Study: Every Second Russian Will Declutter Their Home This Year

During the long New Year holidays, many Russians begin to get rid of unnecessary things that have accumulated in their apartments over the past year; for many, this has already become a traditional ritual. According to Avito, almost every second person (44%) will definitely start unloading their home or work space in January – this is mainly in the plans of women (50% versus 37% of men). 20% have already coped with this task, and a quarter (24%) will get rid of unnecessary things only if they have time after other things. 12% of respondents do not see any need for this, and more often these are men (16%) and young people (14%).

During the New Year holidays, there was a long line of people at the Sborka eco-center in Moscow who sorted their waste and brought it to hand it in, said the center's co-founder, Sergei Tushev.

"We had 700 people coming to us per day, although the usual figure is 300-400. Now it's less, but the excitement still continues. But the very fact that in Russia there is a queue of people who want to hand in recyclable materials for free is, of course, a socio-cultural phenomenon," he says.

This excitement also affected the volumes of recyclable materials: if in normal times people hand in 600-700 kg per day, then during this period the volumes increased to more than 3 tons.

Organizers of the "Grateful Closet" program, where people can donate unwanted clothing to special containers, say that many collection points also quickly became overcrowded during the New Year holidays.

As the Vtoroe Dykhanie (Second Breath) Foundation reported, at the end of December, many decided that they would not go into the New Year with old things, so some were ready to come and donate clothes on December 31 at 11 p.m. As a result, the foundation accepted 5.8 thousand kg of clothes in a month, which is 1 thousand more than the 2023 figure.

Despite the fact that every year more and more projects for waste collection and recycling appear in Russia, not all of it is recycled, said Valeria Gulimova, executive director of the association for promoting the closed-loop economy "Resource". "If you hand over sorted waste to special collection points, then it will definitely all go to recyclers. The situation with clothing recycling is a little more complicated. It also exists in our country, but not all things can be recycled in principle. Plus, there are not enough enterprises globally," says Gulimova.

Most Russians have also made a plan for major purchases for the year, Avito says. Every second woman (48%) wants to update her wardrobe by buying more clothes and shoes. Also, women are mainly planning to buy furniture for the home (42%) and large household appliances (27%). Men are planning to buy a new gadget – a smartphone, laptop or computer – for themselves (36%), automotive goods (21%) and sports equipment (12%).