Recently, I’ve received quite a few questions about what I do with half-dirty clothes — you know, the shirt you wear for part of the day and although it isn’t really “dirty”, it’s also not clean enough to put back in the closet.
I chuckle to myself whenever I read these emails and questions because this has been a topic Dave and I have debated ever since we were married 🙂
My theory has always been, if it’s dirty, it goes in the wash. If it’s not dirty, I’ll simply wear it again the next day or put it back in my closet. If I don’t feel good about putting it back in the closet {or wearing it again} then I know it’s probably dirty enough for the hamper.
Dave, on the other hand, has an elaborate system that involves several piles and an entire shelf in our closet devoted to stacks of “half dirty clothes”. Every time I do the laundry, I ask him if any of his half-dirty clothes need to be washed. He almost always responds, “not yet”.
However, sometimes his half-dirty piles and stacks get out of control — at which point I dump everything into the wash even though he insists the items don’t need to be washed. I’m not a huge fan of his half-dirty piles, but I suppose it reduces the amount of laundry I have to do each week!
So today, I’d love to know…
What do you do with your half-dirty clothes?
Are you like me and simply toss them in the wash?
Are you like Dave and stockpile them in one convenient location for a later date?
Do you hang them in the front of your closet or face the hanger the opposite direction?
Do you drape them over the laundry hamper instead of puting the items all the way inside?
Or maybe you think this is a crazy question that you’ve never thought about before!
Liz C says
I think it might have to do with the name! My David tends to keep a few active “not dirty yet” piles going, and I use the hooks I installed on the back of the door to let a “used” outfit air out for a day or so. I like my system best. 🙂
Carrie says
I think you’re definitely on to something here! My David has his system of partially dirty clothes too – involving the hooks on the back of our bedroom door, a pile on his dresser, draping on the side of the hamper or dumped on the floor in front of the hamper. Sometimes it drives me CRAZY! 🙂
Laundry Lady says
My husband’s half dirties go in a pile on the floor his side of the bed or he hangs up work pants from hook in the front of our closet.. But he’s good about sorting through things periodically. I have a pile on top of a wicker laundry hamper we use to store sheets in. But I wish I had a better system.
STH says
My boyfriend had a “floordrobe” for half-dirty clothes in his old house, so when we moved in together, I put a wicker basket in the corner of the bedroom for them (he uses it most of the time!) For my nicer clothes, I put them on a hanger on the closet doorknob to air out, then back in the closet. For things like sweats and exercise shorts, I have a shelf in the bedroom bookcase dedicated just to that.
Pagan O. says
I either hang it over the edge of the hamper or on the back of my computer chair (Both are in our bedroom). It’s usually just yoga pants I’ve worn around the house and I can wear for another day, so I don’t have a stockpile, just one or two articles. Hubby does same thing with his PJ bottoms.
Donna G says
The half-dirty stuff lives on the cedar chest at the foot of the bed until it qualifies as really dirty or until the laundry gets done. It’s usually only there a day or two. Our walking stuff lives on the side of the tub, and we both want to put hooks or something in the closet to cut out that particular visual clutter.
Zolane says
I’m like you, but my hubby has taken to hanging half clean/dirty clothes in the basement on a peg rack he installed just to keep me from washing them before he thinks they should be! 🙂
Cheryl says
Thats funny! Dave just doesn’t want to fold and put his clothes away. LOL I got some big roll out closet tubs from Ikea that work really well to speedily, and easily put away “half dirty” clothes like tank tops, shorts. Just toss them into the bin and they’re put away.
Alicia says
If I wear it I wash it. Except my pajamas, they will be worn for a few days. My husband on the other hand will wear the same t-shirt 3 or 4 days in a row. Granted he doesn’t wear them all day, but changes out of his uniform when he gets home from work. And he just throws everything on top of his dresser. I just grab everything and wash it when it is time for laundry to be done.
jerilyn says
I leave them draped somewhere around the room and wear it the next day. every once and a while it makes it back into the drawer. my husband leaves his in the office. i have to worn you half clean (or is it half dirty? lol) is what we basically wear. I’m a sahm so unless it gets real dirty I wear it until laundry day. I only have a few pairs of pants. my husband wears a uniform at work so he pretty much wears the same shirt/shorts everynight after work.
MaryEllen says
I’m the type that really could care less. I either put it back in the closet or, if I’m being lazy, throw it in the hamper. I generally remember the next time I wear it that this is the second time around. If I can’t remember, a good sniff will tell me whether it’s ready for the wash or not! 🙂 My husband keeps his clothes color-coordinated in the closet, and puts his “half-dirty” clothes in front. Oh, I almost forgot. His clean shirts get buttoned on the hanger, his half-dirty shirts do not get buttoned. His other half-dirty clothes are almost always worn the following day, so he just lays them out on the chair in our room. I just think washing an extra item or two is easier than remembering all that! 🙂
Chels says
LOL! It’s funny that people ask you… although that would have to mean they are admitting they have this issue, too!
My dear hubby has jeans and shorts that are “half-dirty” all the time. I ask him a few times. Eventually I just wash them. I usually hang a shirt or my jeans over a chair or on the bedpost. Everything else, especially anything on the FLOOR, goes in the next wash!
Anne R. says
I’m so happy to see that someone else struggles with this! For me, its either hang it up again or put it in the laundry hamper. For my husband, its little piles everywhere, floor, bed, shelf in closet…of clothes he will wear later! It drives me crazy. I always pick up the piles and wash them whenever I do laundry, and he doesn’t usually seem to notice!
Julie says
I’ve been trying to deal with this issue too. I have a small closet, a weak sense of small and a short memory so if I put something back on the hanger, I’ll forget I’ve already worn it and repeat the sniff test multiple times till eventually it’s obvious. Right now the “half dirties” go on the side of the bathtub since it’s separate from our shower. Yesterday I wore 4 sets of outfits (painting, lunch out, exercise, post-exercise lounging) so not all of those are dirty but there are just way too many pieces sitting out.
When I redo the closet space in my house, I plan to have hooks and small baskets to hold those items. I have hopes it will work but I guess I won’t know till that day comes.
Bonnie says
I bought my husband a valet at a garage sale many years ago. He loves it and puts his clothes on it that have been worn before, but still suitable to be reworn in the days ahead. I have hooks for my children to put their clothes on that have been worn before and are suitable to be reworn.
Kim says
We have a rack behind our bedroom door for hanging clothes that can be re-worn. I have jeans and a pair or two of pants typically. My husband has shirts, shorts, pants, jeans, you name it. I’ll usually leave him to figure out the clothes he wants cleaned. You only see the rack when we close the door, it bugs me, but we have very limited closet space, so I deal with it.
Melissa Q says
My husband and I have had the same “discussion” repeatedly since the day we were married! We refer to the pile of not-quite-dirty-enough-to-be-laundered as “clothing purgatory”. Right now, “clothing purgatory” resides on the floor beside his side of the bed. Which is why his side of the bed is the furthest from the bedroom door, so that when you look in the room, you don’t see “clothing purgatory” 🙂
I have visions of getting him his own dresser with a huge drawer designated as “clothing purgatory”… but I don’t think they MAKE dresser drawers big enough.
How do I know when they’re “dirty enough” to be washed? We have a rule (made shortly after the day we were married) that if it’s not in the hamper, I don’t wash it. So, when he thinks they’re ready to be washed, he moves them into the hamper. I’ve been rather religious about this “no-hamper-no-launder” rule so sometimes he has to do his own load of laundry. But 90% of the time, this works for us. Well, as long as “clothing purgatory” remains on HIS side of the bed!
Lea Stormhammer says
Hmmm – I guess I wouldn’t have turned them “half-dirty”. I think of them as “to be worn again.”
🙂
I have a short stack on top of our hard-topped hamper – usually jeans or sweatshirts/sweaters (tops that go over something else) or else a whole outfit that was put on for a hour or two (the clothes I wore to my kids’ dance recital – 1 1/2 hours – that I then wore to work the next AM, for example). Occasionally we have gardening or painting (walls) clothes that we lay out in the utility room that we’ll wear until we’re done with the project and then wash or sometimes even just throw away (usually my painting clothes are the last-legs-won’t-wear-in-public variety so I just throw those awaway after the project is over).
Both my hubby and I are weird that we sweat a lot so most of the time we just wash everything – tops especially.
Loved reading the comments!
Lea
Christelle says
I’m more or less with you, Andrea. If there’s no marks/smells, it gets worn again. T-shirts and the like can get worn again for exercise. Jeans get worn multiple times. My kids clothes…are usually DIRTY! But in winter I’ll let them wear the Tshirt (long/shortsleeved) that went underneath the jacket/sweater, again.
(Where do I put it?? Usually over the bedpost (!!), or on top of the pile in the wardrobe).
Kristin says
I wear almost all of my work clothes at least twice before washing, helps keeps\ them from getting worn out. Jeans I will wear multiple times unless they get dirty, i.e. spill something on them. My husband pretty much does the same thing. Our kids are messy eaters so their clothes all get tossed down the chute every day, except if I have to change them mid-day and I don’t feel that they are too messy, they wear them again the next morning. PJ’s we try to get 2-3 uses out of.
Ana says
I leave it out and use it again. I don’t put it back in the closet. But my husband doesn’t like (and my mom didn’t either) my strategy, he says there is too many clothes hanging around!
Kaui @ Thrifty Military Mommy says
Too funny! I thought we were the only ones who complain about this phenomenon. We don’t have any real system. All we do is toss our clothes in the laundry and wear it again the next day (we do laundry once a week rather than once per day). My husband needs a little more “training” since he tends to just lay his half-worn clothes out nicely on the floor in the closet and then forgets about them. Before you know it we have “half-worn” clothes all over the floor in the closet, and in my mind, if they’ve been on the floor longer than a day then they’re dirty and they get washed anyway.
Edie S. says
If it’s church clothes that managed to stay clean, then I’ll hang them back up in the closet. Otherwise, we have a couple robe hooks in the bathroom and on the back of the closet door, so pjs or jeans that are half-dirty usually get hung up on those and are reworn within a couple days. We also tend to wear “around the house” clothes for a couple hours and then change to nicer clothes to run errands, so the house clothes are hung up on the hooks to put back on when we get home. If something has been hanging out on the hooks for days and I’m doing laundry, then I’ll take them down and throw them in, too. Especially if it’s my husbands clothes and I’m not sure of their exact state of cleanliness!
Tamara says
This has been an ongoing debate at our house too. We have a chair that we keep on my husbands side of the bed for his half-dirty clothes. He says he’ll keep the pile limited to the chair but this usually doesn’t happen and it over flows onto the floor. I usually do a sweep and through anything obviously dirty into the dirty linen basket but let him keep his piles until laundry day until I ask him which ones are actually dirty. He has claimed that the reason he keeps the clothes on the floor is to prevent the floor from getting dusty… therefore we don’t have to vaccum as much… LOL. You see he is the one that vacuums in our household and that line hasn’t gotten him out of vacuuming yet – haha. I have tried to convince him to hang half-dirty clothes in the closet… but that hasn’t happened yet. C’est la vie.
Minerva says
I used to just put everything back in my drawers because I ran laundry so infrequently that I was afraid of losing clothes in the hamper. Now that I have a baby and run 6 loads a week, I just throw stuff in the hamper. I know I’ll see it again soon enough. I think my husband has a half dirty system, but honestly I don’t care… he knows what days I do laundry, and if he misses the boat that’s his problem.
Erica says
Everyone has a spot that they put half worn clothes during the day. The day to day play clothes are worn each day until they need to be washed. The dressy clothes are hung back up. Not a perfect system, but it works for us.
Leah says
Oh my! I could not handle the piles! I do put things back in my closet if I’ve only worn them a lil (and my kids have somehow not gotten something on me), like to church, etc. But, I usually have a mental note if it’s been worn before and if it’s the second time I go ahead and wash it when I’m done wearing it again.
Laura says
So funny! If it passes the smell test and doesn’t have any food/drool/dirt spots, it goes back in the closet. Otherwise it gets washed. My husband tends to throw everything in a pile on the floor, then after a few days or so, most of it goes in the hamper and the rest he’ll wear again. That drives me crazy too, but I gotta pick my battles 🙂
Karen says
My husband has the same tendencies as your husband! They have to be in random piles around the bedroom. If I put them in the hamper, he gets upset. If I put them back in his dresser, he gets upset. I wear things multiple times ( like jeans) and just keep putting them away until they’re dirty enough to go in the hamper!
Jessi says
Haha, my husband and I disagree about this too. Everything he takes off when he puts on his PJs at night goes into the hamper, even if it’s a shirt he put on three hours earlier. I, on the other hand, pretty much fold everything back up and put it back in the dresser or closet. To me clothes aren’t dirty unless they are actually dirty. So anything with a stain, or anything that smells obviously needs to be washed. But I wear shirts three or four times before washing them sometimes, and more often than not I end up washing them not because they’re horribly dirty, but to get them to shrink back down to their original size because they stretch out when I wear them. 🙂
Jen says
Wow! This is quite a “first world problem”, isn’t it?? I figure if they’re half-dirty, they’re also half-clean. I usually just wash mine but I wish I could talk my boys into doing the same! They either wear it for an hour and deem it dirty or wear it for three days straight and wonder why I make them put it in the laundry! HAHA
Deb says
Normally, the only half dirty clothes in our house are church clothes which are worn for 2-3 hours, then taken off and even then, they sometimes need washed. Pajamas might be folded and neatly placed somewhere and reworn, but that is about it………….currently we are finishing our basement and drywall in clothes gives new meaning to dirty! 😉
Michelle Aitken says
My husband has a pile on the floor which he deems his half-dirty clothes but which I deem dirty since they are on a pile on the floor. If they are on the floor when I am doing our laundry, they get washed. Otherwise, I “TRY” to leave them alone (though I hate the pile!).
Laurel says
Never even thought about this before! Just like the others, clothes in my mind are either clean enough to wear again in which case they get hung up back in the closet or they are dirty and go into the dirty clothes baskets. My kids also think they can wear something only once!
Angela Carter says
Love this topic. My husband also does the half dirty pile and because he washes his own clothes most of the time I tend to leave that to him to launder. And because he wears a suit to work everyday he tends to only have lounging clothes in the half dirty pile. I on the other hand take the same approach as you Andrea. If it’s too “soiled” to put in the closet it goes in the wash.
BONNIE CUMMINGS says
I also feel if it’s clean enough to wear again, it goes back in the closet. I already have enough laundry to do.
Jessica says
If ive only worn it for a couple of hours and its not dirty I will fluff it up in the dryer with a dryer sheet and hang it up, that’s mainly only for tops. Jeans…I get at least 2 wears out of them, if they are clean, sometimes 3. I found that it prolongs the life of the denim and they don’t look as worn out, I also don’t dry them
Tammy Skipper (@Tammy_Skipper) says
OH. my. goodness. This is the same with us! LOL, too funny. My husband has at least four piles at all times, of don’t-wash-it-yet. I tell the kids when they take their clothes off they either go in the hamper or get put away, period.
Amy Jones says
Funny! My husband and I feel that if it’s clean enough to wear again, then it’s clean, and put it away as usual. My kids, on the other hand, tend to put everything, half clean or even just tried on and rejected, on the floor, and they end up in the laundry even if they don’t need washed. I’m trying to train them…start early on Nora!!!!
Julie says
I’m like you – either they’re clean enough to get put away to be worn again. or they’re dirty and need to be washed 🙂 My husband on the other hand will drop a pair of shorts or jp’s on the hall floor assuming he’ll wear them again. I figure if they’re on the floor the next day still – they’re dirty and need to be washed.
Susan says
This post is confusing to me. I guess in my mind clothes are either clean or dirty. If it isn’t dirty enough to need to be washed, it goes back in the closet. What will happen? The smell of my perfume could rub off onto another shirt? So what? Better that than using up all that detergent and WATER. We are so blessed as Americans to even be having this conversation.