Comments on: Ask Unclutterer: Not yet dirty clothes

By: Saturday Surfing

Saturday Surfing — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:16:24 +0000

[...] What to do with not-yet-dirty clothes — Unclutterer [...]

By: LPD

LPD — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:22:22 +0000

The easiest solution my husband and I found to ‘store’ our NYD clothes was to simply hand them behind our bathroom door on a couple of attached hooks or on a free standing clothes rack ( as Patti 11/30/09 had done). This allows the clothes to air out and also avoids contact between NYD, clean and dirty clothes and ease of selecting what to wear in the morning.

By: Kara

Kara — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:10:54 +0000

My problem is that we only have two closets in the whole house, they hold all shirts that need to be hung, a shelf above for jeans and sweatshirts and a shelf below for shoes. Our bedroom is tiny, and filled with dressers and plastic bins that hold t-shirts, his jeans, sweats, etc. There is just barely enough space to walk around the bed.
My boyfriend works construction during the day and then puts on some jeans and a shirt and/or sweatshirt for a few hours then pjs at night, every day he wears different jeans and shirts and they get piled EVERYWHERE because they are not dirt enough to wash, but too dirty to put away. How can I store these items out of the way before I go crazy in a sea of clothes?

By: Feli

Feli — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:04:55 +0000

I just hang them back in the closet but I hang them inside out so I know they’ve been worn. That way they can still be grouped with similar items. Like Joe, I never wear anything twice, so once I’ve worn it for the 2nd time, it goes straight to the laundry pile.

By: Cassie

Cassie — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:49:15 +0000

I usually just put the NYD clothes back into the closet – I prefer hanging my clothes so I can “see” everything when trying to decide what to wear. Dresser drawers never worked well for me (except for underwear).

Most of the time, I will drape the clothes over a chair or something when I get home from work and then hang it up in the closet before going to bed. So it gets a short while to air out… of course, sometimes I get lazy and don’t hang up clothes for a week or so, but I’m trying to get better at it!

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:15:25 +0000

So an update.

Since my last post I’ve been hanging the NYD stuff in the closet. They go all the way on the end on the right. That area of the closet is all button down shirts so then I put my NYD jeans and then my NYD t-shirts. I always put the NYD stuff in on the left and take them out from the right.

I’ve been very happy with the solution. No clutter, no confusion. One extra benefit I’ve noticed is I now tend to keep my NYD queue down to two shirts and two pants, whereas it used to grow larger.

Thanks Unclutterer community!

By: Patti

Patti — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:50:57 +0000

Awesome thread, another NYDer here.

Since I only put freshly washed/not yet worn clothes in my closet or drawers, I have one of those free-standing clothing racks. There are some nice wood ones out there like this one (http://www.improvementscatalog.....nt-rack.do), but mine is just painted steel; it does have wheels though.

The free-standing clothing rack works well for me because the worn-once items still go back on hangers, eliminating the need to drape them on the bed or seating areas, and they also stay separate from the “clean.” This is a tad OCD but I can even hang them in the order that I wear them so that I don’t mistakenly wear the same thing two days in a row.

The clothing rack also has hooks that I hang my worn bra on; first thing I do upon arriving home at the end of the day is to “release the girls” if that’s not too TMI.

Pajamas that I’ve worn I usually just toss on the unmade bed (yeah I know), but I’ve also put them INSIDE the covers on the MADE bed. That way when I turn down the covers they are warm and waiting for me.

With that said, if I didn’t use a free-standing clothing rack I like the rubber band idea over the hanger hook that someone mentioned above.

By: kris

kris — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:53:30 +0000

I totally understand Susan’s problem! I would never put worn clothing in the closet with my clean clothing, as it does invite moth damage. They are attracted by the slightest bits of dirt, oil from our skin, etc. I have had problems with moths eating hole in my clothes in past years, even with cedar blocks in the closet, until I stopped putting “slightly worn” clothing back in my closet. Now I keep it all in a hall closet downstairs, separate from my clean clothes. I haven’t had a problem with moths in years, since I’ve started this habit. As someone who doesn’t enjoy clutter, the idea of having clothing in two separate places is a bit annoying. But as someone who also likes her clothing to stay in great condition, this is the best solution for me.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:15:30 +0000

For many years, at our house, that pile has been called “other”, as in: “clean”, “dirty” or “other”

By: Loren

Loren — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:24:33 +0000

@Sooz: Thanks for the info, that does make sense. I’ve never had a moth problem but I do shop consignment a lot so I will be more careful in the future. When I lived with my parents all the out-of-season clothes got stored in a cedar chest to prevent bugs from becoming interested, I’ll have to start that practice again.

By: Saturday Surfing | natural fat burn

Saturday Surfing | natural fat burn — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:34:32 +0000

[...] What to do with not-yet-dirty clothes — Unclutterer [...]

By: chacha1

chacha1 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:18:00 +0000

Hilarious thread. … I live in an apartment with coin laundry, and washing things often kills them faster. I’m with our European friend, if it doesn’t go against my skin, I wear it many times. Pants & skirts? Do not get “dirty” in an office job like mine.

Many shirts/sweaters can be worn two or three times between washes. Turn inside out, hang (on hanger) on hook on back of bedroom door, perhaps squirt with Febreze, air overnight, and it’s good to go back in the closet the next morning. Or, if it doesn’t pass the sniff test, into the laundry. No clutter when dealt with daily.

I am also with the commenter who changes out of work clothes immediately. Skirts, pants, and shirts that go right onto a hanger do not often need to be ironed!

Airing the bed: a necessity for two hot sleepers. But I make it before work, because otherwise it’s full of cats all day.

By: Frumpulent Grumpton

Frumpulent Grumpton — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:01:56 +0000

IF: smelly or stained or super-wrinkly
THEN: launder

ELSE: hang up

Life is too damn short to categorize degrees of dirtiness. It’s either good enough to wear again or it isn’t. Are you really going to wear something 0.5 days, and then only wear it 0.5 days more instead of just another full day? If it’s good enough to wear a full day, then it may as well be labeled as 100% clean.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:47:21 +0000

I’ve always maintained a chair in my bedroom for NYD clothes; when I do laundry, if there’s space in a load, I’ll wash the least-likely-to-be-reworn-soon NYD items.

My spouse is a tougher problem, as he often just tosses everything on the floor next to his side of the bed. I’m trying to figure out how to make space for a second NYD chair

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:08:09 +0000

I guess I’m one of the Europeans who don’t wash enough , because my rule of thumb is: if it doesn’t touch my skin (for example a sweater, or a skirt worn with tights), it doesn’t need to be washed til it’s visibly dirty or smelly. Things that go against my skin get washed after one use; others get folded and go back in the wardrobe (or, more likely, they get thrown into a pile next to the hamper to be folded and put away later!).