How many clothes do you need? How to work it out for yourself

There is no fixed number, but most people get by with 30 to 40 pieces per season, shoes included. What you really need you can work out from three things: how often you do laundry, what a normal week looks like, and which occasions you dress for. Most wardrobes hold far more than that.

How many clothes do people own on average?

Research by WRAP (2022, UK) found that the average wardrobe holds around 118 items, and that about 26% of them have not been worn in the last 12 months. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation reported in 2017 that the number of times a garment is worn had fallen by around 36% worldwide over 15 years. We own more, and wear each piece less often.

How do you work out how many clothes you need?

Start with your week, not your closet.

1. How often do you do laundry? If you wash weekly, you need about a week of each kind of clothing, plus a spare.
2. What does a normal week look like? Count office days, days at home, sport and evenings out. Each asks for its own kind of outfit.
3. Which occasions come back? A wedding, a funeral, a job interview: one smart outfit per kind of occasion is usually enough.
4. Count per season. What you need in summer does not have to be in your closet in winter, and the other way round.

Say you work three days at the office and two at home, and wash weekly: then you need about five office outfits, three or four comfortable ones and a few for the weekend. Because pieces combine, that is far fewer separate items than outfits.

How many pieces per category?

Most people do not count underwear, socks, sportswear and pyjamas; of those you need enough to last between two washes.

How can you tell you have too much?

By tracking what you wear. After a month or two you see which pieces you keep choosing and which never. Closet analytics in Looqa.ai show which share of your wardrobe you use, and cost per wear shows what unworn clothes actually cost you. If you then want to clear out, follow our method to organize your wardrobe in one afternoon.

How do you buy less without missing anything?

Know your wardrobe before you buy. Many purchases are duplicates: a second black sweater because you forgot the first. A digital wardrobe on your phone shows in the shop what you already own. And ask of every purchase whether you will wear it at least thirty times. Building a capsule wardrobe helps you see what is really missing.

FAQ

How many clothes does the average person own?

Studies differ by country and method. WRAP found around 118 items per wardrobe in the UK.

Are 30 pieces per season enough?

For many people, yes, if the pieces combine well. Thirty pieces that go together make more different outfits than a hundred that do not.

Do shoes and accessories count?

In most capsule methods shoes and accessories count, underwear, sportswear and pyjamas do not. Choose what you count, as long as you do it consistently.