Just saw a post on a gear page where a guy was wondering if others shared his anxiety about changing guitar strings until you don't have a choice to, and I for one can relate...
Yup. Sometimes I am reluctant because I hate wasting a set of strings that isn't TOTALLY dead (growing up in a lower-income bracket makes one frugal as hell...LOL), and sometimes, as has also been mentioned, I get anxious about knocking something out of whack with a guitar's setup. But sometimes you've just gotta' do it.
With my studio-only guitars, I generally always wash my hands before using them, and only really end up needing to change strings if I have a blowout or just want to try something different. I've got a few guitars---my Angus Young SG, my Danelectro Convertible, my Gretsch Double-Jet Firebird and one particular Squier hardtail Strat that for some reason is the most "authentically old school 'Strat'-sounding" of my Strats---which have all had the same strings for over a year and a half. For my live guitars though, I try to go as long as I can before restringing, but after two or three gigs (especially if they're outdoors, or down near the coast in the saltwater air or something), I start taking inventory on how worn they are. I do like to wipe down my strings with a cloth of some kind after shows (sometimes with a little rubbing alcohol on it) to keep sweat/grime from building up and causing rust or just grossness. Plus, while they'll still deaden over time and not sound as great, in most live scenarios that's not a dealbreaker. The audience can't tell (and frankly, neither can I in the overall mix), so I'll carry on and get through one more gig before doing maintenance and restringing.
I used to HATE letting one specific friend play my guitars, even for one song, because he had such an aggressive pH that within literally minutes, a perfectly good set of strings turned moss green, and if not cleaned off immediately--particularly if left overnight--they'd end up feeling like barbed wire from the residue and buildup. It was freakish. I finally ended up just buying a specific secondhand Squier Tele (he loved Teles) which I set up especially with his feel and string gauge, and he could play that one all he wanted without funkifying my guitfiddles. I would on occasion go to his house, and all three of his guitars had grungy strings and fretboards, and gunk all over them. He was proud of never cleaning them, and insisted the grossness and grime added to the "mojo". Even got mad once and chewed me out when I borrowed his old 70's Fender Tele Deluxe and I wiped it down a little and restrung it with fresh strings when I returned it. But I'm sorry, when it gets so nasty that you can't tell if it's a maple or rosewood fretboard, it's overdue for a little elbow grease. Sorry, digressing...
My usual sign (aside from breakage) that it's time to change is if I run my finger under the strings and feel dents in the string windings from fret contact. If I can really feel flat spots, those strings have got to go, unless I just want to do some performative finale at the next gig or something where I intentionally rip the strings off the guitar. Even when I HAVE to change strings, I don't like it. But it's a necessary evil, and I'd rather be inconvenienced with doing a restringing with a little maintenance/cleanup than break a string mid-song during a performance if my gut told me it was time for a string change. If you're keeping the same gauge, more often than not, you don't need to adjust anything, just tune up and go.
I've settled on a few "cheap but reliable" lesser-known string brands to string up my stage beaters, and I have noticed than some of the "not big name brand" strings will also show some noticeable wear on the wound strings where my palm rests in front of the bridge. I do have a really heavy right hand though, so that doesn't surprise me. Once they start looking a little "coppery", I get in the headspace to plan on changing strings. I also recommend if you own more than one guitar, putting them into a rotation of some sort definitely helps prolong the life of strings, since you're not constantly playing the one instrument. By rotating between three guitars I usually bring to gigs, for example, I can sometimes go a half dozen performances before having to change strings on a guitar, unless I just happen to be forced to play one guitar all night (or the majority thereof).
But ultimately, if your current strings aren't giving you intonation issues (as will happen with those flat spots I described above), don't sound dead and aren't starting to have tuning stability issues (as mine sometimes do on plain strings when the ball-winding starts coming undone from aggressive use of my Maestro Vibrola or my Duesenberg Les Trem on certain brands), then play those suckers till they fall off. You make the rules for your guitars. If you're comfortable, no need to change them until you have to. And if you're not heavy-handed like me, you're going to get far more mileage out of a set of strings than I would.
If it ain't broke [pun], don't fix it. ;)
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