Have you ever been interrupted while scrolling on Instagram or TikTok with an ad claiming that purchasing a certain product will end all of your troubles and provide everlasting happiness? If you are active on social media, with constant advertisements demanding your attention and your money, there is a pretty good chance your answer is yes. There is also a high chance that after purchasing this product, your troubles will have nevertheless persisted and you still remain unsatisfied. How much money has been thrown away on these kinds of spontaneous purchases, where after a week or two, the product is lost in the back of a closet or taken out with the trash?
Recently I’ve come across the Weck Jar trend on TikTok and have become perplexed as to why people choose to spend hundreds of dollars on overpriced mason jars when they could just as easily clean out an old strawberry jam or pasta sauce container and have the same thing for free. Or on a similar note, purchasing a standing desk when it is totally possible to put your computer on an elevated surface you already own, like an ironing board.
Outside of financial considerations, it is important to keep in mind that every material good you have ever purchased still exists today — maybe not in its original form, but the materials persist. We all know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive, drifting concentration of plastic debris roughly twice the size of Texas and three times the size of France in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So, why do we keep adding to it?
Being purposeful with your purchases saves you money, is better for the environment, saves space in your home, and gives more meaning to the items you do have. ‘Underconsumption core’ has had its moment on TikTok, yet it should be thought about less as a microtrend and more as a complete mindset switch.
Though I practice underconsumption, I am the complete opposite of a minimalist. As I am writing this in my childhood bedroom, I am looking around at my almost nonexistent wall space, my own personal library almost covering my window, and all of the little trinkets I have accumulated over the years (so. many. trinkets).
However, a majority of these items were consumed sustainably. My posters were either cut out of old National Geographic magazines I found in my basement, artwork created by my friends, posters that hung in my dads childhood bedroom, or the result of hours of scrounging for frames at the thrift store. The desk I am writing on was my mother’s when she was in high school, and maybe one day I will pass it on to my own children as well. Each of these items brings me so much joy either because a memory or a person I love is associated with it. Shopping at Target or HomeGoods could never compare. So perhaps underconsumption isn’t the right term, but rather sustainable-consumption.
Here are my favorite ways to sustainably consume:
- Online resale platforms such as Depop/Poshmark/Ebay/Vinted/Facebook Marketplace
- Thrift/vintage stores/antique markets
- Community clothes swapping events — if you are a Kenyon student, the Horn Gallery does this pretty often!
- Rely on your community! Go to your neighbors garage sales/ estate sales!
- Family heirlooms!!! Some of my FAVORITE pieces of jewelry I have inherited from my grandmother.
- Reusing seasonal decor instead of purchasing it again and again every year
- Fixing instead of immediately repurchasing! For example, super-glueing a pair of sunglasses that fell apart, sewing a piece of clothing that might have been ripped, or repurposing an item in a completely different way.
It feels so good to give something a second life. Not only will your wallet and the earth thank you, but buying secondhand will make your wardrobe and space so much more unique and personal. So, next time you come across an ad on social media, or are browsing the shelves of a store hoping something will fill the hole in your heart that only a brand new product can repair, hopefully you will think back to this article and give more thought to the items you allow to take up space in your life.
