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Many consumers are hoarding

Johannesburg - About 40% of South African respondents to an online OLX survey said they think they may be hoarders, while 24% admited to being hoarders.

Other stats reveal that 57% of people have at least three second hand items at home they could sell online, and 96% of people would sell their unwanted stuff online if it meant that they could make an extra R15 000 per year.

Hoarding is a global problem. As a nation the UK hoards an estimated £50bn worth of clothes, books and other items that are no longer used. In The US up to an estimated 5% of Americans (nearly 15 million people) suffer from a hoarding disorder.

While most are not extreme hoarders like Andy Warhol, whose four-story Upper East Side town house was so jammed with items that the only rooms with paths through them were the kitchen and the bedroom, Bronwyn Johnson, head of marketing for OLX Africa, said most consumers are guilty of hoarding in some form.

"We struggle with the desire to keep things because we kid ourselves into thinking we may need them, or because we believe they hold some nostalgic value in our mind so we hold onto them,” she added.

According the Mayo Clinic in the US, people who hoard, typically save items because they believe these items will be needed or have value in the future and that a person also may hoard items that they feel have important emotional significance, serving as a reminder of happier times.

Johnson said that if you haven’t used something for the past 12 months, you’re probably not likely to use it in the next 12 months - so why not let it go?

"Sometimes, holding onto those things like the skinny jeans that you’ll wear after you lose weight, or the second deep fryer you received as a wedding gift, just end up sitting in a cupboard for years," Johnson explains. "Instead they could be exchanged for fast cash if you just let them go."


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