We hoard £10bn worth of clothes we never wear

MANY of us hang on to a favourite pair of jeans hoping we will one day lose enough weight to be able to fit into them again.

Now a survey has revealed the scale of our hoarding habits as millions of us embark on January diets to fulfil a New Year’s resolution to shed the extra pounds.

In total we have more than £10billion worth of clothes we never wear stored in our wardrobes.

British adults have stashed away 588million unworn garments, with women hoarding 365million and men 223million, research by Weight Watchers found.

The main reason for the mountains of clothing squirreled away and gathering dust is that they no longer fit us.

Of the 2,000 people polled – 1,000 men and 1,000 women – 25 per cent said they plan to wear their outfits again once they lose the extra pounds they have gained since buying the items.

The survey found that women do not wear 55 per cent of their clothes, with the most commonly unworn items being evening dresses, skinny jeans and tops. The remaining 45 per cent of clothing tucked away in wardrobes and drawers is worth £5.4billion in total.

Men reported wearing just 53 per cent of their clothes, with the 47 per cent of unworn items worth £5.1billion.

The most commonly unworn garments were T- shirts, jeans and jackets.

One in ten respondents claimed they did not throw out unworn clothes because they were waiting for them to ‘come back into fash- ion’. Julia Westgarth, of Weight Watchers, said: ‘This research reveals we are a nation of clothes hoarders, collecting outfits in our wardrobes in the hope that one day we will be able to fit back into them or that they will come back into fashion.

‘Fashion fads are out of our control, but a little weight loss could unlock a whole back cata-logue of clothes.’ Tied together, the unworn clothes could stretch more than 18,000 miles, long enough to reach between London and New York five times.

Overall, the £ 10billion figure breaks down to £200 of unworn clothes per adult in the UK.

Sarah Jarman, 34, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, confessed to having ‘more than 40’ items of clothing in her wardrobe she has never worn.

The mother of two said: ‘I tend to buy things I think I like at the time without really thinking about when I will actually wear them.

‘ I’ve got a couple of fancy evening dresses and God knows how many high heels, but as a mum with two small children I can’t exactly wear a gown and stilettos to the play park.

‘I still reckon I’ll wear them one day, so there’s no way I’m chucking them out.’

‘A whole back catalogue’