How to manage a household’s worth of thermal underwear and other cold weather clothing

Winter, the time of the year when thermal undergarments are most likely to be worn, can be a hard time to get everything washed, dried and put away before it’s required for wear again.  Too often (at least in personal experience) baskets of clothes start stacking up and it can be quite overwhelming when you have a few of these around, all at various stages of washing, drying and putting away.

One of the things you can do to reduce this stress on you and your washing machine can be to make sure you buy the optimal amount of clothing.  Too much and your wardrobe will overflow, and it will be tempting to just pull another clean item out of the closet rather than making sure that the worn ones are washed again, thus making your end-pile of washing bigger than ever.  By the same token, you don’t want so few items of clothing that you are washing like mad just to keep up with your wearing. Especially in the case of children or anyone in your family, buy extras of the same item that are used frequently – things like thermal underwear, thermal gloves, woollens which take longer to wash and dry, etc.

If your children are old enough, get them to put the clothes that are ready to wash in a designated place.  If you have a large family or a chaotic lifestyle (and let’s face it, most of us do have at least whole weeks like this, if not constantly!) make a place near the front door or in the bathroom where dirty clothing can be dumped straight away.  This will save you from finding your family’s odd socks, thermal underwear and thermal garments, singlets, and other random pieces of clothing strewn about the house.  Also, when your kids are old enough, you can teach them to start taking loads of this dirty washing to the laundry, and loading it into the washer.

In the case of thermal underwear, how often should you wash it?  Well, for starters remember that thermals are usually wicking, which means that they draw moisture away from the skin.  So, even if they smell clean (and it’s okay, we all smell clothes from time to time to decide when to wash them – it’s not just you!!) they will need regular laundering to keep them fresh and to retain their wicking properties.  Even a modern synthetic wicking fabric will not work as well when it starts to get dirty.

Make sure that your family knows how to wear layers of clothing to get the best effect and to prolong the life and wear of each garment.  For instance, thermal underwear is obviously not designed to take a beating from, let’s say for instance, children’s food messes.  Get your kids to wear their day clothes or PJ’s over their thermals and if your children are only little, put smocks, aprons or bibs on them to save their outer garments from wearing too fast too.

Thermals and other undergarments designed for warmth are not generally designed to keep out the weather (!) like a good coat or jacket will do.  Remember, each layer has a different purpose, for instance the outer layer is designed to cope with the wind and other elements when skiing. Getting everyone to wear appropriate outer clothing will save the lifespan of your thermal underwear and also make it work more effectively.

If there are wool garments or silk garments (silk is sometimes blended into thermal garments for its superior properties in just about everything), ensure that they are washed in a gentle washing powder or liquid designed for that kind of fabric.  Just throwing silk or woollen thermals into the wash with everything else will make them wear out a lot faster, pill and become uncomfortable to wear, stretch out of shape and possibly discolour too.  Try hanging thermals on Joy Mangano Huggable Hangers instead of bunching them up in your drawers, it will help them keep their shape.  But make sure that thermals are never washed in hot water on a non-gentle cycle and in a non-gentle wash soap – they must be always be washed in cold or warm, with gentle wash or gentle soap, and they need a gentle cycle in the machine.  Your thermals will end up pilled and felted and shrunken if you don’t observe this basic thermal underwear rule!

Hopefully you can take some of these tips and implement them in your household if you are keen to find more ways to manage your household’s thermal underwear and other cold weather clothing.  It’s not easy to run a household, but remember – you are already doing a great job!