Word for word how I describe my own clothing methodology to others. Rock on good fellow.

I usually have 3 decent (not super cheap, but nothing expensive, 40-80€) pairs at a time, they usually last around 10 years, with taking them to get fixed once or twice.

> I don't think it's realistic for you to expect your jeans to last a lifetime.

> I buy decent jeans once a year.

WHAT? I have jeans I got 10 years ago and are still good. And they weren't even expensive

May have to do with how often you wear them. For a few years I wore jeans every damn day, unless there was a funeral or something, and I had a similar rotation: two pairs "active" at a time (with maybe one reserve pair in case the lesser of those two got ruined, assuming I had any older ones that were still wearable)—one for light duty, one for heavy duty, order a new pair of 501s when they're on sale about once a year, they become the new light-duty pair, everything else shifts down, oldest become rags or get thrown out (they were never in good-enough shape to donate, by the time they were leaving my closet).

~$40/yr wasn't so bad.

[EDIT] Oh, and for the record, I minimized washing, though I wasn't as hardcore about it as some people who claim to go months between washes. Every wash seemed to age them a couple weeks worth of wearing.

These days, I wear a lot more wool, linen, and cotton/linen blends for light-duty, and wear a single pair of Prana Zions (very thin mid-tier hiking pants, synthetic material) for anything risky/dirty. The Zions are probably at something like 1,000 wears (for the first couple years I wore them kinda like I had my jeans before—for everything) over five years or so. About a penny per wear. Finally due to be replaced, starting to get enough holes that they're getting iffy for wearing around... people, at all. If I hadn't damaged them with sharp things a few times, they'd probably go another 500+ wears, they're not getting worn-looking anywhere, no stains have proven permanent, nor is any part of them fraying (except at the holes).

This worked for me right up till I had kids. Now, with daily spillage, I'm washing the darned things to death.

Tip: Wash in cold water on the lowest-impact cycle, hang up to dry. Of course I don't know your materials, washer, etc., but for me, everything comes clean with (what seems like) very little impact on the clothing.

I’ll try the hang-drying; appreciate it. Cold water def helps. There’s not much I can do about the frequency, alas.

Try the delicate cycle, too (in case I wasn't clear above). I wash almost all my clothes that way and they come clean.

I have a pair of jeans I still wear around the house that are more than twenty years old. The newer ones don't seem as durable.

You have reminded me about old jeans and those that collect them.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cache-of-19th-century...

We're past the point of innovating for a better consumer product. Most innovations nowadays are to reduce to cost while getting the consumer to accept the downgrade. Usually it happens gradually using the "boiling frog" method.