WSJ Your Money Briefing - Cheap Items Leave Couples Divided in the War Over Household Clutter

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Cheap items bought online are putting couples at odds over what to get rid of and the money being spent. Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown joins host Derricke Dennis to talk about all the stuff that’s been piling up at home, the financial impact, and how some are resorting to purging the clutter in secret. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's your money briefing for Monday, May 19th. I'm Derek Dennis for The Wall Street Journal. Couples are at a breaking point over cheap and easy purchases and the piles of household clutter that come with it. Add to that the overall cost of keeping it all. Americans are cutting back, trying to save money, so you're not having as many people going out and paying for storage units.

So what does that mean for all that stuff? It means that it's in your home or that people are storing it in their homes and garages. We talked to Wall Street Journal reporter Dallin Brown about the kinds of things people are buying and the tough negotiation or even secret purging it sometimes takes to get rid of it. That's after the break. talking about guns with others might not always feel comfortable but it could save a life

here's a way to start a conversation your family is going over to your neighbors home for dinner for the first time how would you ask if there are any unlocked guns in the home hey hey we're so excited for tonight before we come over though may I ask if there are any unlocked guns in the home. Hey! Hey, we're so excited for tonight. Before we come over though, may I ask if there are any unlocked guns in your home? Our guns are stored securely, locked in a safe that the kids can't access. Oh, awesome. Learn how to have the conversation at AgreeToAgree.org, brought to you by the Ad Council.

Call it war of the roses, but many couples are fighting themselves at odds over stuff. Lots of stuff. Bought impulsively or cheaply in recent years, and it's all piling up. Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown joins me with a look at the clutter, the contentious time some couples are having, and how they're meeting in the middle. Dalvin, were we all just bored with too much disposable income, leading us to buy more things, you think? You definitely could say that.

And it has become quite a crisis in a lot of homes. The stuff we buy isn't just filling our closets, but it's taking over garages, guest rooms, and even our relationships. And that's largely because stuff had become so cheap and easy to access. In your story, which is linked in the show notes, you write about some of the things people are buying. It really runs the gamut, right?

It does run the gamut. I've looked at some data that was just suggesting how much more we are buying. And I was pretty struck. We're now buying 5.7 times as many dishes and 3.5 times as much furniture as we did almost exactly 30 years ago. And so that kind of explains what's going on here. Not only are we buying so much,

but we also inherit a lot of things from parents or grandparents who pass. And so all of that stuff's kind of getting crammed in our homes. People feel like, you know, it's really expensive to buy a new home. People feel like sizing up isn't really an option. Americans are cutting back, trying to save money in the face of inflation. And so you're not having as many people going out and paying for storage units. So what does that mean for all that stuff? It means that it's in your home, or that people are storing it in their homes and garages, and that's why it's becoming such a problem for couples.

Is the money being spent what this is really all about, though? It's not just the cost of our stuff that we're buying. Americans are also spending more on containers to house our stuff. And that's something that comes up a lot in my reporting. A lot of people feel like their homes are cluttered, but the clutter is hidden. So it's hard for you to see. And essentially you're paying for these items twice. You're paying the upfront cost from Tmushi and Amazon, wherever you're buying it from. And then there's the secondary costs of housing it. And then there's later costs associated with letting go of things.

Oftentimes, whether you have to drive somewhere to drop it off or pay a company in some cases for estate sales to get rid of all of that stuff in one fell swoop. You talked to some real characters in your story, including Michael Royer, a guy he's married, and he talked about socks, right? Michael was really great to talk to, and I appreciated the transparency. So, his wife's mother really likes shopping on sites like T-MU, and she gifts a lot of things to them.

And his wife has a hard time letting go of it because there's the emotional attachment there. It's gifts from my mom, gifts a lot of things to them. And his wife has a hard time letting go of it because there's the emotional attachment there. It's gifts from my mom. So she holds onto them. And he secretly goes into the drawers and tosses out things that would not fit her, including socks that are just way too big.

BOWEN And on the other side, you talk about couples who have figured out a way to tamper down the contentiousness of all this stuff. Yeah. So one of the couples I spoke to has a probationary zone, one in the garage for large things, and then one in the house. It's a drawer where they put things that they feel like we haven't used this in a long time, we may not ever use this,

let's just put this in the probationary zone to discuss one day when both of these zones are overloaded with stuff. And then they go through and take stock. And sometimes the source I spoke to, her husband, wanted to keep an old ragged t-shirt and said it's just fine. And other times they just kind of agree on

everything to get rid of. Delvin, how does one partner navigate this with the other when they're talking about such a sensitive topic as their stuff and the money involved? One of the couples I spoke to came up with this rule that, it's actually a pretty funny story, she had tossed some cargo pants that she didn't like that he had. He discovered them in the donation bin outside their apartment. And after a pretty tough conversation, they came up with this rule that you don't toss the other person's stuff, you have a conversation with them about it. For a lot of people, what may work is

actually starting small, like one drawer or one shelf, putting things that you know you don't use or probably won't use aside. One day when you do see those things piling up, you may say, hey, this is the time to get rid of it. Another reason why that may be helpful. Some psychologists I spoke to said that, you know, oftentimes we may get a gift from someone and we know immediately that we won't use it, but you don't want to get rid of someone's gift the day they give it to you. Like that can feel icky. So sitting it aside in sort of this probationary zone might be one way to separate your feelings from the actual object. When it comes to having the discussion with someone someone like you don't want to come across as judgmental and you don't want to wait until you're so

frustrated that you may say something a little too harsh but asking them a question is a good place to start. What does this stuff mean to you? Why are you holding on to it? One of the couples that I spoke to also, the wife had bought a bunch of designer clothing for really cheap and felt like she got a really good deal on it. So it means a lot to her. And then the husband is collecting action figures and feels like he can sell them one day for a whole lot of money. And for him, that's his justification for holding on to them. At the end of the day, what they both said was it's not really about the stuff. They're just claiming their space in the house, if you will. So this

is mine and I'll let go of it when I feel like I should. But sparking that conversation is one of the things that helps get them there. That's Wall Street Journal reporter, Dalvin Brown. And that's it for your Money Briefing. This episode was produced by Ariana Asparu with supervising producer, Melanie Roy. I'm Derek Dennis for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening.