I won’t be joining the no-wash brigade

I’m not sure where this started but there is a no-wash movement emerging whose aim is to encourage people to wash their clothes as little as possible or not at all. They say it’s to protect the environment, save water and extend the life of our clothes.

Our Green friends want us to live like Baldrick, Edmund Blackadder’s sidekick but I won’t be joining in. They say there are some great reasons for washing our clothes less frequently. They’ll last longer, it’s good for the environment and using a washing machine can be expensive, so doing less laundry will save you time and money.

That may be, but one of the things I like about living in the twenty first century, is the comfort it provides me. I like feeling fresh, I love my shower and I prefer clean clothes. I know what the alternative feels like from my travels to various parts of the world in the days when trying to maintain good personal hygiene was often difficult. Been there and worn the dirty t-shirt.

I wince when I think about what our ancestors had to put up with, but they didn’t know any better and didn’t have the facilities either. I wrote recently about toileting in medieval times and I’m still not over that. We are wiser now and I have no intention of slumming it no matter what the no-washers tell me.

According to The Guardian, Richard Blackburn, professor of sustainable materials at Leeds University asked at what stage do you decide to wash your clothes? “Do you smell it? Do you look at it? Or do you just wash it habitually?” He then points out that the fabric that has most contact with your body is your bedding, and you wouldn’t dream of washing it after every use.

He didn’t say how often he washes his bed linen but I’m getting itchy just thinking about it. In our house, certain clothes are washed more frequently than others. Tennis gear, work clothes and anything likely to come in contact with my sweaty body goes straight into the wash basket the miniute it comes off. Casual wear around the house might last a couple of days at most.

He doesn’t like washing the body too often either. “We wash ourselves so much anyway.” According to Professor Blackburn, “Most people shower or bathe once a day. Most of us do occupations where, frankly, we don’t really perspire. We don’t get dirty, and it’s not good to be uber clean.”

The professor says he’ll happily wear socks more than once and has been known to wear pants twice if on the first day, he didn’t get the full 18-hours’ use out of them. I presume he means underpants and I’m sorry but I’m not having that. Another suggestion is to be flexible and if your clothes don’t smell, don’t bother washing them.

I have no intention of wearing a shirt until it starts to stink. I shower every morning and usually again at some other point during the day depending on what I’m doing. I sweat a lot so presumably anything that comes in contact with me is also going to get sweaty and even if it doesn’t pong, it’s going in the machine.

Even back in the Middle Ages they washed themselves and their clothes. They did the best they could with what they had.

According to worldhistory.com people in the Middle Ages acquired something of a bad reputation when it came to cleanliness, especially the peasantry. However, despite the general lack of running water and other modern amenities, there were common expectations of personal hygiene such as regularly washing from a basin.

Washing the hands before and after eating was regarded as good etiquette in a period when cutlery was still a rarity for most people. Although monks had their own special areas for washing, including at Cluny Abbey in France which had a large basin where hands were washed before meals.

There, the towels were changed twice a week while the water was changed only once a week which kind of defeated the purpose.

Running water was scarce, and it took such a physical effort to get one bucketful from a well or nearby water source, it’s not surprising that taking a full bath every day was not a feasible option for most people. Indeed, with baths seen as a luxury given the cost of fuel to heat the water, monks, for example, were typically prohibited from taking more than two or three baths in a year.

For those who had a bath, it most often took the form of a wooden half-barrel or tub. Even then it would not have been filled and most of the ‘bathing’ was done using a jug of heated water poured over the body.

The vast majority of people, though, would have made do with a quick swill using a basin of cold water. As 80% of the population did physically demanding jobs working the land it is likely that washing of some kind was done on a daily basis.

Teeth were cleaned using twigs (especially hazel) and small pieces of wool cloth. Shaving was either not done at all or just once a week.

Soaking laundry in lye, an alkaline solution often used for washing, was an important way of tackling white and off-white cloth to whiten as well as cleanse. Ashes and urine were the most important substances for mixing a good “lye”. As well as helping to remove stains and encourage a white colour, they were good de-greasing agents.

I’m not gone on the idea of washing my clothes in ashes and pee or limiting myself to a couple of showers a year either, so I won’t be joining the no-wash brigade.