This thread has been mind-blowing! First, you are an amazing host and I hope you get some time to recuperate now. Second, the whole "it was too much trouble to find my bra" just simply blows my mind. I can't imagine traveling anywhere, for two or twenty-two days, without all the appropriate underwear. Socks? I'm diabetic so I pack two pair for every day, plus extras. Bloomers? Two pair for every day, plus extras. Bustenhalters? At least one for every day plus a couple back-ups. Laundry bag to keep the worn items in for their trip to a washer? Yes! I don't have a lot of clothes; I don't have expensive or fashionable clothes. I do have clean, comfortable, respectable clothes. I do have a well stocked unmentionables dresser. Life is too short to run out of clean socks or extra changes of everything. I have borrowed sweaters. I have borrowed jackets, and once I even borrowed a pair of full-length evening gloves. I have never imagined borrowing a bra. If laundry facilities are easily available; I take 7-10 days worth of undies. I wear simple, basic, mostly cotton items. Nothing I travel with is too delicate to not just toss in a washer. Cotton diabetic socks in either white or light grey; cotton comfortable unmentionables; and mostly cotton, slip-on running bras. IF I have to be dressed up a bit more I will pack one of those under-wired, molded, torture devices with the snaps and buckles and itchy lace - and usually opt to stick to the comfy but supportive running bras. I love the silky, lace items, but not for travel. And for what I'd have to pay for a top-of-the-line fancy bra, I can get four, or more, of my running bras. Is it really "normal" or "average" or whatever the correct term is to have only one or two bras and wear one more than once before laundering? I know I'm too sweaty to get away with that.

online shopping is doing strange things to what employees in stores are told to do. I like to talk to them about what the company insists will keep stores going. Online shopping is superior for most people but I don't want the kind of warehouse semi slavery that bezos has created for Amazon and that is the future for those employees if things keep on as they are. The attempt to survive and make profits, fabrics get thinner and cheaper. Clothes are discarded after a short time so that they must be replaced. A typical garment sewer in Los Angeles makes 4-5 dollars an hour or less if they don't get paid which happens frequently. Mostly it's Korean run sewing rooms using Latino sewers. I shop the garment district fabric wholesalers that supply these sewing rooms. It's all the same fabrics used in the clothes everywhere from high priced to low. Stuff coming in from China is exactly the same but sells for half the price. Race to the bottom. As long as people buy it, nothing will change. I sew for myself and many times I buy something inexpensive and take it apart to make a pattern so i can use better cloth. Some of the better quilting cottons make beautiful shirts. Qualitymen's shirts can be cut down as well. Menswear seems to be made to last. I think they view women as discarding clothes and replacing them as compared to men. Silk knits are very nice and soft and don't shed. I do love angora sweaters though shedding and all. Acrylic is super soft but pills right away so I never get that if it's blended with wool. Linen is my favorite. Its cool, it lasts, it's classic. It wrinkles.........can't have everything.

Bra fitting is so much more complex than most people think! I was wearing 34DD's and pulling the back down to deal with the extra band length when I'm actually 30H/32GG. There's only so much adjusting and compensating this woman can put up with before realizing that there had to be better fitting bras out there! After I got myself properly fitted and bras in my actual size that worked for my breast shape I had my mom measure herself and give me the numbers so we could get her into a better bra too! Finally not cringing at the sight of her bra band riding up towards her shoulders knowing she couldn't possibly be comfortable and supported with her bras doing that and we got to bond over bras and boobs! ;) She had been wearing 34C's when she was a 32 (I like a tighter band but she found 30's too constricting.)!

My sister with a front loading machine said she finds socks in the front gasket area. My other sister, who was using a laundrymat for a few weeks, said she would find other people’s socks in the same area. Everyone with missing socks, check around the gasket. I wash my socks in a lingerie bag so if they go missing it will be all of them, not just one. I dislike matching my husband’s socks because they are all the same brand and style and yet they all seem to be slightly different lengths. It’s his job to match his socks. I like ironing my own stuff. My husband’s tall shirts have too much fabric and take too long so those go to the dry cleaner. I don’t mind doing laundry but I wouldn’t say I enjoy it. I like grocery shopping but I get grumpy hauling the bags in the house and putting the stuff away. I would outsource that part of the task if I could. I enjoy cooking but not the clean up. As soon as I put my hands in warm, soapy water my nose runs. It is so annoying! There are always a few things that can’t go in the dishwasher so there is always warm, soapy water. My husband does most of the clean up but sometimes it has to be me, with an itchy nose and wet hands.