Underconsumption Core

Can we finally part ways with aspiring for the aesthetic life, the one seen plastered all over social media?

You’ve seen the posts littered on your feed of posed images showcasing matchy-matchy outfits worn by influencers, their kids and their significant other. The photos are set in pristine homes that look like the pages in a Potterybarn catalog. Gawd…it’s relentless in our culture today because these posts are pushed across every feed whether it’s Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.

It’s all part of the consumer roadmap on how you should live and what you should spend your money on because if you buy the thing you’re promised the look that attracts your person and then you’ll live your 21st century version of happily ever after.

Spoiler alert.

You can’t buy your way into happiness.

Even the richest celebrities will tell you this. Take famous actor, Jim Carrey, as an example who said “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

When did unconscious, haphazard spending become the norm? Amazon Prime might have something to do with it, but that’s a story for another day.

And if aesthetic living can be a movement, one that’s become a highly searched term on the internet, so too can underconsumption core have it’s 15 minutes of fame.

Want to learn more about living a clutter-free life? Check out Breakup with Clutter, my signature course on consuming less to live more.

What is underconsumption core?

If you haven’t yet heard of this term or concept, it references a subculture and lifestyle driven by using up your things rather than buying new items to cure boredom or get a dopamine fix.

During a time when getting influenced by influencers to buy the latest and greatest product, and getting sucked into trends set in motion by the manufacturers themselves, is normalized, underconsumption core presents a different kind of normal akin to contentment with what you already have.

Take a moment to ask yourself, when was the last time you completely used up a product you bought other than food? The concept to use up your products isn’t new or novel, but it’s happening less and less in our consumerism driven economy.

Collectively we use up our items so infrequently that we celebrate and applaud the act of finishing a product. There’s even a term used to reference this: empties. Do a quick search on Youtube and you’ll find videos where influencers dedicate an entire video showcasing their used up items during a given month.

And they’re not wrong to celebrate the act of completely using up their products. Because so few of us do this, it’s become a novelty in our culture.

Benefits of Underconsumption Core

At the core I’m not saying all consumerism is bad.

But what I am I’m saying is, if you’re willing to challenge yourself to use up products you already own, you stand to gain several of the following benefits:

Finishing your products to the point where their usefulness is gone saves money. In a recession with high inflation, saving your money is both trendy and smart.

All the money you potentially save through reducing your rate of consumption, can be put to use in other ways, like buying back your time and energy. Time is a finite resource that you can’t ever get back once it’s used up. But with money, you can buy back time and get time freedom for future you.

You won’t experience decision fatigue because you’ll have one or only a few choices.

You make physical space in your home which turns into fewer things to cause distraction in your life.

What lead to Underconsumption Core?

So how did you get here? Here being a life living with clutter, and an overabundance of stuff you don’t need or use?

Unconscious spending
Giving into the discomfort of FOMO
Buying into the ideal of HG products

Unconscious spending happens when “yes” is always the answer to “should I buy this item.” Instead of the default response being “no”, a default response of yes, gets you into the mess of unconscious spending.

No one wants to be uncomfortable. It goes against human behavior because we are wired to seek the easy way and the path that is most comfortable to us. This is exactly why the discomfort of FOMO causes too much friction. The fear of missing out is a real source of stress and anxiety. We’d rather say yes, than feel the discomfort of the what-if scenarios that plague our minds when we say no. They might sound like this:

What if I needed the item (sometime in the future)?
What if this is the best price for the item (and I’m missing out on a great deal)?
What if this item will never be available again and I’ll miss out (forever)?

If any of these what-if scenarios resonate with you, then you’ve probably struggled with the discomfort of FOMO.

Holy Grail (HG) products are items that are the best at what the product is used for. This term is often used with beauty influencers who claim the search is over for the best bronzer, best foundation, or best nude lip liner.

While there is no issue with using HG products, the hunt for finding them becomes a buying obsession resulting in wasteful buying practices.

On the journey to find HG products you’re bound to buy some duds along the way. That’s okay and expected. But when you don’t use up the duds, and continue the hunt for the next best product, you end up consuming more and using less.

What I suggest is to use up the dud, unless it’s harmful to do so. Trust me, I know what it’s like to use a product that doesn’t cut muster and the idea of using it up, one more time can put you over the edge. My controversial take is to tough it out and use the item to completion before ever buying a replacement. The alternative is to keep the item in your home, unused and reduced to clutter. Another option is to throw it out which will sit in a landfill for ages as it tries to decompose.

This suggestion comes from my own personal life as someone who aspires to live intentionally. But this is not an “I do this and you should too” kinda situation. It’s more an open dialogue or exploration of living some version of this lifestyle if you want to explore underconsumption core.

Apply Underconsumption Core

I’ll be honest and say I don’t apply underconsumption core to every area of my life.

✅ Yes, I reuse and repurpose old pasta jars to drink my homemade iced lattes or store my homemade lemonades

✅ Yes, I just got rid of a 17 year old sofa that I had before marriage and before kids. We had to part ways because it hurt my back to sit on it.

✅ Yes, my dining room table is a set I was gifted for free on Facebook.

✅ Yes, new friends who get invited over ask if we just moved in because we don’t own a bunch of furniture and it looks bare.

✅ Yes, I cut my toothpaste tubes when no amount of force will squeeze the remaining product hiding in the corners of the tube.

But these things also happen:

❎ I find unopened and expired foods and vitamins in the pantry. It’s not on purpose, but this sort of thing happens in my life.

❎ I don’t finish condiments in the fridge before the expiration date

❎ I’ll buy new pens before using up old ones because handwriting anything is bad enough and being forced to use a bad pen takes me over the edge (#sorrynotsorry)

❎ I forget to check the panty before buying weekly groceries, and oops I over purchased.

Conclusion

The discipline of using up your items is not the end of the world. But it might force you to make informed and conscientious decisions before making a purchase because you know you’ll be stuck with it until it’s used up, breaks or dies.

And it might save you money in the bank because you’re choosing to keep the responsibility of product inventory at the retail store rather than making it your responsibility as you store the items in your home.

This blog post is just the tip of the clutter pile. If it resonates with you I invite you to enroll in my program, Breakup with Clutter.

Expect to kickstart your underconsumption core journey to living a more intentional life with less stuff.

Please note: This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase something with the links.

Southern California based Professional Organizer, Sandy Park, owner and founder of Tidy with SPARK shares her joy of organization with her clients.

She serves clients in Orange County as well as the hundreds of thousands of followers on her combined social media platforms.

Connect with Sandy through her website or by connecting through her social channels.