How many unused clothes do you have in your closet?
I thought this was an interesting survey. How many unworn/unused clothes do you own?
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Average Woman Owns 22 Garments She Never Wears But Refuses to Junk
by Bridgette Meinhold, 01/31/11
A wardrobe full of clothes but nothing to wear? You’re in good company. The average British woman has 22 unworn items in her closet that she refuses to throw or give away, according to a survey by QVC U.K. The price of hoarding doesn’t come cheap, notes the home-shopping channel. Across Britain, women spend more than $2.5 billion on over 500 million articles of clothing that are left untouched—enough to run from London to New York four-and-a-half times over on an imaginary clothes rail. But while it’s easy to pin unchecked clothing consumption on the fairer sex, their male counterparts hardly fare better. Male respondents admitted to an average of 19 unworn pieces.
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
QVC questioned 1,000 adults to discover the depth of Britain’s clothes-hoarding habits, as well as the reasons behind them. Nearly half of women blame impulse buying for their overstuffed and underused closets. Similarly, 37 percent of men admit that their unworn garments are mostly sale purchases.
Only 12 percent of people regularly clear out their closets.
As for why we keep what we don’t wear, the excuses run the gamut. Besides the fact that only 12 percent of people regularly clear out their closets, 54 percent of respondents feel guilty about wasting money, 41 percent plan to lose weight first, and 17 percent are holding out for a fashion revival (our advice: don’t).
How do we stop hoarding and love our wardrobes? Minimizing impulse buys by weighing your decision carefully is one obvious solution. So is buying quality, long-lasting items that coordinate with your existing pieces. To deal with existing baggage, solutions are more than plentiful: You can get creative and refashion your duds into something you’ll adore, recoup your losses through eBay or a secondhand store, or clear your slate with donations to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Better yet, consider hosting a clothes-swapping party with your friends, pick up a few “new” pieces for yourself, and donate the leftovers to charity.
I'm one of the 12% who tries to clean out my wardrobe regularly but I do have a number of clothes I hold onto for sentimental reasons. I have my Mum's silk dress from the 60's. It's in perfect condition but we have different figures so it won't fit without alteration yet I can't bear to throw it out. I have the skirt I wore to my cousin's funeral. I can't bear to think of it falling into the wrong hands so I keep meaning to find a friend about my size who would want a sparkly tartan mini-skirt. I have 2 traditional Pakistani outfits I bought in London that I love but never seem appropriate. And so on........
