I always donate clean things and wash what I buy in thrift stores. I don't always wash things new from the store. Sometimes you can just tell the way they are packaged or hung that no one has tried them on. I wash everything after I wear it, so that's soon enough for me. As for chemicals, we don't appear to be sensitive to them, and being elderly now, I guess there haven't been consequences of being exposed. There are so many ways to be exposed. If we get new carpet, some paints, flooring, etc. it all outgasses. And we live with it unless we are severely compromised by it. People we encounter may be wearing something they didn't wash first and we are in close proximity. So I guess I'm not going to worry about it. I know I'm clean and my things are too. I have a cousin who brags about herself being "Mrs. Clean" and how often she washes towels, sheets, dusts, etc. She is sicker than I am always catching a cold, rash, etc. So hard to tell if it is the clothes, the chemicals, a germ not related to them unless someone has a sensitivity or allergy. Mr. Stitchnripper has a sensitivity to dairy (not lactose intolerant and not an allergy) that gives him migraines. If this were a chemical sensitivity, our lives would be different.