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Il grembiule è sporco, non se lo mette.

Il grembiule è sporco, non se lo mette.
The apron is dirty, he doesn't put it on.
From Lesson 250:Reflexive combined pronouns (se lo, se la...)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il grembiule è sporco, non se lo mette.

Why does this sentence use se lo instead of just lo mette?
To say "to put on" (an item of clothing), Italian uses the reflexive verb mettersi (literally "to put on oneself"). When you combine the reflexive pronoun si (oneself) with the direct object pronoun lo (it, referring to the apron), the si changes to se, giving us se lo.
Would the meaning change if I just said non lo mette?
Yes, slightly! While mettersi means to put clothes on oneself, the non-reflexive verb mettere just means "to put" or "to place". So, non lo mette would mean "he doesn't put it [somewhere]", missing the specific meaning of putting on an item of clothing.
Why is the word order non se lo mette?
The negative word non must always go right before the pronoun cluster. Think of se lo as a single package glued to the front of the conjugated verb (mette). The word non has to go before the entire package.
How do we know to use lo for the apron?
Grembiule (apron) ends in -e, which means it could be masculine or feminine. You can tell it's masculine here because of the article il and the adjective sporco. Because it is a masculine singular noun, we replace it with the masculine pronoun lo.

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