- It’s natural to find yourself owning a lot of junk, especially over the course of a decade that has seen huge developments in technology like the 2010s.
- In the last 10 years, many people needlessly purchased items engraved with “YOLO“, fanny packs, and solar eclipse glasses.
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Rummaging through your junk drawer at home, you might find that you own outdated phones, a fidget spinner, and maybe even a “Harry Potter” wand.
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You probably have something with YOLO written on it.
After Drake included the phrase in his song “The Motto” in 2011, YOLO became part of the public zeitgeist, cropping up on social media, in vernacular, and on products.
It might not be on a hat, but you probably own something with YOLO engraved on it.
I know I have at least three dead pairs of headphones in my house.
Headphones have evolved throughout the decade. Earbuds were all the rage at the beginning of the decade, then Beats made large headphones popular again, and now AirPods are bringing consumers back to smaller listening devices.
Throughout all those changes, you likely collected a number of now useless headphones.
We all needed special glasses to check out 2017's total solar eclipse.
Anyone who wanted to look at 2017's solar eclipse had to don special glasses to protect their eyes. A solar eclipse won't be visible again in North America until 2024, so the glasses aren't really useful anymore.
Your old phone chargers are probably adding up.
The modern iPhone charging port didn't exist until the fifth model of the device, which came out in 2012. You probably have an old, useless charger lying around somewhere.
Fidget spinners were really popular in 2017.
Fidget spinners captured popular attention in 2017, with a spike in interest for the product designed to help the easily distracted coming in the fall of that year, according to Google Trends.
But the fad died as quickly as it was born, with the public quickly losing interest.
PopSockets became popular in 2018.
PopSockets were designed to make watching videos and taking photos on your phone easier. They're effective and popular, but you don't really need one.
You probably have old phones lying around.
New phones come out every year, and it's unclear what you're supposed to do with your old models when you upgrade.
You can recycle them, but many people end up stowing their old phones in a junk drawer.
I personally have at least three fanny packs at home.
Fanny packs became cool again in 2018, according to Marie Claire, both because of their practicality and the cute patterns in which they became available.
They've become a way for people to express themselves, leading consumers to stock up on novelty packs. Target even sold insulated fanny packs that could be used as coolers at one point.
Pokémon Go might not be taking up physical space in your life, but it's likely using your Cloud storage at the moment.
Pokémon Go, the app that allows users to interact with Pokémon through augmented reality, became a billion-dollar game less than a year after it launched in 2016.
The game is much less popular now, though it still had around 65 million monthly users in April 2017.
You probably jumped on the novelty pool float trend at some point.
Novelty pool floats were at their most popular in 2018, according to Google Trends, but the fad shows no sign of slowing down.
But you can't use the float unless it's warm outside, and there's not much need for three different inflatable pizzas.
A lot of people have selfie sticks, even though they can be embarrassing to use.
Selfie sticks are definitely effective, but people sometimes shy away from them because of how it looks to use one.
Either way, they're not necessary to snap a photo of yourself, and I know mine sits at home in a drawer rather than getting put to good use.
Horse head masks became a popular meme after President Obama met a man wearing one.
President Obama met a man wearing a horse mask in 2014, and their popularity grew from there, turning them into a meme-worthy accessory. But the masks don't have any use, and the memes aren't really popular today, making them junk.
"Harry Potter" fans likely have a plastic wand sitting on a shelf at home.
The final "Harry Potter" film came out in 2011, but fans of the series were given another chance to enjoy JK Rowling's work when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Studios in 2016.
The theme park sells plastic wands modeled after those of characters from the books, and consumers were eager to buy them. But you can't actually do magic with them, so your wand likely doesn't get much use outside of Halloween costumes.
You probably bought something unicorn-themed in the last few years.
Unicorns became more than just Lisa Frank's favorite thing to doodle in 2017, with consumers going wild for any product themed after the fictional creature, according to Fast Company.
Many participated in the trend in some way, buying unicorn versions of products they already had.