Why Do We Keep Old Clothes?

August 2, 2014

Why is it we get so attached to old clothes? Most of us will admit to having some clothes in our wardrobes, cupboards, or drawers that we don’t wear anymore. How many items have you got that fit this description? We’d be too embarrassed to answer that particular question!

It shouldn’t come as a massive surprise then to learn that some people keep old clothes in their self-storage spaces too. It’s not uncommon to have a clothing clear-out and to deposit some of the results of that clear-out into their storage space. But this still doesn’t answer the question of why they keep the clothes in the first place. After all, if they’re being consigned to the locker they’re not in a good position to be worn easily are they?

We think there are a variety of reasons why people hang onto things like this. Baby clothes are easy to understand. Parents may not want to keep everything but they’ll probably want to keep a few choice outfits they will enjoy reminiscing about in years to come.

Another big reason (probably the biggest one of all) is that we hope we might fit into smaller sizes again once we’ve lost a little weight. Why buy new clothes to fit into when we drop a dress size when we already own those clothes? Instead of binning them we put them into storage and hope we’ll eventually have a reason to go back and reclaim them from their storage boxes again.

Wedding dresses are usually kept as well, along with fancy dress outfits. We don’t need access to these all the time but it would be a pity to get rid of them, wouldn’t it?

So maybe we’re not nuts to keep old clothes after all. They can make us feel pretty sentimental, can’t they?

Posted in: Self-storage