When it comes to washing your family’s stinky socks, there’s no such thing as too much cleaning. But there are certain household items we can get overzealous about washing. Too much laundering can wear out, fade, or shrink fabrics before their time. Stop before you throw your bath towels and blankets in the laundry yet again, and consider how often they actually need to be cleaned. You might actually be washing these eight things too much.

Jeans And Denim

Jeans and other denim clothes can fade quickly in the wash. The washing action also weakens fibers and eventually leads to fraying or holes. If you want to keep your favorite denim a deep blue, wait to wash jeans until you’ve worn them three or four times (true denim heads may go weeks between washings). In the meantime, you can spot-clean stains.

Bras (Except For Sports Bras)

Exercise clothes should go in the wash after every use, but your everyday bra doesn’t need to be washed that often. Washing bras too often can affect the elastic and wires, leading to a misshapen bra. You can wait until after the third use to wash your bra, as long as you didn’t wear it during your jog or on a sweaty day outdoors. Many experts also recommend rotating your bras so you don’t wear the same one several days in a row and stretch it out.

Towels

Remember how fluffy and soft your bath towels used to be? Unfortunately, overwashing can make them thin and scratchy. You can wash your towels after three uses or as infrequently as once a week. Make sure you hang them to dry after each use and rotate between two towels if they take a long time to dry.

Blankets And Comforters

Unless blankets and comforters come into direct contact with your body (or a pet), these don’t need to be washed along with your sheets. If they’ve picked up hair and dirt, you can wait to wash blankets and comforters once every three months or as often as once a month. A decorative quilt or comforter folded up at the end of the bed only needs washing a couple of times a year.

Wool Sweaters And Throws

When it comes to your favorite cashmere, you should wash as infrequently as possible to avoid a misshapen sweater that pills or shrinks. It helps to wear a shirt underneath to protect the fabric, and you may want to stick to hand-washing and air drying to prolong the life of wool. Wait until after five wears, if possible, before washing sweaters. And throw your cashmere throws in the laundry a few times a year.

Pajamas

With kids, you may need to wash pajamas after each use, because messes and accidents are frequent. But adults can usually wear pajamas three times before washing them in our air-conditioned homes.

Outerwear

You wear multiple layers under jackets or coats most of the time, so these won’t need frequent washing. Once a season is plenty when it comes to washing outerwear, especially with sensitive materials like down, wool, or leather. You may want to wash your fleece jacket more often if you’re wearing it over a light T-shirt or on lengthy hikes.

Rugs (Except For Bath Mats)

Washable rugs have become incredibly popular, but that doesn’t mean you need to wash your throw rug every week. Vacuum them weekly, but save the cleaning for serious spills. In general, you want to clean rugs once or twice a year to preserve the fibers.

Bath mats are an exception since they soak moisture regularly and can become germy. A bath mat that you use daily should be washed every one to two weeks.