Declutter and delight: breathing new life into your neglected clothes
Taming your overflowing wardrobe
Have you ever looked at your clothes and felt overwhelmed, realizing you haven’t worn most of them? You are not alone. More and more people find themselves with vast amounts of unworn clothes, making them feel wasteful and guilty. Today, I’ll delve into this issue and share tips on how to overcome and prevent it.
The scope of the problem
In the UK alone, there are an estimated 1.6 billion items of clothing left unworn in wardrobes. That’s right, 26% of adults have at least 31 items they haven’t worn for over a year. The average adult has 118 items of clothing, many of which will barely be used —underlining a gaping disparity between ownership and usage.
This excessive consumption is not only a storage problem, but it’s a financial one. Consumers spend over £4 billion a month on clothes which adds to the buying and under-using cycle.1
The psychology behind unworn clothes
The impact of this issue goes beyond just wasted space and money. It affects your mental well-being too:
Cognitive dissonance: the mismatch between your sustainability values and your consumer habits, causes guilt and anxiety.
Emotional attachment: clothes, especially those received as gifts, are difficult to part with. We all have memories of them and the love with which it was given, and these make it tough to declutter.
The intention vs. action gap: you want to be mindful but when it comes down to actually being mindful, your actions give you away and that doesn’t feel good.
Strategies to end underutilization
So, what are the solutions to this problem? Here are easy to adopt strategies that you can work with:
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