How many clothes do you have? Do you have things you only used once? Do you need a storage unit to store all your stuff? Thanks to overconsumption, we all have too much stuff.
We have too much stuff
When I recently tried to make some space for my home office, I realized, we have too much stuff. Well, I noticed it before, but at that moment I couldn’t neglect it anymore.
Only three weeks to Christmas, I know more useless stuff aka known as gifts are about to invade our home. How to avoid falling in the Christmas gift trap, I’ll write next week.
But why do we have so much stuff?
Because of Overconsumption
Aside from unnecessary gifts, we cram full our homes with stuff we think we want, but do not need.
That’s thanks to advertising and the consequential consumption.
In a capitalist system, corporations need to grow, and they can only do this when they sell increasingly more stuff. But because we already have everything we need, they make us want things, we do not need. That leads to overconsumption.
And they make the things we need worse, so we have to buy them more often.
It became so bad we need to rent a storage unit for all the stuff we have. Because we do not have enough space at home and can’t afford a bigger apartment because it’s too expensive. Partly because there are now storage units instead of flats, which limit the supply.
Know what you want and what you need
What can you do against overconsumption?
First you have to find out, what you need and what you want. This sounds easier than it is. Advertising does a fantastic job of tricking us to believe we need more products than we do.
For example, you need clothes, except you live in a nudist colony. But you do not need 100 different outfits. I bet, of all the clothes you have, you only wear a fraction.
Buy less but better quality clothes. At best, don’t fall for trends but buy more timeless stuff that’s repairable.
Buy less, use more
Often we do not use the stuff we own. We bought it because we thought we needed it. But when we had it, it didn’t work as supposed or wasn’t useful at all, but we keep it because maybe we need it sometime.
There are also things that are useful, but we only need it once a year or even less. In this case, it would be much better to rent it or to borrow it. Nowadays, you can do this with most things. Libraries often offer useful tools.
Sharing is so much better and should be done more regularly, because it limits overconsumption.
If you need to consume, buy sustainable
Some things are impractical to share. Underwear, for example. Or there are things you really want. If so, try to buy as sustainable as you can. But don’t blame yourself too much, if you buy a plastic flamingo that can sing “Dreaming of a white Christmas”. Every so often, what we need is the things we want.
Buying sustainable is only a small part of change. Because it is an illusion that you as a customer vote with your purchase.
It’s the system that needs to change and not you.
Consumption in the good system
In the good system, there would not be overconsumption. But some kind of consume would still exist.
There would be less stuff. But it would have more quality. Advertising and packaging would be more regulated.
Everything has to be repairable, if possible.
Sharing would be prioritized before owning.
You would not need to research for hours to know if the product you need is sustainable because everything is as sustainable as possible.
The corporations don’t need to grow every year and small manufacturers will be provided by the system, so they do not need to make increasingly more stuff but better products.
This would mean a total shift of the economic system. It is necessary because our current system is unsustainable and overconsumption ruins our planet, which means it destroys us.
It will be difficult to change the economy because the enemy is powerful. It’s the people who got rich by selling us needless stuff.
But if we want to survive, we need to do it. And we can.
My name is Ian DeBay.
I am the founder of iandebay.com. I am a content creator, blogger, podcast, YouTuber. This is my blog where I talk about system change, sustainability and other fun stuff.
Leave a Reply