Do you wash new clothing before you wear it? (need laundry tips for keeping uniforms nice)

4Speedy

I wash our clothing when it is new out of habit--it's DH's request because the sizing they put on new clothes to keep them from wrinkling during shipping irritates his skin.

DD has new school uniforms and the shirts arrived REALLY stiff.  I am debating whether I want to spend the morning washing and ironing them or just leave them as is and steam out the crease marks from where they were folded.

I have to admit, I am intimidated by DD's dress code.  She is starting Kindy at Catholic school tomorrow and she will get a grade on her report card for neatness in personal appearance.  Which, lets be honest, is really a grade for me.  They are looking to see if her shoes are kept polished, uniforms neat and clean, etc.  We have a lot of iron in our water so our white clothing eventually turns yellow/orangish from the rust.  Most people this time of year are discussing the cost of school supplies, clothing, etc.  I could add a whole new category to that discusion--cost of laundry supplies.  I can't tell you how much I've spent in the last week, stocking up on various stain removers, rust out, spray starch, etc.  This whole uniform thing is causing me more stress then I ever could have imagined.  Anyone have any good landry tips, especially if you have hard water?

Jamaica_Bride

I wore a uniform for YEARS in catholic school! We (my Mum) sent the jumpers to the dry cleaners due the number of pleats ( or is it pleets?? I'm too lazy to look it up). We washed and hand ironed (which I did from the time I was 12ish) our uniform shirts. Get some bleach, a good iron and lots of spray starch- or you could just send them to the dry cleaners of you don't want to be bothered. Our dry cleaners charges 50 cents per little dress shirt )

We always had WAY more shirts then jumpers of skirts. We could get 3-4 wears out of our jumpers and one day per shirt. Oh and get a bunch of tights or knee socks- depending on what their code is. I loved the cable knit navy tights in the winter and we were forever putting holes in them.

We also wore navy plain navy sweaters- because our shirts were short sleeve even in the winter.

 

Sundays afternoons were spent polishing shoes- which was done with my Dad. He would polish his work shoes and we'd polished our 2 pairs of school shoes.

With uniforms it's all about being on top of the need. I would iron for hours but knew I had 2 week of shirts done.

 

GL!

Jamaica_Bride

gah, who knew I had so much to say about uniform )

4Speedy

Jamaica_Bride:

I wore a uniform for YEARS in catholic school! We (my Mum) sent the jumpers to the dry cleaners due the number of pleats ( or is it pleets?? I'm too lazy to look it up). We washed and hand ironed (which I did from the time I was 12ish) our uniform shirts. Get some bleach, a good iron and lots of spray starch- or you could just send them to the dry cleaners of you don't want to be bothered. Our dry cleaners charges 50 cents per little dress shirt )

We always had WAY more shirts then jumpers of skirts. We could get 3-4 wears out of our jumpers and one day per shirt. Oh and get a bunch of tights or knee socks- depending on what their code is. I loved the cable knit navy tights in the winter and we were forever putting holes in them.

We also wore navy plain navy sweaters- because our shirts were short sleeve even in the winter.

 

Sundays afternoons were spent polishing shoes- which was done with my Dad. He would polish his work shoes and we'd polished our 2 pairs of school shoes.

With uniforms it's all about being on top of the need. I would iron for hours but knew I had 2 week of shirts done.

 

GL!

I could kiss you--this is just the sort of advice/support I needed.  I have been wondering how many shirts/jumpers, etc. to have on hand.  Good tip about getting extra shirts!  And I think I'm going to turn the shoe polishing over to DH.

AnnapolisLari

Have you considered a whole house filter for your water line? Our well water is loaded with iron and it makes a huge difference in how much iron gets to the water softener.

I think ours was just under $200 plus installation. Completely worth it.

4Speedy

AnnapolisLari:

Have you considered a whole house filter for your water line? Our well water is loaded with iron and it makes a huge difference in how much iron gets to the water softener.

I think ours was just under $200 plus installation. Completely worth it.

We have a charcoal filter for sediment that leads into a device that looks like a large air compressor--it removes heavy metals.  Then the water flows into our water softener, which should be removing most of the iron.  (Although DH usues regular salt pellets instead of the "iron-out" pellets because the iron remover pellets decrease the lifespan of a water softener.)  The heavy metal remover and the water softener together cost about $5K and we did a ton of research on the system so I really expected it to get more iron out.  I'm curious about your filter--is it one of those reverse osmosis filters?  Do you have the name of the manufacturer or any info so I could look it up?

Yodajo

I went to catholic school for elementary and high school.  After reading what you and Jamaica are going through, I have to say that I remember doing none of that!

My mom made our jumpers for elementary school, which sucked then because we were different than everyone else and that is an age when you want to just blend in.  I don't remember her spending a ton of time ironing, but maybe I am just forgetting?  We definitely didn't polish our shoes.

For high school, I had two plaid skirts that lasted me the entire four years.  By my senior year, they were looking pretty rough.  The pleats werre no londer pressed and some of the stitching was coming undone.  We had to wear saddle shoes and most girls just bought the Nike ones.  They were pretty abused too.  IThere were some girls that kept their clothes looking neat, but I think the majority were like me.  It was an all girl school, so maybe we would have cared more if there had boys there?  I don't know.

So, I am not being helpful, I know.  The school your DD is going to obviously is much stricter about their uniforms.

We need to learn more about our water system.  It is one thing that DH and I fight about on a somewhat regular basis.  He forgets to pout salt in our softener and I get a rust shot in the laundry that either ruins the clothes or I have to spend the day trying to get the stains out.  We have a reverse osmosis system and filter, but we haven't figured out the salt part.  I want to look into one of those saltless water softeners.

Good luck with your uniform endeavor!  I bet once you establish a system, it will just become part of your routine and you won't have to  give it a second thought anymore. 

Jamaica_Bride

Oh one other thing- we never ate breakfast in our uniforms- we wore our bathrobes over our undershirts, undies and tights. After breakfast we'd brush our teeth, wash face and hands, have our hair done then get dressed.

Also, the SECOND we got in the door after school our uniforms came off and hung up.

 

Gah, how did my mother do it??

AnnapolisLari

Mine is just a plain old sediment filter with string wound filters in it. That and our kickass new softener get the iron down to pretty much zero, according to the water tests.

We have a Ecowater 3500 softener. I think the whole system with the pre-filter was $2700.

Zenya

I had a uniform growing up and it wasn't nearly the drama that it seems to be here.  idk why?  We had multiple shirts that we ironed.  Sweater, skirt that we not washed as much.  idk.  It just wasn't a big deal.  Then again everyone had uniforms.  Maybe that's the difference?

we polished our shoes as needed.  took like 60 seconds with that liquid stuff.

Jamaica_Bride

Zenya:

I had a uniform growing up and it wasn't nearly the drama that it seems to be here.  idk why?  We had multiple shirts that we ironed.  Sweater, skirt that we not washed as much.  idk.  It just wasn't a big deal.  Then again everyone had uniforms.  Maybe that's the difference?

we polished our shoes as needed.  took like 60 seconds with that liquid stuff.

I think there is a difference when you wear a uniform and are graded on appearance. If we showed for school looking disheveled or sloppy our parents were called or we were sent home. It wasn't a big deal for us either- it was the norm.

 

 

Zenya

Jamaica_Bride:

Zenya:

I had a uniform growing up and it wasn't nearly the drama that it seems to be here.  idk why?  We had multiple shirts that we ironed.  Sweater, skirt that we not washed as much.  idk.  It just wasn't a big deal.  Then again everyone had uniforms.  Maybe that's the difference?

we polished our shoes as needed.  took like 60 seconds with that liquid stuff.

I think there is a difference when you wear a uniform and are graded on appearance. If we showed for school looking disheveled or sloppy our parents were called or we were sent home. It wasn't a big deal for us either- it was the norm.

 

 

wow that's crazy. 

Jamaica_Bride

Oh Z- I could make your toes curl with my stories from Catholic school. Our appearance is just the tip of the iceberg!

 

...thus the reason my boys are in public school ;o)

Zenya

Jamaica_Bride:

Oh Z- I could make your toes curl with my stories from Catholic school. Our appearance is just the tip of the iceberg!

 

...thus the reason my boys are in public school ;o)

for real!!