The latest fashion advice doing the rounds the internet is to wash less. And it's advice that's not just for deep green hipsters with small beards. While you might not be up for 330 wears with intermittent trips to the freezer with your washing, jeans really don't need to be washed anywhere near as often as most other clothes. Aside from the practical matters of saving water, constantly washing your jeans will slowly fade them and puts them at risk of being shrunk. (Although in my case, I think it was all the holiday ice cream and wine that made my jeans 'shrink'.) And then there are the microfibres, especially if your jeans are pretty much shredded anyway. Every wash pushes fibres into the water ways - if they are synthetic, at least 500,000 fibres. These fibres are too small to be filtered out in treatment plants and invariably end up in the food chain. (Fish, salt, beer, water.)There is plenty of advice around about only washing your jeans every 7, 10 or 50 wears, the freezer alternative to washing really works and it will save your jeans and save water at the same time. Pop your jeans in the freezer for 24 hours when they start to whiff. Freezing kills off a lot of the bacteria that is causing any odour, and your jeans will be (almost) as fresh as a daisy!Bacteria comes off our skin and transfers onto our clothes, and it is the build up of this bacteria that causes odour. Low temperatures kill most of this bacteria, however do bear in mind that freezing will not kill 100%. At some point, probably best governed by your nose or the best advice of your friend's noses, you will need to wash them!
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From September 2009 to December of 2010, Canadian college student Josh Le wore his raw denim Nudie Jeans 330 times without washing them. When the jeans smelled, he put them in the freezer overnight or let them hang for a few hours. His jeans were tested for bacteria and after 15 months, had the same amount of bacteria on them as worn for 13 days!
If you are worried about any stains or spills from your freezer coming into contact with your jeans, they can be placed into a canvas or plastic bag that is left open and not tied shut. This will still allow the jeans the breathe, and prevent any stains on your jeans.