The average woman has £2,400 worth of unworn clothes in her wardrobe

Just think of the money you’d save

wardrobe detox
(Image credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

Just think of the money you’d save

We all have things lurking at the back of your wardrobe that we keep on the off chance we’ll wear them again, but we know deep down we won’t. Some impulse buys may even still have the tags on them...

But while you may not think about it that much, if you add up the cost of all those items, it’s actually quite scary (almost as scary as the amount we spend on renting in London).

Because as it happens, the average woman owns £2,400 worth of clothes she doesn’t wear, according to new research. That’s a lot, isn’t it?

According to online marketplace OnBuy.com, women don’t use around 60% of our closets, but it’s not all doom and gloom, as separate research from thredUP revealed they could save themselves £1,651 by reselling them.

And that’s exactly what more and more women are doing, as the data shows 21% of millennials intend on selling their unwanted clothes this year, while 3 and 10 have shopped second hand in the last year.

Add to that the trend towards minimalism and capsule wardrobes, and there is likely to be even more of a shift (apparently, women bought 37 items in 2016, versus 51 in 1996).

So if you are thinking of re-selling fashion items, then now’s a good time to do it, and in case you were wondering, the brands you’ll be likely to make the most money on are Nike, Lululemon, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, J.Crew and Tory Burch (according to Poshmark).

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.