We all have too much stuff. I can relate to this since I just moved and had to box everything up and move to a new house. Each year we give away lots of things, but I am still amazed at how many boxes I had to move.

That may be why the article by Joshua Becker caught my eye. He lists the 21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually Own. Here are just a few of the eye-opening statistics he collected from various news articles and surveys.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, the average American home has 300,000 items. In order to store all of this, the average size of the American home has nearly tripled in size over the past 50 years. And much of their stuff flows into their garages. About 25 percent of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park their cars inside them.

But homes and garages are still are not enough room for our stuff. Apparently, at least 1 out of 10 Americans also rent offsite storage. According to an article in the New York Times Magazine, this is the fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate industry over the past four decades.

Those of you with children or grandchildren know how much stuff they accumulate at a young age. British research found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily. A study at UCLA concluded that the 3.1 percent of the world’s children who live in America own 40 percent of the toys consumed globally.

He also quotes from some of the statistics listed in the book, Afluenza, which I quote from in my recent book on economics and materialism. Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches than on higher education. Shopping malls outnumber high schools.

These numbers should cause all of us to reevaluate our priorities. Joshua Becker says that it paints a “picture of excessive consumption and unnecessary accumulation.” I agree. It’s time to clear out the clutter.