Laundry day epiphany

[jaybirdsen]

As the season here has warmed clothes have become less and less a condition of my life as is every year in spring.  I am a home naturist and gardener as well as nude hiker and nature lover.  I usually have a pair of shorts and shirt available to don in the yard in case the one neighbor who could see if he pops his head over the fence to talk is around.  By some comments and his own stories about streaking he's told me I think he has probably seen me yet he's never brought up the subject.
Anyway they've been out of town so no clothing at all needed while gardening, working on the pool or just watching the birds.

My wife was getting the weeks laundry together this morning and I took it out to the garage to load in the washer.  As I was loading the machine I realized I had only one pair of shorts and a T shirt to wash for the whole week.  One does need to don something to run errands or go to the store.  Even if such donning is done in the store parking lot.

[Greenbare Woods]

Naked is "green."   Much less laundry energy, water, and chemicals when you are naked.

[eyesup]

I've mentioned this to my wife many times as a good reason for adapting and adopting the nude life. When we do laundry my stack of clothing is at least 1/4 of hers.

She persists.!   But the incremental changes haven't stopped either.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

I have been working part time several days a week and having to wear clothing. Not only am I so very ready to get naked that I'm pulling them off at street lights on the way home...I digress.

Anyway, my laundry piles up, and makes me want to get more use out of clothing between washes, which can lead to unsanitary practices. Do I want to wash clean clothes? Dang, those clothes can smell bad before a washing, but when does that happen? Why should I waste my time even thinking about this, when it shouldn't even be an issue? My body just functions better naked instead of being cooped up.

When I would use clothing for just a couple, or a few hours a couple of three times a week, it was nothing. Now, some of my clothing is wearing out and I'm getting out of fashion, and I'm shrinking out of them, so I've got to go out and spend money on new clothes. Shopping in a mall is one thing, but in the warm months, I just don't want clothes. It is like the opposite of going to the grocery when hungry. I have better things to do. It is like shooting myself in the foot.

I use water washing clothing as well as energy, when all I should need to do is wash the body. Sure it feels nice to put on clean clothes on a clean body, BUT it feels so much better hands down, to put on a clean body clothed in the air. That can't compare. And the look. God gave me this body and it therefore looks good. Do I trust God's taste, or Pierre Cardin?
Jbee

[BlueTrain]

I know a little about God but who's Pierre Cardin?

[Greenbare Woods]

Anyway, my laundry piles up, and makes me want to get more use out of clothing between washes, which can lead to unsanitary practices. Do I want to wash clean clothes? Dang, those clothes can smell bad before a washing, but when does that happen? Why should I waste my time even thinking about this, when it shouldn't even be an issue? My body just functions better naked instead of being cooped up.
Jbee

The Levies jeans company recently published that people wash their jeans too often and wear them out too quickly.   They said you don't have to wash your jeans every time you wear them.

I find that I tend to wear clothes for an hour or two at a time, a trip to town, a guest coming over, etc.  That doesn't make them dirty to wash so I hang them up on a hook.  One of the primary causes of "dirty" clothes is body oils and sweat, etc., which bodies produce.  Hanging clothes for a day or two allows most of those materials to evaporate, what little I collected in the two hours I wore them.   A century or so ago hanging and brushing was a common way to maintain clothes rather than constant washing.  At the end of a week my laundry is one or two items.

[jbeegoode]

Yea. We tend compromise ourselves, when putting on clothing for social pressures and law.

Memorial Day, DF and I had dilemma. We had been looking forward to an annual party. The last two, it was hot, the pool water was warm, it was filled with old friends that we don't see enough of, many are hippie sweat people. Every body found itself in the pool naked at one time or another. I just hung out there and was sure to meet everyone that way and have some time with them. It had felt a tad weird to me to go into the house naked, where most were clothed. I remember that DF spent most of her time in the livingroom last year happily naked. I asked her about how she felt being generally the only one naked in the house. She thought about it and replied, "Liberated, I feel wonderfully liberated." She did feel kinda naked when a guy that she used to go to church with years before walked in. She came around the corner to the kitchen to nibble potluck and bumped into him. So, we are looking forward to a perfect world, again.

So, this year, the temp was more comfortable outside, most people were outside, but to nibble the fun potluck food in the kitchen. The music was even better on the patio, but the pool water hadn't heated up quite yet this year. We have had no real 100F days!

The pool was a chill, my breath taken away at first, but I got out for a few minutes and when my body went back in it was comfortable. Eventually a chill happened, if I stayed in there.

DF joined me, but it took for ever to get her bod in past waist deep. I had to practically drag her in, borderline getting myself clobbered. She was fine submerged to her neck, but not fine enough. We decided to get out and mingle. I don't think that more than 8 or ten went skinny dipping the whole party. Four or five repeats,maybe, I didn't sit and keep score. Which made a completely different dynamic.

So we get out to eat ...hmm I'm making a short story log again...and I see DF putting a t-shirt on over her head...hmm...So, what do I do? I grabbed my towel and wrap it around. Towel turns to kilt. I have compromised myself rather than be literally the only one of all, mingling nude.

We tried to be the lead, but ended up following the herd. I suppose that is an ingrained tribal behavior thing, or did I learn that somewhere, like mom, or junior high, where fashion conformity is so all important. I'd like to know. Not everyone who braved the pool skinnydipped, but outside of that a few wore swim suits. There were a few different faces, people that we haven't been skinnydipping with over the years.

Oh well, our hostess (who skinnydipped and the redressed) will be out of town this year, three months during the heat and this year has been mild and dry again. So, we get what we get, BUT, why do we compromise ourselves. Why do women free to take off their shirts in New York conform to norms on a hot day? Why do they look around to see what others are doing, even the strangers?

At clothing parties, you hear, "Oh, what a cute outfit." At a nude party, do you get, "Oh what a cute butt."? NOO! It is about decoration, recognition, competition, with clothing. Nude social events all of the costumes have flaws, people have to be themselves. At nude events, you can't stare, so it is often difficult to compliment one another. You have to carefully hug, if you hug at all...generally.

Oh well, I had a great time, playing music. Listening to the talent, eating unusual food that my system will stumble with the next day and catching up with old friends. I got better hugs in the kilt even some recognition, cause some find it sexy.

People are so weird. I confess that I am people, too. Maybe perfection IS imperfect.

So, back on topic, Two hardly used beach towels a T-shirt and a kilt to go to a party that we figured we would attend nude...and we're free range naturists! Do we just put those towels back, or wash them? The t-shirt maybe. The kilt is camouflage, shows no soiling and it actually pretty much just touches my body at the waist, except when I sit down, where it doesn't cling like pants and tends to expose my bare butt to surfaces rather than to it. Do we really wash these things that we may not wear for months, now that it will become hot? Why did we not just be naked? Why all of this laundry? Which is more hassle, laundry, or being the one dressed as "a nudist"
Jbee

[eyesup]

If I am not that busy I seldom have clothes on for any length of time. I do like Bob does, and judge when I have accumulated enough time or wear before I toss them into the clothes bin. Unless we have some special event, I hardly ever have many clothes to put away.

. . . but who's Pierre Cardin?

The easy answer is that he is a Frenchman that makes his fortune designing more ways to wear expensive clothes.

Another way to answer is to say he provides the glitteratti with a means to separate themselves from the rest of us and a means the separate the glitteratti from their cash.

Existentially speaking, an excellent question! Just who is Pierre Cardin anyway?

Duane

[Greenbare Woods]

Existentially speaking, an excellent question! Just who is Pierre Cardin anyway?
Duane

Isn't he some Frenchie who is very good as separating rich bitches from loads of money? 

As P.T.Barnum once said, "A fool and his money are easily separated." 

[nuduke]

Yep! I can concur with the low-wash thing too.  I would never consider washing trousers after one wear.  Trousers can go months without needing washing if you only wear each pair occasionally.  There is nothing below the waist that sweats like an armpit (on me anyway!).  So whilst shirts get a days wear (or 2 half-days or several 1 hour wears) trousers last much, much longer and get washed usually because they are creased rather than dirty.  Socks and underpants - 1 wear for 1 day only unless its, say, an hour whence they will do next day.  I shower every day before bed so never carry over a day's dried sweat to the next day! Can't understand people that shower in the morning (admittedly probably a majority) - you have to take your dirt and sweat to bed with you!
On recent holiday I had to budget the luggage weight so all clothing got 2 days wear minimum.  I hate putting on socks the second day.

John

[John P]

This can be like how fast a person drives a car--if you go faster than I would, you're a maniac, and if you go slower, you're an idiot. If it's about laundry, we might call people hopelessly slovenly, or neurotic about hygiene, according to how their habits compare with ours. But as a naturist, what I feel is that the human body is inherently good, and I don't focus on the nasty substances that we're exuding. A shirt can get stinky after a few wears and socks after a day, but I don't think of my body as doing anything to pants at all. I wash them when they have visible signs of dirt from external sources, but not because of anything they've picked up from contact with me. I don't think I could sustain that attitude if I didn't wear underwear, though!

The word "epiphany" made me think of this ancient Arlo and Janis cartoon (so ancient that the artist has aged them significantly since then) which has been stuck to my refrigerator for literally decades. Maybe it needs washing.

[BlueTrain]

Not to get too technical but it depends on the materials. Wool can go longer without really needing washing (here referring to washable woolens). Don't know why but it doesn't hold odors like cotton. Wet woolen shirts (such as Pendleton) still smells like wet wool, though. Once upon a time, wool was recommended for all clothes, although one person said that was "stuffy." But he was from California.

Also once upon a time, a once a week bath was considered sufficient. We're all soft and effeminate now, I guess.

[jbeegoode]

The underwear needs more frequent change; they sit and absorb where the body exudes bacteria, etc. They trap in the heat that holds such and they protect the outer clothing from accidents, or slop during toiletry functions. The rest varies dependent on environment. If I sit a lot they get worn and dirty. If I am up and moving around, they drape a bit away from my body and breathe. If it is outdoors, or summer instead of winter they get messed up differently depending.

It is nineties Fahrenheit here. Clothing just doesn't work at all outside. It is stupid to dress in hot weather. It is stupid to use more electricity to cool a house where nobody sees you, but you, or family and you have a perfectly efficient cooling system in and of your physical body.

All of this and insult to intelligence, you have to wash the clothing, too!?!
Jbee

[Peter S]

Also once upon a time, a once a week bath was considered sufficient.

Whence the old gag, “I have a bath every year on my birthday, whether I need it or not”

Before the ease and luxury of indoor piped water most washing, and certainly all-over bathing, was regarded as unnecessary - go back far enough it was even considered harmful by some. But then of course we can go back further to the Romans and their near-fetish for hot baths. Strange what some people regard as important and how that changes.

[jbeegoode]

The French developed perfume to hide the smell of expensive dresses that couldn't be washed.

The 202 arguments tell us of reports of women in the British isles greeting and entertaining guests nude, eve strangers passing through. They had stripped off by a warm, dry fire, in a cottage in the countryside and stayed that way. Guess who generally had to wash the clothing by hand?
Jbee