Tool
Wardrobe Audit Worksheet
Count what you own and what you wore this year, see the never-worn pile and a capsule target, and print a blank sheet for the audit.
How to use it
The Wardrobe Audit Worksheet shows you how much of your closet you actually wear, so you can decide what stays before you buy anything else. It is for anyone working through a wardrobe audit.
Start with Your counts. For each of the eight categories, from Tops to Other, such as activewear and sleepwear, enter two whole numbers: Owned and Worn in the last 12 months. Count everything, including the laundry and the clothes on the chair, and leave out underwear and socks. If you skip a category, it counts as none. If you fill in only one of its two counts, the result waits until you add the other. Worn can never be more than owned.
Next, if you know it, enter What the never-worn pieces cost in all, in dollars. Tick Count only one season's clothes if your counts cover a single season. The result updates as you type. Try the example fills in a sample closet. Print a blank worksheet gives you a page to fill in by hand with a pen during the two-hour audit.
The result
The form needs JavaScript to recalculate. Without it, the result below stays on the example, and your browser's print command prints it.
38 of your 120 pieces have not been worn in the last 12 months: 32 percent.
That is about the same as the roughly 30 percent WRAP found unworn in an average UK wardrobe in 2012.
Example: made-up counts for a closet of 120 pieces.
By category
| Category | Owned | Worn | Never worn | Share of closet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tops | 40 | 28 | 12 | 33 percent |
| Bottoms | 16 | 11 | 5 | 13 percent |
| Dresses and jumpsuits | 8 | 4 | 4 | 7 percent |
| Knitwear | 12 | 8 | 4 | 10 percent |
| Outerwear | 6 | 4 | 2 | 5 percent |
| Shoes | 12 | 9 | 3 | 10 percent |
| Bags and accessories | 14 | 9 | 5 | 12 percent |
| Other | 12 | 9 | 3 | 10 percent |
| All categories | 120 | 82 | 38 | 100 percent |
A capsule target
Leaving out the other category, you wore 73 pieces. That is the most your closet needs to hold.
The capsule guide's range is 25 to 50 pieces for one season, so at the top of the range 23 of them would be boxed for the other season.
The leave pile
The 38 never-worn pieces are your leave-pile candidates. Give each piece one chance: hang it at the front of the closet and wear it within 30 days. If you do not, it goes.
They cost $1,140 in all, about $30 a piece.
Wardrobe audit worksheet
Date
| Category | Owned | Worn in the last 12 months | Keep | Repair | Store | Leave |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tops | ||||||
| Bottoms | ||||||
| Dresses and jumpsuits | ||||||
| Knitwear | ||||||
| Outerwear | ||||||
| Shoes | ||||||
| Bags and accessories | ||||||
| Other, such as activewear and sleepwear | ||||||
| All categories |
Keep: worn this season or last, fits, works with other things. Repair: you would wear it if it were fixed. Store: the other season, or honestly unsure. Leave: does not fit, worn past repair, or not worn for a year. A never-worn piece gets one chance: hang it at the front and wear it within 30 days.
Gap list
Situations you face and cannot dress for with what you own
Want list
Newer, nicer or matching versions of things that already work
How the numbers work
Each figure comes straight from your counts:
- Pieces owned. Every category's owned count added up. In the example closet, that is 120.
- Never worn. Owned minus worn, for each category and in all. The example wore 82 pieces, so 120 minus 82 leaves 38. The headline then reads: "38 of your 120 pieces have not been worn in the last 12 months: 32 percent." That is 38 divided by 120, or 31.7 percent, shown as a whole percent.
- Share of closet. A category's owned count divided by pieces owned, shown as a whole percent. The table lists each category's owned, worn and never-worn counts and leaves out categories with no pieces. In the example, tops take 33 percent of the closet and hold the most never-worn pieces, 12.
- The WRAP comparison. Your never-worn share against the roughly 30 percent WRAP found. From 25 to 35 percent, the result says "about the same as." Above 35 percent, it says "above." Below 25 percent, it says "below."
- The capsule target. The pieces worn in every category except Other, set against the capsule guide's range of 25 to 50 pieces for one season. Above 50, the result says how many would be boxed for the other season: the count minus 50. The example wore 73 such pieces, so 23 would be boxed. From 25 to 50, it says you already fit the range. Under 25, it says you are below it. Ticking the one-season box words this figure as a box for a season.
- The leave pile. Every never-worn piece is a candidate. Enter a cost and the result divides it by the never-worn count: $1,140 divided by 38 is about $30 a piece.
What this does and does not tell you
It tells you how much of your closet sits unworn and which categories hold the most of it, so you know where to look first before you buy anything else. The figure to watch is the never-worn share. Run the worksheet at each seasonal audit and see whether it falls. In the example, 38 pieces worth $1,140 sat unworn, and tops held the most.
Every count is yours, and memory overstates how often we wear things. Count with everything out on the bed rather than from memory. Worn in the last 12 months is a yes or no for each piece. It does not say how often you wore it, which is what the Cost per Wear Calculator helps with. The worksheet does not decide what goes. The never-worn count is a list of candidates, and the 30-day chance is the test. The WRAP figure comes from a 2012 survey of UK households, a reference point rather than a target. The capsule range is a rule of thumb for one season. Your right number depends on laundry, climate, the settings you dress for and dress codes.
The cost line is what the pile cost, not what it would sell for. That money is spent either way. The pull to keep a piece because of its price has a name, and our entry on the sunk cost fallacy explains it.
Questions readers ask
What counts as worn in the last 12 months?
Any piece you put on at least once in that time counts as worn. The field is a yes or no for each piece, so it does not show how often you wore it. A shirt worn once and a shirt worn every week count the same. To see how hard a piece works, use the cost-per-wear pass in the audit guide or the Cost per Wear Calculator.
Why does the capsule target leave out the Other category?
The capsule guide's range of 25 to 50 pieces for one season counts shoes, coats, bags and jewelry worn daily, but leaves out underwear, socks, sleepwear and workout clothes. The Other category is where activewear and sleepwear go, so the worksheet adds up the pieces you wore in the other seven categories and sets that against the range. Your Other pieces still count toward your totals and your never-worn share.
My never-worn share is well above 30 percent. Is something wrong?
The roughly 30 percent comes from WRAP's 2012 survey of UK households, so treat it as a reference point, not a target. The most common reason clothes went unworn was that they no longer fit, which is not a personal failing. A high share gives you a longer list of candidates, not a verdict. Hang each never-worn piece at the front of the closet and wear it within 30 days; if you do not, it goes.
Do you keep what I enter?
The form works in your browser and sends nothing to us; the result is in the page address so you can share it. Reloading the page or opening a shared link sends that address to our host like any other page request. Nothing goes into your browser storage.
Sources
- Valuing our clothes (WRAP, 2012) The survey finding that around 30 percent of the clothing in an average UK wardrobe had not been worn for at least a year, most often because it no longer fit.