No Sex, Please, We’re Organizing

July 5, 2007–MotherJones.com
News: A nation of pack rats tries to get it together.
By Elizabeth Gettelman

Since the 1970s, the average U.S. home has grown by 80%. Yet Americans face a “storage crisis,” according to UCLA researchers.

The self-storage industry is only 35 years old. It took 25 years for the first billion square feet of storage space to be built. The second billion square feet was built in just 8 years.

7 square feet of commercial storage space now exists for every American.

1 in 11 households rents storage space—1 million more households than two years ago.

The New York Times reports a surge in multiyear, multiunit renters, or what one self-storage company calls “a segment of the population that has truly embedded storage into its lifestyle.”

Last year, Americans spent $7 billion on organizational products for their homes, closets, and garages.
80% of Americans believe they would be more satisfied if they were neater.

2 in 3 Americans who make $35,000 a year or less call themselves “neat freaks.” Only 1 in 10 of those earning $75,000 or more claim the same.

48% of office managers admit to a messy desk but claim to know where everything is. 12% have a neat desk but no idea where to find anything.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “bucket” is the new “in” business metaphor because it’s “more macho” than “basket.”

Container Store staff are trained to develop an “emotional connection” with customers. Says a salesperson, “When someone comes in to organize belts or shoes, there is usually a bigger problem.”

Miles of Piles: Self-storage units cover 72 square miles, the area of Manhattan and San Francisco combined.

American women would rather organize their closets than lose weight, according to a 2005 Rubbermaid survey.

1 in 3 IKEA customers say they get more satisfaction from cleaning out their closets than from having sex.

Men who don’t organize their sock drawer have sex 3 times more a month than men who do.

The National Association of Professional Organizers claims that Americans spend 55 minutes a day looking for things they know they own but can’t find.

4 in 5 new homes have multicar garages. Most two-car garages have one or no car in them.

75% of L.A. garages are used in ways that preclude any parking.

Many upscale homes now feature a “transition room” or, as one woman told the New York Times, “the room where we will channel all our crap.”

After a Massachusetts family moved into a smaller home in 2005, the mother was “very depressed,” until they converted their den into a “Costco annex.”

According to Mental Health America, more than 2 million Americans are hoarders.

In 2003, a Bronx man spent two days trapped under his magazines—ranging from Vibe to the Harvard Business Review—before firefighters rescued him.

Many people have a bit of “pack rat” in them, says Harvard psychiatrist Michael Miller. “The impulse to gather and store has had evolutionary advantages.”

In 2005, a 12-year-old Long Island girl was accused of strangling her mother after being told to clean her room. Her attorney claimed self-defense.

90% of parents say that their kids’ rooms are causing “mess distress.”

A recent study found that college conservatives’ rooms are more neat and organized than liberals’.

More than 70% of Americans are routinely unable to find matching lids for their 15-plus food-storage containers.