10 minutes
While both women and men face demands on their time, certain responsibilities and societal expectations disproportionately affect women. We often handle the scheduling and planning of family activities, meals, and household maintenance, for starters. One study found that women spend an average of 399 hours, 46 minutes per year shopping for clothes, shoes, and accessories, compared to 79 hours for men. Clothing rental offers a time-saving solution while empowering you to maintain an image-making wardrobe. Read on for exactly how clothing rental saves time because, as you know, time is money.
Do the Math, Because Time is Money
The hourly rate for a worker who makes $100,000 per year is approximately $48.08. If you spend 400 hours per year shopping for your wardrobe as the study suggests, you’re taking a $19,232 pay cut—before even stepping up to the checkout counter.
Plug your own annual salary into this formula:
Step 1: [your annual salary] divided by 2,080 hours per year (based on 40 hours per week for 52 weeks). This equals your hourly rate.
Step 2: Multiply [your hourly rate] by 400 hours per year (average annual shopping hours for women). This equals the cost of shopping for your wardrobe before you purchase anything.
Face it: shopping is time-consuming, from browsing through stores or websites to trying on clothes and making returns when buyer’s remorse strikes. With clothing rental, you can bypass these steps entirely. If I don’t need to convince you to protect your time, skip down to “How Clothing Rental Saves Time—and Decisions.”
Paying Dearly: The Tax on Women
Times are a ‘changin’, but women still take on a greater share of childcare duties, including school drop-offs, pick-ups, medical appointments, and attending school events. Even childless cat ladies have more demands on their time. Women are more likely to be responsible for routine household tasks like cooking, cleaning, and laundry. According to the 2023 American Time Use Survey, 86% of women engage in household activities daily, compared to 71% of men. This difference becomes even more pronounced when focusing on specific chores like housework, where 48% of women are involved compared to only 22% of men.
Additionally, women frequently provide emotional support for family members, friends, and partners, including managing family dynamics and coordinating gatherings.What are men doing with all of their extra time?! Earning more, for starters. Recent studies continue to demonstrate a persistent gender wage gap, with women earning less than men across nearly all occupations. For instance, a 2024 report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) shows that women, on average, earn 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, even in professions dominated by women. This gap is even more pronounced for women of color, with Latina women earning just 59.2 cents and Black women 65.8 cents for every dollar earned by white men.
Decision Fatigue is Real
Can we really close the gender pay gap by shopping less? Seems preposterous, right? Enter decision fatigue—which means the more decisions we make throughout the day, the harder each subsequent one becomes, leading to a decrease in our ability to make sound choices, let alone run a company or conceptualize a million-dollar idea. Rumor has it that Steve Jobs wore a black turtleneck everyday so he didn’t waste any decisions staring into his closet. Same for Mark Zuckerberg with his hoodies.
This phenomenon affects everyone but can be particularly burdensome for women who often face a higher volume of decisions related to personal appearance, family, and work. Women average 301 shopping trips per year compared to 214 for men. How many quality decisions are we wasting? From selecting the right outfit per occasion, weather, body image, budget, and mood, to ensuring the ensemble aligns with personal style and comfort, these decisions add up.
How Clothing Rental Saves Time—and Decisions
If I’ve sufficiently convinced you to protect your time, I’ve only accomplished half of my goal. I need to tell you how clothing rental saves time. For starters, it alleviates decision fatigue by reducing the number of choices we need to make daily.
Curation
By offering curated collections based on personal preferences, Armoire streamlines the process of choosing outfits, making it easier to look and feel great without the mental strain. With fewer decisions to worry about, we can conserve our cognitive energy for more important tasks, enhancing productivity, and overall well-being. Yes, please.
Say goodbye to endless scrolling. Starting with the inputs on your style quiz, Armoire curates a selection of on-trend and professional outfits for you, allowing you to quickly choose pieces that fit your style and needs and are immediately available in your size. The more you use Armoire, the more on-the-nose your recommendations become. And you don’t even have to fight traffic or find parking.
Of course, if you enjoy scrolling after a long day of Zoom calls and spreadsheets, you can do that too. We have an app for that. Sometimes I like to dig deep by playing with different ways to sort the inventory or studying new-to-me brands; I’ve been using Armoire for nearly a year and I haven’t seen everything yet.
Personal Styling
Do you want to turn the easy button into an easier button? Work with an Armoire personal stylist—for free. Working with a personal stylist can be a significant time-saver because they have the insider knowledge of where to find the best pieces that fit their clients’ needs and preferences. Nobody knows their way around The Big Closet like the styling team. Rely on a stylist to source and select the best options, making the shopping process faster and more targeted.
We don’t talk enough about the longevity of our stylists at Armoire. They’ve been with us so long that they know exactly how everything fits and flatters. By working with a stylist, you can gain a clearer understanding of what works best for you, leading to more confident and quicker decision-making. This clarity reduces paralysis by analysis. Indecision is not your friend, friend.
Working with a personal stylist is intended to save time, not consume it, so please note you can engage in whatever way works best for you. There’s a chat feature on the website, but you can also schedule a virtual appointment if talking through your wish list is most convenient. Styling requests are also fulfilled via email and direct phone call. Armoire members in Seattle can visit our headquarters in person and get a warm hug from Ambika, our joyful founder and CEO.
Laundry
Earlier in my career, I traveled every week by air. Sometimes I visited three cities in one week and often I had less than 24 hours of turnaround time at home. Not only was doing laundry not how I wanted to spend my precious down time, sometimes there simply wasn’t enough time to wash, dry, press, fold, and pack. Armoire wasn’t available back then, but girrrrrl, I wish it was.
According to one study, women spent an average of 2.6 hours per week on laundry, compared to 1.4 hours for men. This adds up to approximately 135 hours per year.
For many years, I got by with speed shopping between trips. A couple of hours at the mall was all I could manage to prepare for the next trip. It was exhausting, stressful, and expensive. I accumulated so many clothes that I invested in a major closet organization system. (Add $2000 onto your wardrobe tax if you’ve been there, done that).
My next solution was to hire a college student to come into my home weekly to do laundry and, the worst part, put it all away. I made sacrifices in my budget to afford this. Fast forward to today and I only do wearable laundry once per month! I’m a wardrobe replacer, meaning everything I wear is rented, minus undergarments, sleepwear, socks, and a couple of basics. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you my hamper only fills up once a month.
Bonus: because laundry and dry cleaning are included with Armoire membership, I am wearing beautiful dry clean-only clothes for the first time in my life. I avoided buying these garments when I was responsible for maintaining them. Now, my dirty clothes go back into the bag they came in and the package fairies retrieve it from my porch.
Door-to-Door Delivery & Pick-up
Let’s get into that. Armoire offers unmatched convenience by shipping directly to my door and easy porch pick-ups for returns, making the process even more time-efficient. Instead of spending frantic hours at the mall and waiting in checkout lines, I simply browse online (sometimes during meetings, don’t tell Ambika), select my next pieces, and have them delivered straight to my doorstep—usually within two days. This is exactly what I need at this point in my life because I live an hour from the nearest mall.
When it’s time to return the items, there’s no need to carve out time for an errand to the post office, which is 30 minutes from my home. With free porch pick-up, I simply set my Armoire bag on the porch, schedule USPS pick-up with one click, and it’s out of my hands.
How Clothing Rental Saves Time with One-Piece Wonders
Finally, I’ll conclude with some of my favorite time-saving pieces from Armoire: the one-piece wonders. These are garments that serve as complete outfits on their own, making getting dressed quick, easy, and stress-free. These versatile pieces require minimal styling and are perfect for saving time while still looking chic. Here are some of my favorites after a year of testing; simply click the image for more information.
Utility Jumpsuits: Inspired by workwear, utility jumpsuits often feature a relaxed fit, multiple pockets, and durable fabric. They’re easy to wear and can be dressed up with heels or kept casual with sneakers.
All-day dresses: Versatile all-day dresses are characterized by their practicality, comfort, and style, making them appropriate for multiple settings such as work, casual outings, or even semi-formal events. This garment is the MVP of getting ready in a flash, yet nailing the vibe 100% of the time.
Maxi Dress: Flowing and comfortable, boho maxi dresses often feature prints, embroidery, or tiers. They’re easy to throw on and can be styled with sandals and a sunhat for an effortless, bohemian vibe.
Denim Dress: A denim dress is a versatile, casual option that works year-round. It pairs well with boots in the cooler months or sandals in the summer, making it a wardrobe staple.
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