Who Has More Clutter? Exploring Adult Subgroups and Their Clutter

Helena Swanson, Community Psychology Ph.D. program, Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago Illinois, USA

Research Project Titles:

1. Seniors with Stuff: Older Adults and Clutter

2. When There’s Just Too Much Stuff: Office Clutter by Remote Employees

3. Student Shelters: Does Where Students Live (Home, Apartment, Dorm) Impact Life with Clutter?

Proposal Abstract

Collectively, these three proposed studies will explore subgroups of the US population (e.g., older adults, remote workers, and college students) and their clutter and its impact on the quality of life. Exploring the amount of clutter and clutter impact for these subgroups is important as our society changes with individuals aging, transitions to increased remote working conditions, and for college students assessing the impact their overabundance of material goods may have on their life. As our world ages there is an intense need for more research on older adults and for practitioners to better understand how to serve older adults (National Institute on Aging et al., n.d.). As for remote working, projections show that 16% of employees will remain working from home long after the pandemic (Senz, 2020); it is important for organizations (such as ICD) to understand how remote workers’ environment may impact work. Lastly, previous research found that different living situations impact college students in a variety of ways (Brevard & Ricketts, 1996), but clutter’s impacts based on student living space was not explored. Taken together, these projects contribute understanding to individuals, communities, and organizations, like ICD’s declutter coaches, of how clutter may be impacting these subgroups.