home & garden
New research by disaster relief charity, ShelterBox, has revealed that we are a nation of hoarders, with the average Brit owning a whopping £877 worth of unwanted items left lying around the house.
The research, released to launch ShelterBox’s ‘Big Box and Buy’ campaign, found that old clothing is cluttering up our households, with over a quarter of respondents claiming they have unwanted items of apparel lying around. Featuring a close second on the list is discarded technology with 24% claiming that they have old TV’s, mobile phones and audio equipment gathering dust in spare rooms.
The Hoarders Top Five
·Clothing
·Technology
·Furniture
·Sports Equipment
·Antiques
Interestingly, males are exposed as bigger hoarders than women with the average male claiming that they have £981 of unwanted possessions lying around the house. Surprisingly, unwanted clothing is the biggest culprit of clutter in a man’s house, with over a quarter of males admitting to discarded garments taking up the most storage space.
Less than 7% of respondents use storage companies to keep their items safe with the rest of us preferring to keep unused goods in the loft or the garage, taking up valuable living space. Inside, the main bedroom copes with most of our clutter with spare bedrooms following close behind.
When it comes to getting rid of our unwanted possessions, the survey revealed that we are reluctant to part with our discarded goods. Nearly half of respondents claimed that they had never considered selling their old items, instead leaving them to clutter up valuable household space.
People from the South West are exposed as the UK’s biggest hoarders with residents from Cornwall polling highest. Residents of East Anglia were the least likely to store unwanted goods with over 45% claiming that they regularly sell their unwanted possessions to make extra household space.
The UK’s Top Five Hoarders
·Cornwall
·Manchester
·London
·Birmingham
·Wales
Of those respondents that do regularly sell their unwanted goods, eBay auctions are by far the most popular, with over three quarters of respondents saying that they use eBay to auction these goods off. Unsurprisingly, clothing is the most popular auction item with over 60% of females claiming that they sell clothes and shoes off the most. Rather unsurprisingly, men would rather auction off their old DVD’s with 55% of males saying that these are the most likely items they would part with.
Over a third of people claim that the cash raised from selling their unwanted items goes towards day to day living and rather disappointingly, fewer than 2% of people donate the funds raised to charity. However, the research reveals that we are keen to use more traditional methods to help a good cause with over three quarters of respondents claiming that they do regularly take things to charity shops or would consider doing so.
ShelterBox’s Big Box & Buy campaign will invite people to turn a box of stuff they don’t need into a box of stuff that someone else desperately needs by selling those unwanted possessions in aid of ShelterBox in a real or virtual Box & Buy sale. The campaign is part of ShelterBox’s annual Big Green Box Week (11 – 18 June 2011).
Tim Bunting, General Manager at ShelterBox UK, who conducted the poll, commented:
‘While it is true that some of us are selling unwanted goods in a bid to raise extra cash, it is clear that a large proportion of people are not making good use of all the unused items that are lying around the house and taking up unnecessary space.ShelterBox is encouraging these people to get involved with our Big Box and Buy campaign.
‘Big Box and Buy is a fantastic chance to have a clear out, auction off your unwanted items and turn them into a box of essential lifesaving equipment that someone in a disaster desperately needs. You can hold your auction on eBay to make selling your possessions online easy and secure or you can hold a real-life Box and Buy in your local neighbourhood.
‘It’s such a simple idea – a box for a box – but your donations can make an incredible impact on the lives of thousands of families displaced by disaster.’
ShelterBox is an international disaster relief charity that provides emergency shelter and life-saving supplies to families around the world who are affected by disasters. ShelterBox aims to help the areas where the need is greatest by providing shelter, warmth, comfort and dignity to families in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Each big, green ShelterBox is tailored to every disaster but typically contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, water purification and storage equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, a children's activity pack and other vital items.
From the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami to the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the current situation in Japan, there is no disaster too big or too small for ShelterBox. Simply put, if there is an unmet need for emergency shelter, the charity will do everything in its power to meet that need.
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