Healthy Living

Thursday, December 10, 2009

How many times can you wear a bra before you're that nasty girl?

As you know, I've got an itty bitty closet situation in my post WWII bungalow. Normally, with the season change I do a complete swapout of my summer versus winter clothes, folding and reorging everything during an entire weekend marathon session, but this year, either I've run out of patience or I've finally accumulated too many garments, because I have instead devoted one wall of my bedroom to two gigantic industrial baker's racks and many little steel bins from Ikea. Yes, it looks like I sleep the middle of an Old Navy, but the fact that I no longer have to shove all of my carefully folded tees and jeans up into the single shelf in the closet has been a gigantic improvement in my well-being. (See some of our favorite plus-size fashions.)

While plotting out where I would put what on my side of the racking system, I figured that I'd devote one entire bin to my bras, but when I sorted through them and stacked them all neatly by color, I realized that, er, one basket wasn't enough. In fact, two baskets barely cut it. To think I used to shove them all into a single dresser drawer and then was wondering why the cups were getting mangled!

And while I acknowledge that I have a certain OCD quality wherein I typically match my bra to whatever I'm wearing and therefore, have many colored bras, I was still surprised to see that the beige/black contingent took up an entire giant bin all by themselves. Esteban freaked out and said, "Ok, clearly you don't need to buy bras for, like, a decade."

Granted, I do let the laundry build up sometimes, but why does it always seem like whenever I'm a little behind, I run out of bras first? Am I weird that I typically wear a bra once, let it hang out and "rest" for at least a day and then wear it again, then typically pitch it? Or does everyone else have as many bras as they do panties? If I had to guess, I'd say that my bra to panty ratio is something like 1:4, but it might be something like 1:10, because I've never counted either. (Find out why underwear is now optional.)

So here's my question: how often do you wear a bra before you wash it? Do you ditch it into the wash immediately after wearing? Do you wear it once, let it rest/air out for a 24 hour period and then wear it again? Do you put it back in the drawer and only wash it when it starts getting funky in the boob pit area? And if you had to guess, how many bras do you own?

Related: I like to go braless in the summer. Will I sag by September?

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Comments 11-20 of 45
  • whisky80's Avatar
    Posted by whisky80 Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:35am PST

    I think I have about 4 good ones..then 2 nursing bras that I used for my now-3-yr-old..and a dozen or so multicolr ,outdated,undersized thingys.I wear them like 3 times before washing..and that happens when I've run out of clean ones.As for panties,I've about 20.Is that good or bad?

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  • springtime's Avatar
    Posted by springtime Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:02am PST

    I agree with Jett's post. Sports bras go into the laundry immediately. If I'm doing yard work or any strenuous activity, into the laundry goes that bra,too. But if it's a low keyed activity, I'll wear a bra around three times before laundry. I put bras in a lingerie bag before putting them in the washer, but I never put them in the dryer.

    I have around 6 everyday bras, five sports bras, and two strapless. All beige or black.

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  • LuLuBee's Avatar
    Posted by LuLuBee Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:04pm PST

    I am a big boned girl with small breasts, well sort of, and I am extremely insecure about my small boobs, I just wish they were bigger that is all. I know, I know, I have issues. I own 2 bras and I wear one all the time, maybe washing it once a month in Winter, once or twice a week in Summer. and I wear the other when the primary bra needs to be cleaned but has not been. I just have such a hard time finding a bra that fits me good and feels comfortable, I really hate bra shopping so I just dont do it.

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  • Amanda M's Avatar
    Posted by Amanda M Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:58pm PST

    depends also what kind of job ur in i work in a dealer ship i just in behind a desk all day im not sweating but if i was doing the yard of washing my car yea i would take a shower and put a clean one on but all us woman know we have at least one favorite bra that we wear more than the others right girls :)

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  • Open mouth, insert foot's Avatar
    Posted by Open mouth, insert foot Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:08pm PST

    I'm guilty of doing the 'smell test' -- if it looks ok and smells ok, then I wear it. Obviously then, the number of times I wear a bra depends on when I wore it and what I wore it too. Sports bras can't really be reworn, same with ones worn on hot/sticky days. Normal ones can be worn for an indefinite period of time (especially because I unhook and go braless once I'm in private). I do hang all the ones that I've worn on hangers though, I don't put them back in the drawer. And I definitely have many many more panties than bras --wearing panties for longer than a day is just nasty, after all!

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  • Heather's Avatar
    Posted by Heather Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:25pm PST

    I'm the skanky girl who wears her bra day after day! It can be hard to find a comfortable bra that also looks good, so when I find one that I like, I just keep wearing it. Since the washing machine can destroy an underwire bra, I just hang them in my shower. When I am ready to get out, I quickly soap and rinse them out and they drip dry and are fresh and ready to wear by the next time I take a shower. However, in spite of this constant supply of clean bras, I still wear the same bra over and over again until the straps get saggy and won't stay up any more. Currently I have 5 bras hanging out in my shower, compared to about 50 pairs of panties taking up most of an entire dresser. My favorite brand of bras offers only about 4 or 5 basic colors, but they fit perfectly with no rubbing, poking, itching, etc.

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  • Fatima's Avatar
    Posted by Fatima Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:25pm PST

    kay. i thought i was the only 1 who corrdinates bras with the color f shirt i wore, anywho. i too am guilty of wearing then airing my dear. Just wondering, who isn't? But i totally dont have that many and for the love of god do u really smell the boob pit?

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  • Authoress's Avatar
    Posted by Authoress Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:48pm PST

    Hi, I have two different bras. Old ones I wear when I go to sleep and two good ones for day time. My sleep ones I can use for up to a week, I am only wearing them for a max of 12 hours. My good bras, I have two of. I wear those for 3-5 days them switch to the other one, giving me ample time to wash the other one. It's kinda gross, but I don't really sweat much... They are sports bra's too, so they take more. I can't stand cup bras!

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  • DUrville's Avatar
    Posted by DUrville Mon Dec 29, 2008 9:19pm PST

    Wait....not all men wear the same jeans for a month without washing them. In fact I only own one pair of jeans and I wear slacks most often.

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  • Shahidah's Avatar
    Posted by Shahidah Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:07am PST

    Okay, apparently I'm gross. I don't wash them after every wear. Maybe every two weeks in the bra rotation. (I have about 4 I wear). *hangs head in shame*

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Comments 11-20 of 45

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