Kate Winslet
A new survey has found that Kate Winslet would be the nation's favourite housemate, followed by Cheryl Cole, while Victoria Beckham nad Amy Winehouse come bottom of the pile.
The survey also found that if UK households took advantage of the spare rooms, clearing out clutter and renting them out, they could make a huge £38 billion a year. That equates to over £3 billion a month based on average rental incomes across the UK. It could mean an extra personal income of as much as £320 a month or £3,840 a year per household! It’s time to get the junk out of the spare room to make some money, according to findings from self storage experts Big Yellow Self Storage.
More than a third (36%) of us that have a whole room in our home filled with junk and the storage company found that nearly one in three (31%) would definitely rent out a room to make money and beat the credit crunch. With recent figures showing that the rental market is continuing to flourish, it looks like some people have already cottoned onto this lucrative scheme.
It’s no surprise that so much of our home space is filled with useless clutter after a massive three quarters (72%) of us admitted to hoarding useless items around the house. Whilst men prove to be the biggest hoarders, Northerners are more prone to hoarding than Southerners. Eighty five per cent of Northerners, compared to 61% of Southerners, admitted to literally sitting on their junk. We may not be able to build an extension onto our home or convert the loft but we can get space smart, especially as one in two of us believe quality of life would be better if there was more free space around the home.
Clutter may unnecessarily take up room but it’s also a source of contention for everybody, with almost one in three (33%) of us arguing about mess at least once a week and 2.4 million of us are arguing about it more than once a day! 18-24 year olds are quickest to lose their temper over mess and 38% of us claim clutter is the main source of arguments. That’s nearly five times more than rows caused by the remote control and double the number caused by housework!
Michael Holmes, one of the UK’s leading property experts and presenter from BBC1’s Trading Up, ITV’s Don’t Move Improve, UKTV Style’s decluttering programme Scrubbers and the soon to air on Channel 5’s I Own Britain’s Best Home, commented: "The survey showed some really interesting findings and there are many more options for those looking for cash savings from storage: If you’re selling your home and renting a smaller property because of the slump, you could put your stuff into storage at Big Yellow, wait until the market bottoms out and then buy back in. If you time it right, you could save tens of thousands on the cost of your next place, and have the flexibility to relocate quickly if you’re unfortunate enough to be looking for new job opportunities. If you can’t move, then why not improve and add space and value to you home? If you have bought a bargain wreck to do up or are improving your current home, you can put your stuff safely into storage until the work is complete. What’s more, through the ‘Rent a Room’ initiative you can even rent space and make up to £4,250 per year tax free."
Rob Strachan, Head of Sales and Marketing, Big Yellow, added: "Savvy home owners really could boost their bank balances, for the long or short term, by using self storage. Renting room or garage space can bring great savings for home owners, but alternatively people who need more space and can’t afford to move right now, can go for the cheaper option of putting excess stuff into storage."
At Big Yellow you can store things of all shapes & sizes, with room sizes from 9 sq ft up to 400 sq ft. With state of the art customer service and technology, each room is protected by its own alarm and CCTV, monitored by staff round the clock. There’s also unique PIN entry access, well lit corridors and fire detection systems in all self storage locations and have easy access 7 days a week.
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