Study Shows Women Pack Twice as Many Clothes than Needed on Holiday

We’ve all been there: the night before the day when we leave for some faraway (or less distant) destination, where we’re to vacation. There’s packing to do and, as a rule, women will always throw in more items than they actually need – twice as many, a new study confirms.

It’s a known fact that women are no light travelers, but that’s only because they pack clothes for a wide range of possibilities, reveals the study conducted on 3,000 women and cited by the Daily Mail.

On average, women will pack twice as many clothing items and pairs of shoes than they will get the chance to wear, but even this realization does not make them pack lighter.

Ironically enough, of the 3,000 British women surveyed by travel insurance company The Co-operative, almost a quarter said they hated packing, even adding that they found the whole process more stressful than a day at work.

Even so, for a two weeks’ stay, a woman would pack 44 items and 6 pairs of shoes (only a few find room in the suitcase for no less than 10 pairs), of which she’d only wear half during her stay.

“It’s not just the added weight that is likely to rile their partners, for the value of all those clothes in the average woman’s suitcase is £1,140,” the Daily Mail writes.

“The research also reveals that women spend an average of four hours packing their holiday wardrobe while one in 10 of those surveyed admit to deliberating over what to take for 12 hours or more,” the publication adds.

About 23 percent of respondents admitted to hating packing for the holiday, while 31 percent said they would often get zero help from their partner and would have to struggle with the task on their own.

Cary Cooper, Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University, says the explanation for the overwhelming number of items that end up in a woman’s suitcase is simple: when she packs, she thinks of every possibility that may arise, requiring her to dress a certain way.

“Take just a meal out – women will ask themselves what sort of meal it is. Is it smart, casual, somewhere in the middle? Most women will pack enough clothes for all these eventualities. It’s no surprise that women tend to pack a lot of shoes, as of course shoes need to go with all the various outfit combinations,” Cooper says.

A spokesperson for the company that commissioned the study also points out that holidays are often an “excuse” to go shopping for new clothes that will, later on, find their place among the aforementioned 44 items a woman will pack.