The wardrobe audit, season by season

A wardrobe audit is a regular, structured look at everything you own to wear. Done twice a year, at the change between warm and cold weather, it keeps a closet from quietly filling up, and it turns the vague feeling of “I have nothing to wear” into a short, specific list.

What follows is the audit as a worksheet in prose. It takes about two hours. Our Wardrobe Audit Worksheet adds up your counts and prints a blank sheet for the two hours, though a notebook and a pen work fine too.

Before you start

Set aside two hours when you will not be interrupted. Gather four bags or boxes and label them keep, repair, store and leave. Have a notebook, good light and a full-length mirror. Wear something easy to take on and off, since you will be trying things on.

Step 1: Empty the closet (15 minutes)

Take everything out. All of it: the closet, the drawers, the coats in the hall, the shoes by the door, the clothes on the chair and in the laundry basket. The point of this step is to see the whole pile at once, because most people own more than they think.

That is not a personal failing. In WRAP’s 2012 survey of UK households, around 30 percent of the clothing in an average wardrobe had not been worn for at least a year, and the most common reason was that it no longer fit. Expect a pile like that, and do not be discouraged by it.

Step 2: The four piles (40 minutes)

Pick up each piece once and decide within a minute. If you hesitate, try it on.

• Keep. You wore it this season or last, it fits, and it works with other things you own.
• Repair. You would wear it if it were fixed: a hem, a button, a zip, a resole, a tailor’s adjustment.
• Store. It belongs to the other season, or you are honestly unsure. Box it with today’s date on the lid.
• Leave. It does not fit, it is worn past repair, or you have not worn it for a year of seasons. It goes to sale, donation or recycling.

The repair pile is worth respecting. Mending a piece you already like is almost always cheaper than replacing it, and fixing one thing does not pull new things in after it.

Step 3: The cost-per-wear pass (15 minutes)

Now go back through the keep pile and pull out two groups: anything that cost a lot, and anything you bought in the last six months. For each, estimate how many times you have worn it and work out its cost per wear, the price plus care divided by wears so far.

You are looking for two things. Expensive pieces with very few wears are the ones to wear more, or to admit you will not. Recent purchases with few wears tell you something about how you shop: what lured you, and what you should be wary of next time. Write both down.

Step 4: The never-worn rule (15 minutes)

Some pieces will still have tags on, or you will know you have not worn them in a year. Pull them out together. These are the hardest calls, because each one carries the memory of what it cost. That pull is the sunk cost fallacy: the money is spent whether you keep the piece or not, and keeping it does not get the money back.

Give each never-worn piece one chance. Hang it at the front of the closet and wear it within 30 days. If you do, it moves to keep. If you do not, it goes, no further debate.

Step 5: The gap list (20 minutes)

With the keep pile in front of you, ask what is missing. The trick is to separate gaps from wants.

A gap is a situation you regularly face and cannot dress for with what you own: no shoes for a wet commute, nothing warm enough between a T-shirt and a winter coat, no outfit for job interviews. A daily piece that has worn out is a gap too.

A want is something nicer, newer or matching. A better version of a coat that still works. A color you have seen everywhere lately. A top that would “go with” the trousers you bought last month. Wants are not forbidden, but they are where the Diderot effect does its work, one new thing making the old things look like they need company.

Write gaps on one page and wants on another.

Step 6: The written list and the 30-day wait (15 minutes)

For each gap, write one line: the situation, the three things you own it must go with, a price limit and today’s date. Then wait 30 days. Our 30-day rule explains why the wait works and what to do on day 30.

Put the wants through the same wait. Most of them will fade, and the ones that do not have earned a second look. Then put the keep pile back and close up the bags.

The two-hour version

If you want the audit as a timetable, here it is:

1. 0:00 to 0:15: Empty everything onto the bed.
2. 0:15 to 0:55: Sort into keep, repair, store and leave.
3. 0:55 to 1:10: Cost-per-wear pass on the expensive and the recent.
4. 1:10 to 1:25: Pull out the never-worn pieces and hang them at the front.
5. 1:25 to 1:45: Write the gap list and the want list.
6. 1:45 to 2:00: Write the shopping list with dates and limits, put the keep pile back, bag up the rest.

After the audit

Within a week, drop off the leave pile and take the repair pile to a tailor or cobbler, or fix it yourself. Put the date of the next audit in your calendar. Keep your notes: comparing one season’s list with the next is the best way to see whether you are buying less, and which kinds of purchases keep ending up in the leave pile.

Over a few seasons, the audit gets faster, because there is less to sort. That is the sign it is working. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated in 2017 that the number of times a garment is worn had fallen by 36 percent worldwide in 15 years. A closet that gets audited twice a year tends to push its owner’s number back up. If you want to turn the keep pile into a deliberate system, our capsule wardrobe guide is the next step.