Every woman has 22 useless items in her closet

LONDON: We all have secrets and somehow closet belongings seem to be the most coveted of them all.

You know what we’re talking about, it’s that jacket your high school crush gave you on Valentines Day but is four sizes too big, those impractical boots you just had to have but could never wear because it’s just not that cold in Karachi, the pair of flips flops you fell in love with at Liberty but knew you would never wear, that funky looking shirt you thought would make a statement and last but not least that one pair of jeans that you refuse to part with because you believe that one day you will fit into them again.

According to the Daily Mail, every woman has at least 22 items in her closet she never wears but refuses to throw out.

In Britain, women spend more than 1.6 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) on more than 500 million items of clothing they will never wear. Placed on a clothes rail, the unworn clothes would stretch to 25,000 kilometres, equivalent to four-and-a-half times the distance between London and New York. Millions of purchases that seemed to be a good idea in the shop — whether they were a bargain or a design worn by a celebrity — have turned out to be a complete and utter waste.

Rash buys are the main reason for the unworn clothing pile-up, according to 45 per cent of the women questioned. Just one in eight women regularly clear out their wardrobes, while one in 50 delay the dreaded cleaning day for at least 10 years. On further research, it was found that jeans are the most common item in unworn clothes, with 88 per cent saying they own at least one pair that they would never be seen wearing for a various number of reasons.

Statistics prove that one in five women hoard up to six pairs of shoes that will never be worn. And almost everyone owns at least one top they just had to have but would never be seen dead wearing it.

Ironically, more than half of the women say that the guilt of wasting money keeps them from throwing out unwanted clothes. Some 17 per cent of the female population hoard particular styles and make irrational choices by pinning hopes on a fashion revival.

However, let’s not discriminate too much as men are not much better; research proves that men have at least 19 items of unworn clothing lurking around in their wardrobes and more than a third of them admit that their unworn items are largely sales buys.

Sue Leeson, a spokesman for shopping channel QVC, which carried out the survey, said: “Hoarding clothes is a form of nostalgia — but it’s impractical. Finding out what you have already means that you can become a smart shopper and focus on your wardrobe, buying key pieces that coordinate so that you can pull together unique and trendy ensembles.”

Ladies the time has come! It’s time to beat men to the race, and clean out our closets: it’s time to gear up, be realistic, be smart and most of all be patient as you browse through years of pending give-away. So brace yourselves and every time you hold on to something relentlessly or try tracing an emotional attachment to something, let your practicality kick in and maybe sometime in the future you can buy new collectibles to relish but until then let go of the obsolete and move.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st,  2011.