How do you store your wear-again clothes?

[sheepstache]

I know some people here are fans of re-wearing clothes where applicable rather than washing after just one use. I've always done this but it plays hell with the appearance of my living space because the clothes to be reworn end up in a huge pile on a chair or something. Because I don't necessarily wear them on consecutive days until they're ready to be washed, so there may be a bunch of things waiting to be re-worn. And I don't want to put them in drawers with the entirely clean clothes because there's probably some very slight odor that could permeate the drawer.

I'm borrowing a hamper from a friend to try using it as the re-wear hamper but I'm wondering what other people do.

[Dee18]

I bought an over the door item that has 8 large hooks to hang on my bedroom door.  I hang all my wear again clothes here.  An added advantage is when I am about to do a load of laundry I can quickly glance at the wear again clothes and decide if I want to toss them in.

[tarheeldan]

I wear shirts 2x before washing, so the easy thing to do is have all the fresh ones facing one direction and all the 1x worn ones facing the other way. I keep track by keeping the hanger on the rod if its the first time wearing, and moving the hanger to where all the other empty hangers are when it's time to throw it in the wash.

[KCM5]

+1 to the hanger direction.

I think its a good system. Now, I don't actually use that system and instead prefer to leave my worn once clothing lying around my room.

I like the door hook idea. Maybe that's something I can get behind.

[ZiziPB]

Most of the things I wear more than once is stuff that hangs in the closet so I rehang it after wearing.  I only keep things like socks, underwear, etc. in the drawers and they get washed after each wear. 

[I'm a red panda]

Hanging clothes, I hang back up, just the same as if they came out of the laundry.  Others, I just fold on a shelf in my closet.

Sadly, pajamas usually just go on a heap on the floor by the bed, but what I intend to do is tuck them nicely behind the pillow if I make the bed. 

If clothes have a slight odor, they don't get reworn.  So putting them back with clean clothes is not a problem for me.

I would not want to put them in a hamper, as I'd worry they'd get wrinkly. Folded on a chair, like you said you do now, makes more sense to me.  Or you could put a divider in your drawer and have clothes on one side of the divider be rewear and the other side clean.  (A moveable divider, I just have thin pieces of wood in my drawers, tank tops go on one side, t-shirts on the other.  I don't like when they get mixed together.)

[2ndTimer]

Looked for a long time finally found a coatrack at a yard sale for $5.00.  Just the thing.

[Travis]

In a neat pile next to my nightstand, on a hangar on my closet door, or back in my closet with a few inches separation from clean clothes.

[Zikoris]

Hanger direction, for sure. I also wear my work shirts twice between washings. It helps to be in the habit of immediately changing out of work clothes when you get home.

[Melody]

I use an over the door rack which was $2.95 at ikea. Just the ticket :-) it's  called the ennuden

[adkarmol]

I use an Ikea towel rack (originally used for towels when we had a rental with no towel racks). I like using the rack instead of hooks because I can put something back on a hanger and hang it on the rack so I know it's already been worn, but it won't get wrinkled or a 'nub' from hanging on a hook.

I also put items there that are hand-wash only so they don't go in the laundry basket and get ruined in the wash. DH uses various spots on the floor in a complicated system that looks like a bunch of dirty clothes heaps ;)

It's not the prettiest system, but hey, it's the bedroom, not the front lawn.

[2Birds1Stone]

I work in a professional office environment. I re-wear dress shirts once before washing, store em on a hanger.

I wear 3 pairs of slacks in a rotation for a month before washing, they neither smell, wrinkle or stain. I hang them on hangers as well.

I never re-wear unmentionables or undershirts.

[civil]

Looked for a long time finally found a coatrack at a yard sale for $5.00.  Just the thing.

I took an old, broken coat rack from a relative, and wood-glued the broken arms back on. It doesn't need to be able to hold the weight of heavy coats.

[Emilyngh]

If it's at-home lounge clothes that I'll probably just put back on the next day, I put them on a hook on the back of our door.

For work clothes, I just hang em back up in the closet.   If I'm concerned about a smell, I'll smell them, and if there's any slight odor, they just go into the wash.   IME, the fear of something tainting an entire wardrobe b/c it's been warn is probably an irrational fear founding in our general societal fear around things being imaginarily "dirty" simple b/c they've been used once.   If it doesn't smell to you holding it, it's just not going to affect the other items.   

[GetItRight]

On dresser or hanging on hooks on closet door, or if debatable cleanliness drape over hamper but not in hamper. I usually do 2-3 days on pants and 1-2 days on shirts if I wore an undershirt. Undershirts and so forth only get worn once. It's nice for clothes to last longer and not do laundry as often but I'm not religious about it, usually it's things I'll wear two days in a row or at least within a couple days of last use or it ends up in the basket.

[Miss Prim]

Hi.  Don't know if anyone has posted this, but I hang them inside out.  Then when I go to wear them again, I know they have been worn once and I make sure that I put them in the wash after that.  It solves the problem for me, especially if I don't wear it very often and forget.  If I see it hung up inside out I know.

                                                                                      Miss Prim

[happy]

I hang them up, but I hang clean clothes at one end of the wardrobe and once worn at the other. Empty coat hangers go in between. Easy now that I have reduced the number of clothes I have

[theadvicist]

Hi.  Don't know if anyone has posted this, but I hang them inside out.  Then when I go to wear them again, I know they have been worn once and I make sure that I put them in the wash after that.  It solves the problem for me, especially if I don't wear it very often and forget.  If I see it hung up inside out I know.

                                                                                      Miss Prim

Don't mean to single you out Miss Prim, but I just don't understand this 'need to know' thing.

When clothes are dirty, I wash them. When they have no odour or marks, I put them back where they belong, in the drawer, or hanging. It makes no difference at all to me how many times they have been worn, the only thing that matters is: is this item dirty? Does it need to be washed?

For lounging at home clothes, I just have one big drawer that I shove everything in. I really don't care if it's wrinkled, I just don't want it on the floor, and realistically, I'm too lazy to hang it.

[Jacana]

Uh, big pile of clothes on the dresser and floor isn't right? Oh crap. That's our method! Then again I'm home with a 3 yo all day so no nice clothes anyway and no one cares if they are wrinkled. I clean it up every few days. And my husband only does that with casual clothes, work clothes get hung back up or straight to the hamper.

[GuitarStv]

I throw them on the floor.  GuitarStv's rule of floor clothing .  .  . if it doesn't smell, it's fine to wear.

[Russ]

"The floor is the biggest shelf in the house"
-ancient midwestern proverb

[sheepstache]

So many good ideas!

Unfortunately I don't have floorspace for a coat rack (and this is partly why the chair isn't so great either; it's a small enough apartment that anything messy is always visible). And my SO did get an over-the-door rack of hooks but that was so I would stop throwing my sweaters and hoodies all over the place so it's already full.

Most of the time it's pants, which I don't hang in the closet. But it occurs to me I could consolidate my dresser a bit and have one drawer clear to just throw stuff in. Part of the problem is that I'm terrible about putting things away because I have this instinct to want to be able to see all my things. Ideally at some point I'll live somewhere where I can have a full closet and only need drawers for socks and underpants.

"The floor is the biggest shelf in the house"
-ancient midwestern proverb

Ha! Yes.

[FLBiker]

I love the hanger direction idea.  I wear my work shirts (w/ under shirts) way more than twice, though. :)

For work shirts, I change in my office, and I have 10 or so hanging on the back of my door.  I rotate them periodically.  Same with two pairs of work pants.  At home, I hang sweaters / shorts / jeans on hooks on the back of my bedroom door.  And I don't re-wear t-shirts or underwear.  Not since I got married, anyways. :)

[wealthviahealth]

I have a small apartment with fairly limited closet space so I recently put up around 10 little hooks (small nails) around my walls in closet and behind doors.

This has been an absolute game changer for my organization and keeping my room tidy at all times.
It also allows me to put certain clothes in "limbo" so they do not end up on the ground while I am deciding if they can be hung up in closet or put into dirty clothes hamper.

[theadvicist]

 But it occurs to me I could consolidate my dresser a bit and have one drawer clear to just throw stuff in.

I would really recommend this - it's taken the decision making out of it for me. If it's just lounge clothes, I just throw them in that designated drawer. Done.

Also, I got the drawer space by realising the following: "Hmmm, I have no room for these clothes! But I have a huge dresser over there. But it's full of clothes I don't wear. Why don't I remove the ones I DON'T wear to make room for the ones I DO wear?". Genius!

It was a serious lightbulb moment for me that I was stacking stuff all over the house because I 'didn't have any room' because all of the storage spaces (shelves, drawers etc) were taken up by stuff I don't use which has been 'put away'.

For some reason I only gave stuff a dedicated space when I didn't really use it except once in a blue moon. I cleared all the stuff I rarely use out, and now I have space for the stuff I do use. And I don't forget I have it now, because I have less stuff to keep track of.

[Gerard]

I put my wear-again clothes (basically jeans and sweaters) over the back of a chair, until eventually they get too heavy and the chair falls over. What? It's a system.

[southern granny]

Being perfectly honest... they are in a pile in front of my closet.

[cashstasherat23]

"The floor is the biggest shelf in the house"
-ancient midwestern proverb

Nothing has ever described my style of organization so perfectly. Love this!

[Greg]

As a builder, often my clothes are too dirty to wear again, unless I will be doing the same dirty tasks again, but when they aren't, I hang them on a coat hook.  I have 2 in the bathroom, and a few in my closet, so clothes on coat hooks are to be worn again, anything clean is on hangers or in drawers.  This allows things to air out and dry, and, when in the bathroom, very convenient.

[frugaliknowit]

Button down shirts (worn twice, except in hot weather) get hung with the hanger in the opposite direction.  Slacks are hung back up, jeans folded on shelf.  Anything a bit damp from rain I might hang over a door for a day to dry.

[MrsPete]

I have a small walk-in closet, and all my clean work clothes hang IN the closet /on the closet rod ... but the worn-once stuff is hung on the back of the closet door. 

Jeans, pajamas and other things that don't hang are folded and left on a shelf in the bathroom 'til they're worn again. 

When we build our new house we'll have a larger walk-in closet /no dresser in the bedroom.  I plan to incorporate something like a "kindergarten cubby" inside the closet for each of us.  It'll have hooks for hanging still-okay-to-wear jeans or shirts PLUS a couple shelves for pajamas and other things.  I like the idea of setting it apart from the rest of the clothes in a "cubby".

[anastrophe]

Mostly I just put them away. I figure they are either clean enough to wear, or dirty enough to wash. There isn't an in-between "sort of clean/sort of dirty" category.

My partner doesn't see it that way, though, so we do have a small bin on our closet shelf for the purpose.

[gipsygrrl]

\

Mostly I just put them away. I figure they are either clean enough to wear, or dirty enough to wash.

Same here. I also keep sachets/cedar blocks in my dresser drawers to keep folded clothes smelling nice. When the occasional questionable item sneaks in, I spritz it lightly with a linen spray (or febreeze or what have you).

[sunflower_yellow]

If you are like this

Part of the problem is that I'm terrible about putting things away because I have this instinct to want to be able to see all my things

then this

But it occurs to me I could consolidate my dresser a bit and have one drawer clear to just throw stuff in.

might not "stick" for you.  Won't be long before you have a nice pile at the foot of the bed again.  :o)

Not that I'm telling you what to do, but I know your type - you are like my Mr. Sunflower.  He has several drawers in his dresser, where, I kid you not, he has items like small notebooks and SD cards and single pairs of socks and whatnot laid out so that he can see everything in the drawer at once.  I have no idea how the man keeps his drawers so clean, but I suspect it has something to do with this:

It was a serious lightbulb moment for me that I was stacking stuff all over the house because I 'didn't have any room' because all of the storage spaces (shelves, drawers etc) were taken up by stuff I don't use which has been 'put away'.

Mr. Sunflower likes having shelves.  He folds up his running clothes and sticks them on a shelf, where he can see what he's got that's too gross to go back with the clean clothes but not gross enough for the laundry.

Personally, I like to have everything hanging up.  One section of my closet bar is clothing that is "airing out."

It's really about knowing your habits and your space!

[I'm a red panda]

but I just don't understand this 'need to know' thing.

When clothes are dirty, I wash them. When they have no odour or marks, I put them back where they belong, in the drawer, or hanging. It makes no difference at all to me how many times they have been worn, the only thing that matters is: is this item dirty? Does it need to be washed?

I agree with you.

For those thinking about the hanger in the opposite direction thing, I will explain why I can't do that (in addition to not caring if it has been worn before, mostly because I just care if it is dirty).
On April 1 each year, I turn all my hangers around backwards.  As I wear clothes, they get rehung up with the hanger correct.  If a hanger is backwards on March 31, I donate whatever clothes item is on it to Goodwill.  This way I don't keep things that I don't wear. The first year I did it, I got rid of 30 items of clothing, now it is more like 2 or 3.

[tarheeldan]

You could flip hanger direction but not clothing direction for that, but flip clothing item direction and not hanger direction for worn. Or vice versa.

Great idea for identifying items to donate btw!

[NoraLenderbee]

Shirts: Hang on hooks or hangers outside the closet, or pile on the dresser.
Pants: Return to closet for the first one or two wearings; then pile on the dresser.
Cotton sweaters, casual jackets for work, etc; Put away if they pass the sniff test. Wash every so often.