To Wash or Not to Wash?

I almost always wash new clothes before we wear them, that includes clothes for myself. There have only been a few situations where the clothes haven't been washed first.

I always wash first. It seems like most everything comes from China and they don't seem to have the highest standards in regards to things like lead, etc. I just don't know what that item has come in contact with via the factory, handling by multiple people, being shipped, traveling to the store, being unpacked and, finally, put on the shelf for who knows who to touch! Probably crazy I know but I can't help it! :)

I always wash new clothes before we wear them, no matter how I've bought them or whether they come in packages or not. Partly it's to get rid of whatever chemicals might have been used to treat it, but also it's because new items just don't smell right to me. I run new clothes through the washer with half a cup of baking soda and a few drops of laundry soap.

With brightly colored items that are likely to run, I soak them in white vinegar before I wash them. That sets the color and makes it less likely to run when washed. (But I still wash them separately from whites.)

I wash everything before we wear it unless it's an emergency (diaper accident and such)
You never know what it can pick up in the factory it's made in. You have no idea what it could have picked up from people trying it on. The junk they put on your clothes to make them look good in the store can be toxic. Formaldehyde anyone? Yes, in your new clothes.
With the allergies in our house I just don't risk it unless, like I said, I am given no choice in an emergency.

Definitely wash, those clothes have been tossed around warehouses and in boxes, they aren't clean when you get them. They may also have leftover chemicals from processing that should be washed away before your child wears them.

I do. Always have. My husband will wear something just after cutting off the tags. Ugh.... who KNOWS how many times it has been "tried on" by others before you bought it!

But yes, even packaged articles of clothing get washed first. There might (or might not--but they smell that way to me) be chemical residues that can come off or be breathed in if wearing them straight out of the package. Socks... umm...your feet sweat.. I wouldn't want to think of what kind of chemical reaction might be going on with the sweat and the residues that could be on the socks from the manufacturer. I'm sure those manufacturing plants get sprayed for bugs periodically.....
Besides, I think the clothes feel softer after being washed. That "starchy" stiff feeling is just gross to me.

I wash everything before we wear it.

i personally never wash anything before we wear them. doesnt bother me one bit.

You only need to wash them if your child is sensitive to the sizing that new clothes have. I never wash my new clothes before wearing them. They look really nice when brand new and stay clean longer due to the sizing. Sizing is like starch only it's not starch.

I have never washed a new garment before wearing it.

Great job on the sale! I love finding bargains.
I always wash everything before wearing.
Let's face it, yes....the stuff is clean but it has all that sizing and stuff in it. My daughter's skin was sensitive to it.
I never mixed the new stuff in with clothes we already had, but I definitely wash the new stuff. You can put them on a short cycle and then fold and put away. Your daughter is 6 so she can certainly help you with that and get into the habit.
I didn't always wash the socks for my son first, but I did everything else. It just feels better washed, in my opinion.
You didn't ask for it, but I want to share a tip for socks.
I go to the dollar store and buy diaper safety pins. Before I put socks in the washer, I pin the socks together at the top in pairs before putting them in the dryer. That way, they come out matched and in pairs and even if you don't have time to fold right away, you still have pairs and they don't get lost.
It saves you from buying a pack of socks and only being able to match up half of them with a pile of unmatched.
It might seem like an extra step, but once you get in the habit and know you're not washing one half a pair at a time, it really does save time in the end.

Best wishes.

I always wash new clothes, socks and undies too. When you think of how many times these clothes get handled and how they travel overseas and etc, you never know what might be on your clothes (don't you feel dirty after a long trip?). Also, if other people try on the clothing in stores their body order and who knows what else will be on the clothing. I've also seen mice at Walmart and Target running around in the stores, so I hate to think my clothes are being walked on by mice. A friend of mine use to produce t-shirts in a warehouse and he told me that most shirts just get thrown on the floor after they are put together and there are lots of dyes and chemicals that get put on the clothing so it is best to always wash.

I don't wash them. washing socks in my house is a good way for them to get lost, and to be lost before even a wearing is a shame. I don't wash the clothes unless they are too big and need a little shrinking first.

I don't wash socks, underwear I do wash. I don't usually wash t's and shorts before he wears them unless it specifically says to wash before wearing. But he also doesn't have super sensitive skin.

I wash everything. Unless you buy organic clothes there is a pretty good chance that there is a host toxins in the fabric that can be absorbed through the skin. Anything from the dye to pesticides they use during storage and shipping (remember, almost all clothes are produced in China these days).

I usually wash EVERYTHING first. It drives my kids nuts. But we have had times that I don't because there is no time for it to wash and then dry. I hang things up, hate the dryer. A friend had a neighbor that had a 6 yr old. The little girl had headaches all the time and they could not figure out what the problem was. Well, this little girl had braids in her hair that were left alone for 2 weeks. They went to the doc who did blood tests with no issues coming up. Well, a week later, they went to a salon to have her hair washed and set another way. They found a spiders nest in her hair. It turned out this is where her headaches came from and believe it came from a sweatshirt they bought and did not wash first. Ewwww!! Another time I read about a woman that went to a special "trainload" sale at a store. She saved a lot of money on pants for her son. She did not wash them first. The poor kid got a burn rash from the pants. It turned out that the pants had sat in a warehouse and exposed to some chemical that he had a reaction to.
I do not ALWAYS wash socks, but usually definitely.

When my kids were tiny babies, I washed everything, up until they were about 6 weeks - I don't even know why I did really.
Now I wash nothing, I just pull off the tags and they wear them.

I have actually bought clothes, torn off tags and put them on the kids in the store.
I have even bought undies, while my daughter was in the store's bathroom with wet panties.
We have never had any issues.
And no I don't wash anything that is new.

I don't. It's never seemed to have affected us.

I usually wash undies first, but nothing else. Unless you/your family have super sensitive skin or have allergy issues, I wouldn't worry about it.

IMO there are a lot worse things out there than worrying about wearing a shirt that someone else might have tried on...and even if they had cooties, cooties won't live long on the racks.

I ALWAYS wash everything before wearing it. It drives my husband crazy because he just wants to be able to wear his new clothes whenever he feels like it but if I havent washed them yet I refuse to let him wear it. My daughter is 19 months and obviously if I do it to mine and my husbands clothes I will do it to my daughters until she starts doing her own laundry and even then I will probably insist she wash her new stuff first

I am like many of the posters here. I wash absolutely everything. I consider all of the hands that touched it in processing and packaging it, evne if they wore gloves there is powders and chemical residue from them on the items. There is no way they are coming from anything resembling "sterile" or whatever.

Plus for items that are open to be tried on in stores...who knows what sort of hygiene people utilize, or what portion of their day they were trying things on. Ish. Ish. Ish. Ishy.

I wash every single stich of clothing before anyone in my household wears it. I wash all towels, sheets and any bedding, etc before being used. The idea of not doing so makes my skin crawl.

Wash everything. I would see if one of the local laundry mats has a drop off service. Drop it off pay by the pound and they wash, dry and fold it for you and you have your time free to do the things you love.

Yes wash because you never really know what someone might
have that has picked it up and handled it....so yes wash first.

I look at the label or the package- sometimes it says "wash before wearing"- if it does, I definately wash it. If it doesn't say anything, I usually do anyway, but occasionally won't- especially if it's me or my husband that will be wearing whatever it is.

Added: I just found an article about this. It says you should wash new clothes to prevent the excess dye from getting on your skin and to remove the chemicals that are on them.

http://laundry.about.com/od/laundrybasics/a/washbeforewea...

Wash everything but you could hold out on washing socks. Though, everything that is packaged is coated in a chemical to keep them as wrinkle free as possible for aesthetic reasons.
For that reason alone we wash EVERYthing.

I don't wash them either. Just too much to do in my day! When they have been dirtied up, then I wash them.

I wash underwear, sheets & towels. Most other things, I rip the tags off & put them on.

It seems things wrapped up in plastic, like sheets, smell badly when they are opened. The smell causes me to envision a warehouse in a third world country.

I wash the clothes and underwear but not socks.

Not me, but my husband's freaky about that.

I used to work in retail and have seen where clothes have been before they get on the hanger. Wash everything.

i dont wash anything before wearing it if i dont have laundry to do, but if i have to do laundry then i wash it, i wash MOST of my daughters clothes before she wears them 01