With the second 4 month cycle ending, I decided to see if my pattern of wearing certain items matched up with the saying: ‘people wear 20% of their clothes, 80% of the time.’ This is what I discovered.

Tops: I have 24 tops. I randomly assigned them a designation of summer, winter, year round and the garments fell out evenly 8/8/8! 2 garments in the summer and winter categories cross into double digit wears, while the rest remained in single digits, 6 of the year round tops reached double digits, but 2 stood out with wear counts that were double the number of the rest. So, 6/24 tops would be my ‘20%’ (but really 25%) 80% of 8 months (240 days) would be 180 days - however the combined ‘wears’ of the 6 most worn tops is 107 - not even 50%!

Bottoms: between pants, shorts, and skirts - I have 15 different bottoms. 2 pairs of jeans and 2 pairs of shorts (26%) stand out as having significantly higher wear counts than any of the other bottoms however the132 wears/240 days is still only 55%.

I did a quick check of my 2023 numbers, and they are similar (very high wear #’s for 7 different tops (including a tie between identical, but different coloured sweaters), 2 pairs of jeans, and 2 shorts.

I have a modest wardrobe, and am an outfit repeater who doesn’t get bored with her clothes - so I’m surprised I don’t prove the adage that ‘people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time.’

In conclusion, I’d say 25% of my clothes get worn 50% of the time! So, ‘yes’ I do have favourites I reach for more than others when I have a choice - however I also rotate through what I own as well.