The Art of Airing Out

“Airing out” by Ka Fisher

I am letting out a big secret today – I don’t wash my clothes after each wear.

Of course I wear fresh underwear and socks everyday. But for pretty much anything else – pants, tops, skirts, jackets, as long as they are not visibly dirty or smelly, I do not wash them after just one wear. What I do, is to hang them up, and air them out between use.

I grew up airing out my clothes. My family did not have a washing machine when I was little, so all the clothes, towels, and bedsheets had to be washed by hand. Every Sunday, if there was no rain in the forecast (we also dried all the clothes outside), my grandma would pull out a big wooden bucket and a couple washboards. My grandpa would fill the bucket with water, and they’d sit down and wash for hours. The labor and the wear to clothes discouraged washing them after just one use, and this habit lasted in me even after I had washer and dryer. I still have an old picture showing the 4-year-old me washing handkerchiefs next to my grandpa. You can see the excitment on my face that I was finally trusted to take on such a big responsibility. I must have begged them and practiced so many times before my grandparents finally trusted me to wash handkerchifes for the family!

I also grew up airing my bedsheets. I was taught to open the bedroom window and make my bed every morning by folding my comforter outwards, leaving the side touching my skin at night facing out. I was supposed to place the folded comforter under my pillow, so every inch of the bed that had been covered at night could be exposed to fresh air. It is considered sanitary to let the moisture out of the sheets, comforter, and pillows during the day. A light dusting before going to bed in the evenings should remove any dust might have accumulated.

Such traditions may not make much sense nowadays, but I still live out of my old habit. When I arrive home after a day in the office and take off my jeans, which often still smells like laundry detergent, I do not think it belongs to the “dirty” laundry basket just yet. Even though this pair of jeans is not going to be washed by my grandma, with her hands cracked from using the harsh soap and her back hunched, it still feels like a waste to me to wash something that is mostly clean.

I know this is considered lack of personal hygeinge in U.S., so I am careful not to wear the same top to work two days in row. This results lot of worn-only-once clothing all over our bedroom. So last weekend, I brought in an old ladder to help with the mess:

I bought this ladder in North Carolina back in 2011 to use as a towel rack in the bathroom. Once Slav moved in, this ladder became too small to dry two big towels. so we kept it as a drying rack for delicates in the laundry room. It was in a rusty red color, which is really cute. But I want to keep our bedroom mostly monochrome and calm. So I painted it black to match the bed and the mirrior.

I do not think I’ve showed you this IKEA mirrior yet. It was only $30 and I like how simple and big it is. We like to keep the bedroom dark with only accent lighting, so I wrapped some solar-powered string lights around it to dress it up a little.

It works pretty well as a night light – just bright enough to walk around with, but not too bright to interrupt our sleep.

This light pretty much operates itself – the solar panel has a sensor, and we mounted it against the window facing outside. It will turn on by itself after sunset and off with sunrise. Since it uses solar, I do not feel guilty leaving it on all night long. For just $13, I think it is a great hand-off solution for bedroom lighting.

We also had this metal deer antlers mounted in our bedroom.

And lately, it has been used to air out Slav’s wifebeater:

I know, what a ridiculous name. Wifebeater. OMG. I tried to call it “undershirt”, but Amazon does not give me the right search results unless I use the old terminology. I got Slav these in black since he likes to wear them for sleeping – I think they look a lot less offensive than the white ones, what do you think?

Here you have it, our little airing-out corner of the bedroom. It is cozy but not messy, jus the way I like it. I know that airing out clothes is not everybody’s thing, but we have been doing it for years and no one has ever complained about our smell. Besides, our dogs love it. Charlie loves napping under my pajamas. I think it is so sweet!