumping out of the basket.
Roaches and bugs are just attracted to anything that smells. If you want to reduce that, the best way is not to allow a pile of dirty clothings to accumulate and fester.
3. The longer you keep the dirty clothing, the harder for the stain to come off
The longer you do not wash dirty or stained clothings, the harder it may be to get the stains off. If you stack sweaty clothes in a pile without ventilation, black molds may develop over clothings which is hard to clean off.
4. Hard to adopt a total minimalist lifestyle if you wash your clothes weekly
I am able to keep my clothings to a minimum because I wash my clothes almost daily. The lesser clothings you have, the more often you would need to wash your clothes…. unless you don’t mind going around smelling bad.
If you wash your clothes daily, basically you only need to have enough clothings to last you for 3 or 4 days with some clothes for special occasions. Whereas if you tend to accumulate to about a week or more, you would need to have more clothes.
Washing clothes weekly
1. For career persons who have no time to do their laundry
In the past when I had a demanding job, I too did my laundry weekly. By nature I am not a morning person so I would not wake up earlier to purposely do my laundry. If I wash at night I find that sometimes the clothes smell musty when they are not hang under the sun immediately.
Therefore, I understand that not everyone could afford the time to do it daily. Sometimes, one may even outsource laundry altogether.
2. Save money and time
If you are washing your clothes daily but using a washing machine, your electric, water bill and machine wear and tear would increase. A friend of mine has a 15kg capacity washing machine at home. She does not like the laundry to pile up- hence each day she would just throw in a few pieces of her work clothes in the huge washing machine.
It may be more cost effective to save to have a sufficient load of clothes before washing in the machine for most people. If you are doing only your own laundry for one person, it takes time to accumulate into a load before washing.
From my observation, the reason my friends do their laundry once a week is to save time and they prefer to accumulate to a full load before washing.
3. For those who do dislike doing laundry
Some of you out there just hate to do the laundry. So it makes sense to minimize the repetition of a much disliked task. Still, life goes on and we need to wear clean clothing so it is probably bearable to just do this task once a week. Totally understandable.
Conclusion:
In the end, it is down to our personal preference. Each way has its pros and cons and we may choose one way at different point of our lives. Most important is do not neglect the washing and cleaning as too much of accumulated dirty clothings can get overwhelming and also the smell of it is no good for the vibe of the room. Avoid putting dirty clothes that need to be washed in your bedroom where it is a room for you to destress and rest.