C’mon, you know you’re guilty of it. You come across an unbelievable sale and while, sure, that shirt is a bit snug (you’ve been meaning to drop 10 pounds, anyway), and, no, mustard yellow isn’t really your color, and, you admit, ruffles aren’t exactly your thing, you buy it anyway. At that price, you’d be cray-cray to pass it up. We get it (5-inch stilettos we can't bear to shuffle three inches in).
Only, you never actually end up wearing the too tight, ugly colored, out-of-style top and, so, it sits in your closet gathering dust. There, there. You’re not alone.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail reports a recent study conducted by the British Heart Foundation Shops shows Brit women have, on average, six unworn pieces of clothing in their closets—tags intact. And that number doesn’t include the extra 15 items, shoes included, that were worn one time only, the newspaper adds.
All that deserted fashion adds up to about $237 per woman—or $7.3 billion nationwide, according to the Daily Mail. That’s a lot of couture.
As we would guess, the study finds 36 percent of women bought the stuff because it was on sale, and 26 percent thought they’d be able to fit it into it at some point, the newspaper notes. Other reasons for not ever wearing the fashion purchases: never tried the stuff on, too tight, unflattering and unwanted gifts, among others.
So, which items aren’t getting any love? The survey points to tight dresses, skinny jeans, miniskirts, bikinis and high heels as a few of the culprits, while—big shocker!—crop tops and hot pants also make the list.
“People often buy items on impulse, without trying them on properly, and only realize once they get home that they’re not flattering or don’t fit well,” fashion expert Hilary Alexander tells the Daily Mail. “We all have to accept that if we haven’t worn an item after owning it for six months it’s time to move on.”
That, and just step away from the hot pants. No matter how marked down they may be, that will never end well.
Lesley Kennedy writes for ShopAtHome.com. Follow ShopAtHome on Twitter @shopathome and Lesley on Google+.
A version of this story originally appeared on iVillage.