I missed this . I will have to go back and read it. It sounds fascinating. I love the idea of figuring out how many times I actually wear something. I have had a sneaking suspicion for months that I have too much stuff.

I found it and read it ( Mo's numbers analysis ) . I was utterly shocked at how little one would wear a piece. This then made me think that no wonder things seem to look dated so quickly. I hang onto something for ever because I don't feel that I have worn it enough, but by the time that I feel I have, it is 2060.

Great excercise.

I'm actually sort of proud of myself when I put something into the "giveaway" pile because it is showing unacceptable visible wear. That means I really, really got value out of the item. And I do, deliberately, buy a few trend-forward items, inexpensively, that I know perfectly will are unlikely to make it beyond a year, due to quality. I am thinking of a very open knit sweater, all of $30 from JCP, that now needs to be retired after hard service last year with jeans outfits.

I'm trying to think of an easy way, short of a spreadsheet, for me to track this instead of just by gut feeling. Wouldn't it be nifty to have every item bar coded, and a scanner in your closet? What rich data that would be!

Kiki, I love your idea of a personal barcode scanner to track wear of items. someone should develop a smartphone app for that.

Mo and Una, thanks for these joint threads. They are eye-opening. I'm going to use this as a way to see which categories deserve more spendy items.

For me the items that pass the 52 wears per year mark are:

- sunnglasses
- handbag
- raincoat
- overcoat
- gray toque
- certain pairs of short boots
- certain pairs of shoes
- dark wash straight leg jeans
- favourite skinny jeans
- charcoal "boyfriend" cardigan

(I'm not including bras and workout gear in this list, since they don't count as "fashion" for me).

There are other items that don't get to 52, but that get worn a lot in certain seasons, like leather flip flops and and wellies. My favourite black tee shirt gets worn 52 times, in a sense, but it's actually not just one tee shirt -- I have six of them. Six identical ones! Because just one would get worn out too quickly.

I've been using good old paper and pen to track wears since June. Over the summer, Even the stuff I felt like I lived in only got about 10 wears. I'm still working out the numbers, like what are good CPW, total wears, #s of items in total, # of items in catagories, what price point works best for me.

Since YLF I have replaced many items in my wardrobe, but I doing far better at wearing a high percentage of them frequently. Like Joy, I usually expect an average of 3 years from items in my closet. Knits are shorter lived than pants and jackets, of course. I still find, however, that I don't like repeating things --- not just outfits but items, too often. I'm trying to "get over this," while honoring my desire for variety.

I think it's time for me to analyze a little more closely what goes unworn.

Why oh why did you have to start this thread, Una? Now I am berating myself for having too many clothes in my closet and hastily putting everything from my recent order into the return pile < then maybe I will sneak back at night and pull something out while my other responsible "half" isn't looking>
Seriously though it is an interesting question. Some of my favorite items are 3 years old not and still favorites (Danier leather jackets, I am looking at you!). In general I would say that outerwear, jackets, trousers (!) and footwear are worn the most often. Tops, dresses and skirts qare less so though I did wear my white button down into the ground and had to replace it this year.
I also tend to purge all the time and the items I don't wear often are the first candidates for the purge. usually it is the fit, quality or comfort issues which prevents me from wearing them often and enjoy but sometimes it is the style...
I started to keep a simple Excel spreadsheet to count the number of wears for each item by month. I have been doing it since this spring and it already proved very useful to me as I also use it to mark potential purge candidates or items I want to salvage.

My closet tends to be divided into always-wear and never-wear items. The items I really love and that make me feel good I wear all the time (I don't care about variety much) and for years. And then there are the dud purchases that just sit there until I muster the energy to get rid of them. So the challenge is instead to avoid those dud buys... I haven't quite mastered that yet.