Edinburgh homes are the tidiest in UK

Edinburgh’s homes are the tidiest in the UK, according to new research into the nation’s junk habits from Clearabee, the on-demand rubbish removal company. The research suggests that residents of Scotland’s capital value their space more than old household items and hoard the least amount of junk anywhere in the UK.

Clearabee’s survey, which was conducted by research consultancy Populus, revealed that residents of Edinburgh hoard just 3.93m2 of junk per household, the lowest for any major city in the UK.

This compares favourably to Glasgow, where households retain 4.9m2 of junk on average – the equivalent of an extra armchair per property. 40 per cent of Glasgow households hoard sufficient junk to fill a small bedroom (8m2 or more) – double the level of ‘high-junk’ households (20 per cent) in Edinburgh.

Scottish households hoard 4.5m2 each on average, which is approximately five per cent of the floor space in a modern three bedroom house. One in three (31 per cent) households have enough junk to fill a small bedroom. Around five per cent of the space in each Scottish home – £6,364 in property value – is used to store junk. Across 2.4 million Scottish households up to £15.1 billion worth of property space is currently wasted on clutter.

Across the UK, the average home has enough junk to cover 4.8m2 of floor space. This is equivalent to the size of a king sized bed and represents six per cent of floor space. With house prices currently at £2,054 a square metre, the value of space wasted storing junk in the average UK home is £9,797. In total, UK residents are wasting £259 billion worth of space storing junk in their homes.