Repairability of clothing and textiles: Consumer practices and policy implications

Extending product lifetimes through repair is a central strategy in sustainable consumption and circular economy initiatives. This article examines how consumers evaluate textile damages and potential to repair, drawing on wardrobe interviews with 28 Norwegian households. Over a six-month period, we tracked 3211 clothing and household textile items going out of use, of which only 107 (3.3 per cent) had been repaired or altered prior to disposal, almost exclusively as home repairs. Based on participant evaluations, we developed a three-level repair scale that reflects perceived repair complexity and feasibility. This scale, combined with item-level damage data, reveals both practical and conceptual challenges in promoting textile repair. Repairability in textiles is more complex than in other product groups, such as electronics,…