Online flea markets make happy couples

Clutter does not a happy couple make. That’s right, household junk is not just an eyesore, but also, it turns out, a source of marital strife. “More than eight in ten couples view these items lying around the house as a source of tension in their relationship,” says Jose Mallabo, spokesman for Kijiji.com, an online marketplace that recently conducted a survey of couples and their - superfluous - household items.

“[It] was a much bigger percentage than one would guess,” Mr. Mallabo says.

A solution is just a click away at Kijiji.com and other online marketplaces, such as Craigslist and EBay, which can help sell the stuff in these financially strained times and alleviate marital strife in, well, one click.

Talk about a 21st-century approach to therapy.

Not so fast, says Marla Cilley, decluttering maven extraordinaire and founder of Flylady.net, a site that inspires up to 500,000 Americans to get their homes and lives decluttered. (Yes indeed, Ms. Cilley’s Yahoo group has close to 500,000 members.)

“The problem with selling the unused items is that it adds another layer of guilt,” Ms. Cilley says from Brevard, N.C.

She attributes this guilt to feeling remorse that something bought for $25 could sell for as little as 25 cents, which may deflate the owner as much as time has devalued the item.

“When you give it away, it retains its value in your heart. And at the same time, the item can bless someone else who really needs it,” she says.

However, the stuff, according to the Kijiji survey, is worth a lot.

The average American household has 35 unused items valued at $670 - devalued from the $3,600 original purchase price - according to the survey.

Mr. Mallabo says that “in real life, value [like] this could be 172 gallons of gas, 177 gallons of milk or even 97 movie tickets.”

Instead, people won’t part with their items because, in most cases - 83 percent of the 2,016 survey participants - they think they’re going to use the items again. Women tend to cling to designer clothes, and men tend to cling to computers and other electronics.

Reuse is unlikely, Ms. Cilley says. Clothes go out of style, and electronics lose their edge. “If you’re not using the item, give it to someone who can enjoy it now,” she says.

Keeping things for sentimental reasons is OK, Ms. Cilley says, but limit them to one bin, no larger than a moving box. This way, when children, for example, leave the house to go off to college and start life on their own, they will be saddled only with one box.

“Trust me, kids are not going to want more than that,” she says.

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