My mate used Einstein's trick of wearing identical clothes every day, thus saving the brainpower required to decide what to wear. Unfortunately, he didn't actually bother with a dozen sets of identical clothes, choosing instead to just wear the SAME clothes.

As far as I'm aware he's still single...

That's like polling a Gym and claiming that the average male spends umpteen hours a week working out. Average for your customer base maybe, but not necessarily nation-wide.

after selecting the blood thing, they have to wear it don't they? and what about makeup?

"What we want to see, though, is a Matalan poll of 2,500 Reg readers to see just how long they spend mulling the comparative merits of a suit and tie, or jeans, trainers and that favourite black t-shirt."

I literally pick whatever is in front of me, as for my hear and beard.... I take care of it once a month when I go to the barbershop.

oh... and I don't fell ashamed about picking my nose when I am alone

mine is the one that is "hopefully" is still clean enough to wear again.

16 mins , every weekday morning??

gtf outa here...

What about the further 3 years spent changing their mind again? Then re-doing their hair, make-up.... were shoes included??

I am a regular reg reader and need less than a minute to pick a suit. all are black.

anonymously for obvious reason

My coat is the one with a neuralyzer in the pocket

...asking her partner what he thinks of the said outfit, and if her bum looks big in it?

It's not the dress that does that, it's the number of cakes eaten before hand.

AC, for obvious reasons.

So they polled women? That was their first mistake, if they'd polled their partners they would've got a more accurate figure. In reality it takes much longer...

"up to 20 minutes bothering the wardrobe prior to a night out"

Yeah, right.

20 minutes on average I might believe, but not max.

How many years does the average man spend staring at tits, fawning over cars and shiny / matt black gadgets, watching football, etc etc?

I'd guess that their sample set included a large proportion of nuns, because there's no way the "average" woman only spends 287 days choosing what to wear ("20 minutes preparing for a night out" - yeah *right*, that's on a par with a man's "I'll be there in a minute" when mid-Halo/Quake/GTA/etc.).

...reaches that count in an average week.

While 287 days deciding what to wear seems excessive, how much time between the ages of 16 and 60 do we men spend trying to determine how to get women OUT of the clothes?

Mine's the one with the stopwatch ... and the hourglass.

287 days out of each year

anonymously for obvious reasons ;-)

See Tanya Gold's latest article on The Graun, here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/09/women-men-better-off-without?commentpage=6

At least Matalan will have done their research.

Workday -

two pairs over black trousers, whichever is on the radiator

ten shirts, all dark and hung up, whichever is to hand

tie, if I can be bothered, all match the shirts, whichever is first out of the rats nest

shoes, one pair, black...

weekend -

jeans, tshirt... top of the pile on both counts...

evenings out -

clean jeans, decent shirt (this one may actually take 5 min)

I never realised my lazy-ness was actually a drive for efficency but I'll take it!

Oh, and coat - never wear so none :)

And we don't have wardrobe malfunctions.

Paris because she's a woman.

... know better than to waste their time on clothes . That would steal valuable time from discussing browser functionality, the relative merits of programming environments, or whether it might be worth switching away from Adobe reader.

No let's not go there.

Paris, because it works for some.

What is this "iron" that you speak of and how does it apply to clothing?

"up to 20 minutes bothering the wardrobe prior to a night out"

My wife's taken that long just deciding on which knickers to wear, let alone dress, accessories, shoes etc...

Lay back & enjoy the view is my motto...

Work shirts are on a rotation system and trousers are choosen to match the shirt except that they cant be worn on two consecutive days.

Leisure wear consists of favourite pairs of jeans and shorts on a rotation policy plus t shirts of multiple colours depending on either my mood or what is clean.

You got to keep it simple.

Not only spending 287 days choosing what to wear, but also the questions such as "Do I look fat in this?" and the man spending double that time trying to figure out just how to answer it without getting in trouble? What about putting the outfit on finally and then realizing it doesn't math with their nails and the function and spending that same amount of time to find a new one? Or even better how about finally figuring out what to wear, then getting halfway to where your going (No matter if its 4 hours away) and realizing that you NEED to go back because you forgot your perfume?

/I say this now, to all the women who read this and don't go through those things I apologize but in my lifetime I have met maybe 2-3 that don't.

"What you wear has a direct impact on how you feel about yourself and it is important a woman feels exceptional in her outfit. Whatever the occasion your clothes portray an image and we understand this is fundamentally important to women."

The statement seems completely reasonable on its face. But then if you think about it for a second, it doesn't explain why anyone would have anything in closet the which makes her feel like crap, nor indeed, why it takes that kind of time to rule out such clothing.

I need a better reason than that for such alarming indecision.

Is Sarah Bee on holiday? She's usually laid into someone by now on these kind of threads.

I'm wearing a navy blue polo shirt. I AM TEH REBEL!

She's probably still deciding what to wear in order to be suitably attired for comments.

:D

and use non-coloured toothpaste. That way, when you spill toothpaste your shirt just gets whiter and smells minty fresh!

To help with any male equivalent survey- for me it's just black jeans, black shirt, black shoes, black socks, black boxers. For special occasions I'll jump into one of two suits. I can go shopping for clothes in less time than it takes my flatmate to decide which jacket she'll wear to go shopping for clothes (achieved on, so far, 3 occasions).

@Schultz

Adobe reader sucks, so yes you should change from it. Next problem!

@"misogynistic comments" AC

It's not misogynistic if it's true, is it? And the point is that- according to the survey, at least- it IS true.

I think you'll find most Reg readers just start putting on clothes as they find them, usually from the floor, until they think they've covered enough of their body to cover legal requirements.

The brilliant thing about nerds is we're incredibly environmentally conscious. That means we understand that the biggest contributors to CO2 emissions come from showers, washing, etc. Heating all that hot water is terrible for the environment and I'm not even being facetious, it really is.

So we shrug our indifference at wearing the same clothes for weeks at a time, even longer if it's possible to hide stains by turning things inside out or using other long-term garments to hide what's sticking to the lower layers. Sometimes we'll pretend the stuff smeared and sticking to our clothes is a nerd fashion statement that regular people can't understand, just like the rest of our lives. Smelling of beer, cigarettes and sex is a badge of honour amongst IT workers, as it proves we have a life outside of World of Warcraft.

Personally I keep a no-more-than-twice-worn tee-shirt and jeans on hand for interviews, socks are an annoyance so forget those and not even the hardest of nosed geeks would want to know about my boxer shorts unwashed half-life.