Men like to wash their pajamas and other insights.
In his underrated song Captain Jack, Billy Joel sang, “Well you’re 21 and still your mother makes your bed; and that’s too long.” The same might be said for a grown man who lets his mom do his laundry. Are you 18 and still allowing someone else to wash your clothes? Well that’s too long, and it puts you squarely in the minority of people (30 percent) who didn’t do their first load before they turned 18, according to a survey from Clorox.
More than 1,200 adults participated in a wide-ranging phone survey that asked them about their laundry habits. We picked out some of the most interesting results, so read along to see how you compare to your peers. One prevailing theme: Men of all ages don’t seem to mind if someone else does their laundry, whereas women would prefer to do their own. And perhaps the biggest surprise? Men are more likely than women to wash their pajamas after wearing them only once.
- More than half of women wash their clothes more than once a week (56 percent) compared to 40 percent of men. Probably because women have fewer clothes. Or not.
- Of men between the ages of 18-29, 68 percent utilize the sniff test (sometimes or frequently) to determine if their clothes are fresh enough to wear.
- Married men are more likely than unmarried men to think that clothes that have been worn once are dirty. The survey doesn’t spell out if married men think these clothes are dirty because their wives told them as much.
- Twice as many women as men say they aren’t comfortable with anyone else doing their laundry and only want to do it themselves (29 percent of women vs. 15 percent of men).
- While 37 percent of consumers say they would be comfortable having their mom do their laundry, only half as many (18 percent) would be comfortable having their dad do their laundry.
- Though 52 percent of women say they always do the laundry for themselves and their significant other, just 26 percent of men say their significant other always does their laundry.
- While 41 percent of men say they and their significant other share laundry responsibilities, just 29 percent of women say the same. Bah! Someone cue The Dating Game.
- While men are most likely to wash their pajamas after wearing them one time (34 percent), women are most likely to wash their pajamas after wearing them two or three times (40 percent). A-hah! Men do enjoy being clean in bed.
- Women are more likely than men to wash their underwear, boxers or panties after wearing them one time (93 percent of women vs. 84 percent of men). And 12 percent of men wash their underwear after wearing them two or three times. Yeesh. Don’t think we don’t know who you are, guys; you’re the ones who fail the whiff test from across the room.
- Men who are rookies at laundry (18-29) are more likely than pros (30-49) or veterans (50+) to see smelliness, shabbiness or dinginess as indicators that their clothes are ready for a wash. Left unsaid: They have a great need to look stylish than older men.
- Married men and women generally wash their clothes more frequently than unmarried consumers.
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