Member Article

Brits sitting on up to £1,000 spare cash

Research from Gumtree.com, the UK’s no.1 classifieds website, reveals that up to 92% of Brits could be £1,000 better off due to unused items in their home – they just don’t realise it. And this isn’t just a recent occurrence, in fact, cash-strapped Brits are estimated to have accumulated £5.7bn* worth of clutter over the last ten years, with more than one in three (38%) having enough clutter to fill a bedroom.

Top 5 most unused items in the home are:

• Clothes
• Books
• Shoes
• DVDs
• VHS cassettes

Despite popular opinion, it turns out that men are actually more nostalgic when it comes to saying goodbye to unwanted gifts. 20% admitted to feeling an emotional connection to their clutter and a further 11% feel upset when they get rid of it, compared to 15% and 9% of women respectively. On the other hand, the guilt of selling an unwanted gift affects more women (19%) compared to men (8%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, women lead the way when it comes to shoes, with the average UK woman having seven pairs that they don’t wear. Meanwhile, the average man in the UK has five pairs of shoes that he doesn’t wear.

The trend to keep up with the latest gadgets is leading to a gadget graveyard – and men are the worse culprits. Whilst the average woman has one spare MP3 player, UK men have on average two, with 7% of men hoarding seven or more of the music players. It’s the same story when it comes to laptops with the average female having one spare, whilst the average UK male has two – with one in ten UK men having four or more spare laptops. The average Brit also has two spare mobile phones.

Older generations are most likely to hold on to belongings that have been lying around for a long time. One in five (18%) over-55s have owned their oldest unused item for over 21 years and a third of those (33%) are reluctant to sell because they believe they may use them one day.

Out of sight, out of mind – most popular space for storing clutter

• The loft (24%)
• Spare room (18%)
• Cupboard (16%)
• Garage (11%)
• Under the bed (8%)

Gumtree’s top tips for converting clutter to cash:

• Don’t feel guilty about letting go of items that you received as presents – it’s amazing how good you feel when you get extra cash for that ‘unwanted gift’
• Set aside a dedicated time to clear out your clutter – it can take a while to sort through your clutter and decide what you want to sell. But you’ll feel better about it if you do it all in one session and the quicker you sort, the quicker you can start to make money
• Sell things in-season – more people are likely to be interested in buying a sun lounger or a barbecue at the start of summer than in middle of winter – so not only will you get more interest, but you’ll most likely be able to get more money for your item too
• Look for first editions or rare albums - books and music are some of the most hoarded items in the UK, so if a book has a dust jacket or is a first edition, then it could be worth a lot of money
• Present the product well – to get the most from your Gumtree gem, give the item a good clean or polish and present it well in your photos as this will help catch the eye of potential buyers. You wouldn’t buy something if it was grubby and it works the other way around!
• Consider how old the item is – to help determine your Gumtree price, ask yourself – is this a trusted brand, how old is it, and how much did it cost new? A mobile phone which was worth £300 new may only be worth £30 now as technology can move fast, so as a general rule, the newer the item, the higher the proportion of its original value you can ask for
• Have an open mind – just because you don’t want an item anymore or it doesn’t work, don’t assume that no one else will want it or be able to fix it. Remember than one person’s cast-offs can be another person’s treasure!

To help customers with their de-cluttering, Gumtree is running an ‘Utter Clutter’ competition on its Facebook page. Fans can upload a photo of their pile of clutter and the person who needs help the most will win a Gumtree Angel’ to come to their home and post all of their clutter up for sale on Gumtree.

To view current ads or to post your own and make cash from your unwanted clutter, visit gumtree.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Elijah Lawal .