Cleaning Out Your Closet

It all began with a duffel bag. The inspiration for this research was the realization that product owners don't immediately dispose of possessions even when they have clearly outlived their usefulness. In the case of the first author of this post, ill-fitting or unfashionable clothes didn't go straight from the wardrobe to the donation pile. Instead, they invariably took a curious detour—to an oversized duffel bag residing unceremoniously in the recesses of his closet.

As it turns out, the migration of items people don't actively use into these "product purgatories"—tucked-away duffel bags, boxes, drawers, and cupboards that inhabit less visible spaces in their homes such as garages, attics, or closets—occurs rather often. A first study that we conducted revealed that when reflecting on an item that they had recently sold or donated, 36.9% of the people we asked admitted to first moving the item to a temporary transition space in their home before disposing of it.

We wanted to understand whether product purgatories are functional. Using the analogy of a long-distance flight to describe the process of disposition, could it be that a layover ironically gets us to our final destination (that is, permanent product disposal) faster? Different predictions could reasonably be made. On one hand, precisely because purgatories are in areas of the home that gather the most dust, owners may not feel much urgency to move the item yet again—it might stay in the purgatory indefinitely. On the other hand, it may be the case that moving a product into a purgatory reduces one's emotional attachment to it, thereby greasing the wheels of disposal. This latter prediction is consistent with the limited past research on product purgatories; however, prior work has relied solely on in-depth interviews with a handful of product owners, thus making it difficult to draw any definite conclusions.

We set out to turn this real-life scenario into scientific inquiry. Does the act of moving an item into a purgatory actually influence the likelihood of permanent product disposal? In one study, we asked participants to identify a moderately-priced product in their kitchen that they hadn't used for about three years. Participants were either instructed to take a photo of the item in its current location (somewhere in the kitchen) or they were asked to move it to a garage, a basement, or a storage box and then snap a photo of the item. Subsequently, we offered to connect all participants with an organization that would help them dispose of the product. We found that 36.1% of participants who had moved the item into a purgatory took us up on this offer, as compared to just 21.6% of participants who had kept the item in the kitchen.

If placing items in purgatories increases disposal likelihood, why does this happen? The prevailing explanation (based on past research) is that purgatories reduce a person's emotional attachment to the item, allowing them to let go of the item with less psychological distress. However, the aforementioned duffel bag provided us with yet another valuable insight: many of the used clothes that had reached this purgatory were definitely not high-attachment items. Indeed, the duffel bag was stuffed with many clothes having little or no sentimental value—for instance, barely-worn t-shirts acquired free of charge at academic conferences!

Our subsequent studies revealed a novel reason why purgatories are effective at facilitating disposal. As it turns out, just moving an item into a purgatory helps product owners mentally envision its permanent disposal. Prior research has shown that envisioning a future event builds a figurative bridge between thought and action. In other words, mentally picturing a desired outcome can help manifest it into reality. Our studies found that purgatories braced product owners for the impending disposal of their possession, but not necessarily by reducing attachment. Instead, mental envisioning played a much greater explanatory role—in one of our studies, participants who learned that they had moved a rarely-used casserole dish into a purgatory (versus a more visible and central location) were more likely to imagine the disposal process, and this, in turn, made them more likely to dispose of the dish.

To summarize, this research relies on experimental methods to (1) settle the question of whether product purgatories promote disposal behavior, and (2) show that people do not always have to rely on a reduction in attachment in order to dispose of their possessions—mentally envisioning the disposal process is an alternate route to disposal, and it happens naturally whenever we move products to purgatories. The takeaway? Keeping a duffel bag in the back of your closet isn't such a bad idea and may even lead to some surprising benefits!

For Further Reading

Isaac, M. S., & Vinoo, P. (2023). Bracing for the sting of disposal: Product purgatories encourage mental simulation of the disposal process. Journal of Consumer Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1342

Lastovicka, J. L., & Fernandez, K. V. (2005). Three paths to disposition: The movement of meaningful possessions to strangers. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 813-823. https://doi.org/10.1086/426616

Suarez, M., Dias Campos, R., Moreira Casotti, L., & Velloso, L. (2016). So hard to say goodbye? An investigation into the symbolic aspects of unintended disposition practices. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 15(5), 420-429. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.1580.

Mathew S. Isaac is the Thomas F. Gleed Chair of Business Administration and Professor of Marketing at the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University. His research examines consumer judgment and decision-making, particularly how contextual and motivational factors influence product evaluations and purchase intentions.

Poornima Vinoo is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Indian School of Business. Her research interests follow two streams—disposal behavior and financial decision-making—with the overarching goal of improving consumer well-being.