A study  found that people who take pictures of sentimental items have an easier time donating those item for re-use.

Here are excerpts from an article by Jeff Grabmeier that tell us so much ab ourselves:

These memories connected to possessions are a carrier for identity. It is this reluctance to give up a piece of our identity that is driving our reluctance to donate.

We found that people are more willing to give up these possessions if we offer them a way to keep the memory and the identity associated with that memory.

The project got started when I realized I was keeping an old pair of basketball shorts just because they reminded me of beating a major rival basketball team in junior high. I didn’t want the shorts – I wanted the memory of winning that game and that’s what I thought of when I saw the shorts. A picture can easily mark that memory for me and I can donate it so someone else can use it, which is even better.

The study was conducted by Rebecca Reczek, associate professor of marketing at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business and Karen Winterich, associate professor of marketing at Pennsylvania State University, and Julie Irwin, professor of business at the University of Texas at Austin. The results of the study were published in the online Journal of Marketing.

Read the article by Jeff Grabmeier: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-scientists-clever-de-clutter-home.html#jCp