The survey claims that on average, households across the UK fork out £16pm on storing items that they can't fit in their homes. This equates to over £1.1bn a year.
30% of those who pay for someone else to look after their clutter shell out over £20 a month in storage fees. 11% pay less than £5 a month for storage.
Also revealed in the research was that younger people are more likely to have to pay for storage. This may be because they are more likely to be sharing accommodation or living in smaller properties. 27% of the 25-34 year old age bracket pay for storage and hand over on average over £200 a year to do so. 25% of 18–24 year olds spend an average of £179.40 a year to stash their extra possessions somewhere.
As you would expect, it's households in the capital that are the most likely to pay for extra storage space. 25% of those who live in London pay to have their clutter securely locked away, which is twice the UK average.
22% of those who don't pay for storage admitted that their spare room or garage is “full of clutter”. In fact, 51% of all garages are used for storage with slightly less than a quarter ever seeing a car inside them.
Ian Williams, spokesman for Ocean, says: “Across the UK many households find that they don’t have space for all the possessions they’ve accumulated. Whilst “de-cluttering” has become an industry in its own right, for many people without the benefit of an attic, garage or spare room that they can dedicate to storage, then paying to store items elsewhere is the only option. Unsurprisingly, the issue is particularly acute in urban areas, and particularly in London, where a high proportion of people live in shared houses or flats.”