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68% of Americans Suffer from ‘Compulsive Gadget Hoarding’

Many of my friends track their possessions and strive to own less than 100 things at any one time. I’ve previously done this and found it surprisingly liberating. As they say, the things you own end up owning you.

Apparently, most Americans don’t agree.

According to a recent “Spring cleaning” survey, 68 percent of U.S. residents suffer from ‘compulsive gadget hoarding.’

To calculate the percentage of gadget hoarders in the U.S., 1,000 Americans were polled about how long they keep devices they no longer use:

*  68% of Americans have kept an old gadget for 2+ years (gadget hoarding) without using the device.

*  70% of Americans currently have multiple old gadgets at home that they haven’t used within the past 3 months.

*  Only 25% of Americans admit to having a “gadget hoarding” problem.

If you’ve got old junk laying around taking up physical and mental space in your life, all it takes is three simple steps to declutter with a digital spring cleaning:

>>  STEP 1:  FOCUS ON ONE AT A TIME
Because it’s too overwhelming to get rid of all old gadgets simultaneously, focus on selling just one to begin with.

>>  STEP 2:  CREATE A NEW EXPERIENCE FUND
To reward yourself for taking action, create a special fund to buy yourself a new experience instead of a new gadget — concert tickets, hang-gliding lessons, or a self-improvement workshop. Happiness researchers find again and again that humans get more happiness out of remembered experiences than they get out of things.

>>  STEP 3:  DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME
Skip the temptation to use eBay or craigslist. Use a 3rd party selling service like uSell or do an Amazon Trade-In so you can ship the device off and make them deal with the hassle of reselling it. You’ll get somewhat less money this way, but at least you’ll actually get it sold.

Author Description

Louie Helm is a Machine Learning Engineer

7 Responses to “68% of Americans Suffer from ‘Compulsive Gadget Hoarding’”

  1. March 14

    Benjamin Ross Hoffman

    Step 3 seems important.

  2. March 14

    Jeremiah Ten

    I remember you telling me that you reduced down to 50 things back when we hosted you. I am trying to reduce everything down to a suitcase now, slowly but with much anticipation.

  3. March 14

    Kirk Lee Divizio

    I remake those old devices. They can be forward-engineered. but true…

  4. March 14

    Phil Maguire

    I suppose it’s better than these things ending up as landfill

  5. March 14

    Alexei Andreev

    Nick Winter this is for you. 🙂

  6. March 14

    Daniel Imbellino

    I have so many electronics laying around I cant find anything anymore. I’ve started throwing it out and giving it away. There is such thing as too much.

  7. March 14

    Luke Cockerham

    What about the security of your data though? Cell phones, copy machines, computers and tablets all retain data about you, some of which shouldn’t be just turned over to whoever. Effectively wiping these devices requires more than just hitting the reset pin or format c:. I know when I’ve bought used cameras and phones they always come with the previous owner’s data intact. Sometimes they even had good taste in music.