Wardrobe check

Do I have too many clothes?

The signs are familiar: tags still on, a full wardrobe and nothing to wear, items unworn for a year, dread when the doors open. A quiz can tell you that you feel it. This page tells you by how much. Work out the range your routine needs, then open the comparison and type in what you own.

How to count

Set your routine in the calculator below (laundry, work week, workouts, climate).
Press Compare with what I own and fill in the right-hand column. Rough counts are fine; shoes and accessories are not counted.
Read the gap per category. Above “Variety” means you are keeping clothes for pleasure rather than need. Below “Minimal” means you are probably doing emergency washes.

The categories that hold the excess are usually the same for everyone: casual tops, knitwear and occasion wear. Underwear and socks are usually about right or slightly over. Jeans are almost always fine.

1. LaundryHow often do you do a wash?

Cycle used: 7 days between washes.

How do you dry?

Adds 3 spares to daily-wear items.

2. Your week

Office days a week

Work-from-home days

Dress code on office days

Workouts a week

Anything that needs a change of clothes.

Evenings out a week

3. Climate and styleYour climateWhat you mostly wearInclude bras

4. Rewear habits

T-shirts and casual tops

Work shirts and blouses

Jeans and trousers

Your practical wardrobe

73 items

Range 53 to 93 including underwear, socks, sleepwear and gym kit. Core wardrobe 23 to 43 (33 on Balanced).

Room for a late wash, a bad week and some choice. Our default.

Category	Minimal	Balanced	Variety
Daily wear
Underwear · why? One clean pair for each of the 7 days between washes, plus one for each of your 2 workouts a week, plus 3 spares for drying time.	12	16	20
Socks (pairs) · why? Same logic as underwear: one pair per day between washes, one per workout, 3 spares for drying time.	12	16	20
Core wardrobe
T-shirts and casual tops · why? 4 casual days a week become 4 top-wearing days per 7 days cycle, worn once before washing, plus a small drying buffer.	6	8	10
Jeans, chinos and casual bottoms · why? Bottoms are worn about 4 times before a wash, so the same casual days need far fewer pairs. Two is the practical floor.	2	3	4
Smart tops and shirts for work · why? 3 office days a week, worn once before washing, plus one spare so a late wash never leaves you short.	4	6	7
Smart trousers and skirts · why? Tailored bottoms are worn several times between cleans; two is the floor so one can be at the cleaners.	2	3	4
Jumpers, hoodies and knitwear · why? Knitwear is worn 4-5 times between washes, so laundry barely matters; your climate decides. This is a table, not a formula. (preference table)	4	5	7
Coats and jackets · why? One rain layer, one warm layer where winters bite, one smart coat if you want it. Climate table, not arithmetic. (preference table)	2	3	4
Loungewear and WFH comfort clothes · why? 2 home-working days a week; comfort clothes are worn about three times before a wash.	2	3	4
Going-out and occasion outfits · why? 1 evening out a week. Occasion wear is about variety, not hygiene, so this is a preference table. (preference table)	1	2	3
Active
Gym kit (top and bottom sets) · why? One set per workout between washes (2 a week over 7 days) plus one spare. Sweaty kit is a single-wear item.	3	4	5
Sleep
Pyjamas and sleepwear (sets) · why? Sleepwear is worn 3-4 nights between washes, so a 7 days cycle needs 2 sets plus one spare.	3	4	5
Core wardrobe total	23	33	43
Everything	53	73	93

Do I have too many clothes?

Enter your current counts and see the gap against your range, category by category, instead of a guess.

How every number is worked out

What “too many” actually means

The figure that circulates for the UK is around 118 items per person including underwear, with a quarter or more unworn for a year. The Hot or Cool Institute’s 2022 sufficiency work put a climate-compatible wardrobe at 74 to 85 garments. Neither is your number. Yours is set by how often you wash, how you dress for work, how often you train and how cold it gets, which is what the calculator uses. If your count is far above the Variety column, the honest description is that you own clothes for variety and pleasure. That is allowed. The problem only starts when they are not worn and you keep buying more of the same category.

What to do with the gap

Start with the category furthest above its range, not the whole wardrobe.
Keep the pieces that appear in the outfits you actually wore last month; the rest is candidates.
Before the next purchase, check whether the category is already above Variety. If it is, the purchase is a replacement, not an addition.

For a single category, the t-shirt, underwear and sock pages have short calculators of their own.

Questions people ask

How do you tell if you have too many clothes?

The practical test is whether your count sits above the range your routine actually needs. The symptoms people describe are consistent: clothes with tags still on, items unworn for a year, a full wardrobe but nothing to wear, and dread when opening the doors. The comparison tool turns that feeling into a number per category.

How many clothes is it normal to have?

Around 100 to 120 items including underwear is the figure most often quoted for the UK, and a quarter or more of it typically goes unworn for a year. Normal and needed are different questions; the calculator answers the second.

Do I have too many clothes if I like them all?

Liking everything does not change how many you can wear between washes. If your count is far above your range, you are keeping clothes for variety and pleasure rather than need, which is a legitimate choice as long as it is a conscious one and they actually get worn.