How to wash a gi, and how often (every time)

The schedule first, because the schedule is the entire argument: the gi gets washed after every session. Not every other session. Not when it smells. Every time it touches the mat, it goes in the machine before it gets worn again.

That is not a preference. Mats collect everything a room full of sweating adults can produce, and a damp gi in a gym bag is a petri dish with sleeves. Nobody warns you, and everybody notices.

The routine

Cold water. Normal detergent. Inside out, belt out of the loops, zip any rash guards into the load if you like. Then hang it to dry, jacket on a wide hanger, pants over the bar.

The dryer is not your friend except once: cotton gis shrink with heat, so the dryer is a sizing tool, not a drying tool. If the gi fits, heat is how you ruin it. If it is a size too big, short hot cycles, checked between rounds, are how you walk it down. After that, hang-dry forever.

What about the smell that survives the wash

A gi that comes out of the machine clean and turns sour an hour into class has bacteria living deeper than detergent reaches. Two fixes, both cheap: a cup of white vinegar in the rinse, or a long pre-soak in cold water with a scoop of oxygen cleaner. If a gi still smells after that, it was left wet somewhere once and it is telling you about it. Some never forgive.

The belt washes too. The folklore about never washing it is folklore, and the person repeating it is the person you can smell.

How many gis you actually need

Train twice a week and one gi survives fine, because there is always a rest day to dry in. Three sessions or more and a second gi stops being gear and starts being logistics: nothing ruins a Tuesday like a jacket that is still damp at noon. My white one cost less than the month of classes it serves. When the habit is real, buy the spare.

The actual stakes

Skin. Staph, ringworm, and their friends live on unwashed cloth, and they end training streaks faster than any injury. Washing the gi every time is the cheapest insurance in the sport, and it doubles as the politest thing you can do for everyone whose face your shoulder visits.

Clean gi, clipped nails, showed up. Most of being a good training partner is exactly that boring.