So hard to say goodbye? An investigation into the symbolic aspects of unintended disposition practices

Even though disposition is present in the consumer behavior research agenda, most of the studies focus mainly on intentional movements of products leaving the home. The present article describes a less conscious and co-incidental journey of products into a liminal zone between use and disposal inside homes. A qualitative field study, based on the itinerary method, was undertaken with a group of 26 affluent women in Brazil. The findings show that consumers maintain purgatories – “forgotten” repositories of products no longer in use – as an in-home disposition practice. The aspects and functioning of purgatory are also detailed, through a typology of purgatories and a discussion of specific strategies to deal with cluttering as a consequence of product accumulation inside homes. Finally, purgatories emerge as a contemporary consumer solution to deal not with individual products but with product collectivities’ disposition.