It’s a common misperception that it’s better to store household items that might be useful in the future, rather than discarding them. As it turns out, it’s quite the opposite. It’s estimated that “average American households store about 50 items that aren’t being used, while in the U.K. consumers own more than 770 million kilograms of clothing that hasn’t been worn for at least a year.” By giving household items another life in a new home, we can reduce the need to buy new items and use resources unnecessarily. University of Alberta researcher, Saurabh Rawal, has a trick for helping clear household clutter during this year's spring clean-up. Rawal suggests anthropomorphizing your unused items by giving them human characteristics. “You start to feel bad for abandoning them in your storage rooms, in your garages, and therefore be more likely to give it to someone by selling it, donating it or sharing it,” as Rawal told CBC.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
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