I recently congratulated a friend on buying a spacious home in Manhattan and her immediate response was, “I can start hoarding again!” It got me wondering what causes us to collect things – artefacts, gadgets and products – that do work for us, decorate our spaces, boost our productivity or simply mean something to us? The industrial revolution has no doubt amplified this behaviour with extensive manufacturing and supply chains, to the extent that entire economies rely on consumption today. Furthermore, e-commerce has made consumption available from the comfort of one’s home.
There is, however, an emerging movement aimed at re-evaluating our possessions: helping us organise, manage, refresh and even reduce our physical belongings. It appears that consumerism is undergoing a rebirth. While online databases like Craigslist and Gumtree were first-generation online destinations to sell and buy stuff, abundant services have now cropped up that combine a mobile platform and a desire for easy and quick transactions.
Streamlining one’s belongings by giving things away, exchanging them for something else or selling them is not new. Garage sales, flea markets and car-boot sales have been around for decades. Even informally, exchanging old clothes for kitchen utensils or simply donating older items to house help have been common practices in India. So what caused a wave of new services to crop up? Why do people suddenly seem to care about getting rid of their stuff? It seems the convenience offered at one’s fingertips combined with the reach of the Internet has unlocked an opportunity. The humble backyard sale has scaled up.
Why do people suddenly seem to care about getting rid of their stuff?
Take for example, OfferUp, a mobile-only service that facilitates the selling and buying of various household items through a visually engaging app. With verified user profiles and an Instagram-like feed, it is no surprise OfferUp users spend an average of 25 minutes on the app in a single day. Swaptions, on the other hand, is an app built around the behaviour of swapping. It enables a user to make an offer of a selection of items in exchange for some made available by another user. This way, a person is not necessarily clearing out their closet, but finding objects that may be more relevant, meaningful or timely.
In both these services, users engage with one another through the app and trust is key. Verified user profiles help with building confidence in conducting transactions with strangers. But for those who would rather not deal with the hassle of communicating or negotiating with potential buyers, Decluttr offers an alternative. Sellers make money by simply uploading information about items they’re interested in selling and ship them to a central location. They don’t have to worry about finding a buyer as Decluttr takes the responsibility of selling the materials independently.
Even with so many ways of emptying out one’s closet, the question remains: what about not hoarding in the first place? If one didn’t have excessive stuff to begin with, they would not feel the need to get rid of it later. To this end, it is worth noting that any service that allows people to sell their goods is decidedly attracting people that are looking to buy those goods. So are these apps encouraging reducing our possessions or simply consuming more? Maybe this cyclic consumption needs a disruption: how might one not over-consume in the first place? A sharing economy is a possible start to the solution. Perhaps future service design opportunities lie at this new frontier, helping reimagine ownership, profitability and consumerism. Surely that would be better as a sustainable practice too.
Swaptions: A simple exchange
Swaptions brings the idea of a friendly trade into a new-age app, helping people ‘get what they want for what they’ve got’. Through a simple system of exchanging objects by making offers, the app allows users to get rid of stuff they don’t desire anymore. A minimalist approach results in a pleasing interface, enhancing the ‘simple’ and ‘easy’ nature of the transaction.
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Text and images: Swaptions
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