This began as an experiment to discover how well wearing one set of clothing would work while backpacking. I wanted to know how quickly they would dry overnight, how I could keep them clean, etc. It turned out that I really liked it, and I've been doing it ever since (something like 2 years now).
You've seen the photos of me . Basically I always wear a T-shirt and shorts. I used to wear backpacking underwear, but I found that they cause me to chafe to much because they hold the sweat against the skin. So I've switched to backpacking boxers. I wore synthetic shirts for a long time, but more recently I've discovered Merino wool t-shirts. They are cool, comfortable, wear a long time, and they are stylish to boot. One advantage of only wearing one set of clothing is that you can spend a lot of money on it, so the cost isn't really an issue. If I wear out a couple of shirts a year it's actually not much worse than a more classical method of clothing. For shorts I just want something that looks reasonable, dries quickly, and is tough enough to last a while. Shorts generally last me around a year or so, though my current pair seems like it'll only make it maybe 8 months... they're starting to look pretty worn. I also wear a Tilly hit with a bandanna on it. The bandanna is partially for looks, and partially it's a bandanna for all of the uses bandannas are useful for. I've wiped myself down with it after jogging somewhere, or wiped off my feet after crossing a stream, or any number of things.
No! I wash my clothes silly!
I wash my clothes between every night and every 3 nights depending on my activity level. If I sweat a lot, I have to wash my clothes that night, if not I don't for a couple of days. I've gotten in the habit of taking off my shirt when doing strenuous activities (such as biking to work). This greatly saves on how often I have to do laundry. The sweat on my body dries again very quickly, and the oils and stuff can be washed off when I next take a shower, this keeps my clothes cleaner.
I wear all clothing that dries overnight. It'll be most of the way dry in about 6 hours, dry enough that I will put it back on. this means that I can simply do laundry, hang my clothes up to dry and go to bed, then put them on again in the morning. In general this solution works great. One thing to note of course is that while my clothes are drying I'm... well... naked. This is fine most of the time, but when I have guests or if I'm traveling it may be problematic. Basically, this means that I need an extra set of clothing ::sigh::. I actually don't have that much trouble with this though, in practice I either keep my last set of worn out clothes, or I keep a set of clothes to replace my current ones if I have a sudden catastrophic failure. I wouldn't want to get suck unable to go to work just because I tore my shorts in half. When traveling I carry a sarong. This is a piece of clothing in Hawaii and similar areas. It's just a simple wrap for the lower part of the body, but is acceptable dress for both males and females. The nice thing is that fundamentally it's just a large piece of cloth, so it can also be used as a towel or a sheet when sleeping on someone's couch.
Alright, so I explained why I started doing this, but why would I KEEP doing it? There are several reasons, but in the end they all derive from the simplicity of it. When I wake up in the morning, I just put on my clothing. I am always comfortable because I'm always wearing my favorite shirt pants and underwear, and I can get slightly more expensive stuff since it's all I wear. When I travel I don't have to do anything special, I just wear the same clothes, and wash them the same way. The only thing is that if I'm planning a trip I'll grab my "backup" clothes as well so I can stand at my hosts sink and do laundry clothed. Overall it's just really simple. When I move I don't have all of those clothes to move. I hang what I have in my closet and it fits easily. My clothes are carefully chosen to look fairly reasonable and respectable so it's rare that I'm not dressed appropriately. I happen to like dark colors anyway so my clothes don't stain easily. It also turns out that quick-dry equates to not absorbing water, which directly implies stain resistance. Basically, it's simple, and it just works.
YES! I do in fact. It's surprising how much clothing is required to get by in polite society. I also have a few pieces of clothing related to specific sports I like to do. For example I have a set of clothes that I can trash in a cave. I have various levels of dress shirt and pant (including jeans, I think of those as for "dressing up"). I have a sport coat. I have a spare set of clothing just in case I need it. I have some clothing specific to backpacking because it's lighter and while acceptable on the trail it's less acceptable normally (specifically this is a pair of short running shorts). I have compression shorts for when I need that. I have many pairs of socks because I hate washing them, and need multiple for backpacking anyway. In other words, I probably own about as much clothing as your average person would think absolutely critical to bring on a weekend trip to Disneyland.
Nope. There are 2 good reasons for this. First, I just don't get cold easily if I'm moving, so it's never an issue. Second check out what I carry in my backpack . I do wear warmer clothes, just not in the form of pants that replace my shorts. This make it easy when I get to hot to go back to just shorts and a T-shirt.
You would be really surprised just how fast most clothing wears out. Most people have no concept since they have closets FULL of clothing and have no idea how often an piece actually gets worn. As it turns out many many shirts will only look good for wear for about 3 months. Think about it, that's 90 wears. At $20 a shirt that's 22 cents per wear. The best I've gotten out of a shirt so far is about 1 year. That was a synthetic "active" shirt. The worse was about 1 month, and that was just depressing. Lately I've been wearing a Smartwool t-shirt. It recently developed a small hole in the side, but unlike other shirts the fabric hasn't deteriorated at all, so it still looks quite nice. I may try and darn it, but I picked up a replacement just in case. In the time I've been doing this I've worn out 1 pair of shorts 4 shirts (going on 5), and 1 pair boxers. I have 2 pair boxers now though that have been worn some each (I was experimenting with how fast they dried), so those statistics are a little broken.
This has worked GREAT for me, and has encouraged me to more such experiments.
I've discovered a company called icebreaker. Supposedly their wool is far more robust, I'll let you know after I wear out my current shirt and get some of their wool instead.
By mbrewer