UK wardrobes stuffed with unworn clothes, study shows
A quarter of the clothes in our wardrobes haven't been worn in a year, even though we're getting better at keeping them for longer, a study finds.
A survey by environmental group WRAP estimates that the UK's wardrobes hold 1.6 billion unworn garments.
"We are keeping our clothes for longer, but we've got more of them in our wardrobes, which means we're actually using them less," said WRAP's Sustainable Textiles Specialist Catherine Salvidge. "There's a real opportunity for us to be using the clothes that we have a lot more."
To my mind, the phrase "a real opportunity" is often a sign that we have entered prodnose territory. As it obviously is in this case - and there is no prodnose like a green prodnose.
Wardrobe Inspection Teams come next.
5 comments:
At Mrs DiscoveredJoy's urging I pared down my half of the wardrobe and gave the lot to a charity.
Many of the items were formal shirts I no longer wear or trousers with indented hanger creases, and an old 'work suit'. Some items still had price tags - items I bought on a whim and never used.
I tend to wear heavy shirts and jeans or shorts and T shirts in the summer. It keeps my life simple - in which I am now a firm believer. I will declutter more stuff (particularly from the garage) although it is stupidly difficult to throw stuff away.
There's probably a sweet spot between courting Wardrobe Inspection and having well wishers donate you clothing. I aim to be in that sweet spot.
As I slowly lose weight I can slowly use more of my wardrobe. This year a pair of shorts and a pair of summer trousers were declared fit for use, if only at home.
The forthcoming freezaggedon will also encourage me to use some old silk shirts as honorary vests and I may try a never-used hoody as part of my web-surfing garb. Got to keep the old loaf warm, eh? If needs be I can wear my Norfolk shooting hat too.
As usual they've missed the salient feature. Amongst the many reasons for this, is the phenomenon of loving the long unused garments but not being able to fit into them anymore.
DJ - we've been downsizing for a while, but it doesn't seem to make a huge difference. I recently got rid of three jackets I hardly ever wore but had to buy a waterproof jacket because it was so cheap.
dearieme - I have a number of hats I could wear indoors during the freezaggedon. I find cravats useful too.
Tammly - I don't have that problem as I don't seem to change much over the years. Maybe I'll shrink with age though.
My wife, as she then wasn't, threw out my cravats on the grounds that "You are not one of The Few".
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