I hand wash almost all of my clothes

I do not own nor have ever owned a washing machine. I hand wash almost all of my clothes, except occasionally for underwear which I will take to wash-and-fold service. All of my tops and pants and skirts are washed by hand by me. I do not take them to wash-and-fold because these items are too precious too me. I gently hand wash almost all my clothes. Cool temperature water. Gently wrung. Usually laid flat to dry on my drying rack.

Similar to the article, I find that most items do not need cleaning that often other than socks, underwear and tops which can become stinky from sweat. However I often will clean just the armpit area of tops by running it under the spigot and using a foaming hand wash. It’s a huge waste to clean an entire garment when only the armpits need cleaning.

bbc.com: Is Stella McCartney right – should we stop washing our clothes?

The main problem with tops is their synthetic fabrics. I can understand that synthetic fabrics have some superior qualities in terms of perhaps appearance, non-wrinkling, etc. But nothing compares to cotton. I honestly wish all my clothing was cotton, mostly-cotton blends, linen, or other natural fibers (except silk which I don’t like except perhaps for scarves).

Yet synthetic fabrics predominate unfortunately. I guess cotton fabrics is more than just a type of fabric, it is a way of life: Not really caring if a garment has slight wrinkles in it. Not really caring if the texture is not as silky.

Part of caring for fabrics is one’s personal hygiene. Yes, everyone should shave their armpits. There is no excuse not to. Those hairs are simply incubators for foul-smelling bacteria and serve no other purpose.

And use deodorant. Always. This sounds so basic yet unfortunately there are many disgusting people. Some people even try to justify their disgustingness by claiming it is natural, as though that is somehow superior. Not brushing one’s teeth is natural. Not bathing is natural. It’s a lame argument.