I’ve recently run into a new, at least to me, phenomenon on social media. Underconsumption Core. Ghastly name, I know.
Anyway, some of the young women on Tik Tok have made it their mission to try to slow overconsumption. And that’s a sentiment I can totally get behind.
I won’t go into detail here because I made a YouTube video. All about underconsumption core. And about my feelings with respect to a number of related things.
Please be kind. I just noticed that I said something was “awesome” twice in the video. Ackk. As well as starting my sentence a few times with “so.” Oh dear… even worse.
But have a look for yourself. Better pour a second cup of tea or coffee the video is fifteen minutes long.
I hope you enjoyed that. Hubby and I have been having a relaxing, very slow-paced summer. Tea on the deck in the morning, wine while we wait for our supper to cook on the barbeque, and lots of reading. Hence I’ve been walking, and pedalling my exercise bike and accumulating random videos of rainstorms, the peepers at night, and the wind blowing the trees or the wildflowers in the field near us. So I decided to include the natural sounds in my video instead of music. It just seemed more summery, to me.
I’m aware that I am overly hopeful in the video. Maybe this whole thing will just go the way of other trends, and disappear in a couple of months. But… maybe not. I am going to think it won’t. Because I’m nothing if not a Pollyanna.
Drop a comment if you have fond memories of creative “making do” over the years. I’d love to hear your perspective.
53 thoughts on “Underconsumption Core Is a Thing”
In first world countries, we don’t need so much stuff, and we need to be better stewards of what we have. Particularly in this later stage of my life, I don’t need a lot, and I am trying to love what I have. I am remembering that cars were often completely recycled down to the steel. I don’t know whether that is still true. I love any video that shows a restoration, be it a home, car or piece of machinery. I saw a restoration of a Singer hand crank sewing machine (from 1894, predates the treadle machines). Every bolt was restored, and it was covered in rot and rust. Eventually the person sewed a pillow case using the machine he restored.
Hubby and I love to watch “Repair Shop” on television. It’s a British show recommended by Wendy from York (I believe) a while ago.
We watched a lovely programme on tv last night called The Odd Couple . Jay from Repair Shop & Judi Dench have apparently become good friends after she guested on his programme & they got together to make this . I think you’ll like it – made us laugh .
In my childhood of the 1950s UK there wasn’t much option but to recycle . There just wasn’t much to be had . Britain was on its knees after the war & so , like everyone around us , we recycled . It was called ‘make do & mend ‘ then . It’s sort of stuck in my psyche now . I have Pyrex dishes we received as wedding presents & they get used regularly . Our main car is a 14 year Saab & going strong 🤞- my little mini is newer . The chopping knife I use most was my mum’s & her mum’s before her . I’m lost if I mislay it & have had to dig it out of the waste bin a few times . Plastic bags are washed out & reused – I was a little embarrassed about this but I found a close friend does the same so I’m not alone . Anything unwanted that might be useful sometime goes in the shed for a while until we make a final decision . The shed can get quite scary 😁 I’m not perfect though , I’ve bought far too many clothes over the years , perhaps compensating for the lack of them when I was young ? Not now though . To go off on a tangent , yes fast fashion is bad for the planet but far worse is the meat industry . I think young people are very aware of that now & as a veggie of over seventy years , it’s good to see .
I was shocked to learn that WW2 rationing (of some items) continued in the UK until the mid-50s. What happened to that spirit of pulling together for the greater good? I had hopes that Covid would reignite a sense of communal sacrifice and cooperation…if anything, the reverse has been true among certain (very loud) sectors of the population. And now I sound exactly like my grandmother.
Oh….the infamous shed. We have two in our backyard. As Stu always says, “You never know when that piece of whatever will come in handy.” 🙂
P.S. I have a postcard that I bought in London in 2017. It says “Go through your wardrobe. Make Do and mend.” It’s a reproduction of a wartime poster.
I’ve been washing out my plastic bags for years. It’s been a very long time since I bought a fresh box. I can do better in other areas though, like buying some silicone covers or beeswax cloth (I tried and failed to make it myself once) to use instead of cling film.
Was intrigued to watch the video, we definitely have too many belongings and can happily live with less. The term Norm Core instantly made me feel disturbed, and an old film came to mind called Logan’s Run starring Jenny Agutter
I’ve never seen that movie although I remember the basic plot from the seventies. So many sci fi ideas are coming true that it’s eerie. Let’s hope that’s not one of them. Ha.
Sue, I so agree with everything being discussed here this week. In addition to being good for the earth, I believe it is better for our mental health to live with less and “reduce, reuse, recycle. ” I am so glad I stumbled upon your blog several months ago. I enjoy reading everyone’s comments as well. Well done!
Thanks so much, Elizebeth. 🙂
This is so true Sue. We are massive consumers of goods. Content creators make their money on YT weekly or more with fantastic claims on new products. I think it sad so many but into the claims. I recently have quit watching “empty” content videos. I enjoy travel content, history and health/ exercise videos. I do enjoy the ambient video of rain, storms or jazz in coffee shops. I am about to turn 66 and my main goal is to stop overconsumption and spend more time in nature and keeping fit and health. I teach Yoga now a couple days a week and hoping to do more gardening and read more books. Love your channel and your beautiful Canada. My family spent many summers in Rice Lake. My father has passed but my mom lives within 28 miles of the Canadian border for the past 40 years in beautiful Downeast Maine. I love going there and sitting in her sunroom with my coffee and enjoying looking at the ocean. Truly, this is the best thing I can consume right now- family, nature, friends and good health. Thanks for bringing good content to ponder.
Consuming your coffee and the view of the ocean are the best, Turra. I’m very familiar with parts of Maine.
I really enjoyed your video, Sue! Like you, I would be surprised if the underconsumption core caused an economic downturn but it may help encourage manufacturers to develop products that last.
My mother tells stories abut her stepmother making and recycling items for hats. Apparently she was always dyeing bits of fabric to make sure they matched the latest outfit. Neither my mother nor I have that bent but when I buy, I try to find items that will last a long time.
Anyway, I just want to encourage you in your video endeavours. It was thought-provoking and interesting.
Thanks, Pam. I find it a nice change to do the videos. And I love learning how to make them, the editing, etc etc. I know that many blog readers prefer to read than listen, so thanks for the vote of confidence.
I’m just concerned that “under-consumption core” will be fleeting, adding the word “core” to everything just seems to denote it as a trend that will eventually disappear only to be replaced by the next big catchy name core.
Don’t get me wrong I’m all for cutting back on our consumption. I am happy that the younger generation finally feels the need to do this, but not so sure if will have the longevity that it needs in order to make a meaningful impact in this hectic world of social media, but one can only hope.
Every little bit helps, I think. And if adding “core” makes the youngins’ think it’s cool to live with less, then I’m all for whatever works. 🙂
Dear Pollyanna don’t ever stop seeing the possibilities. As I say to my granddaughters…magic happens if you believe. We downsized 8 years ago and shed a large number of things we had collected over 30 plus years of marriage. It was cathartic. I have been on a quest to revisit parts of my storage unit in the basement to do just that. We have enough stuff. The rule of 5 certainly has helped with my clothing. I have stopped watching several Instagram accounts who hawk “hauls” I find it off putting.
My parents lived through the depression and WWII so they made do as there was not alot else that could be done. I was the recipient of clothing worn by two others most of my life. Mom and dad recycled things until their use was spent. A culture shift has to occur on many fronts…especially in families and in media. I think dialogs about this must continue while we lead by example.
I’m so done with the “hauls.” And even the phrase “new in” is unsettling me now. Especially if the content creator has ten or twelve new pieces. I’m not sure why brands can’t send just one or two new pieces to a creator, rather than multiples. Perhaps it’s up to the creator to refuse when brands inundate them with too much stuff.
Oh I completely agree with you. Making something out of nothing is fun and satisfying! Slowing down consumption is completely necessary and it is inevitable- let’s hope the Global North can figure that out before we push the planet into a cataclysmic crisis. I was going to send you a picture of my “library haul” the other day; I had three fab books waiting for me at the library- I thought you would appreciate that. lol. Been a quiet summer for us too- and the slow has been enjoyable! Thanks for a great video. The spring peepers have been LOUD this month!
Now a library haul is my kind of haul!!
I dunno, call me jaded but anything with ‘core’ as an appendix has ‘ flavour of the minute’ feels. Kudos to the young who are promoting it ( gawd could they not come up with a better name? Underconsumption core sounds like a symptom of a dread disease a Jane Austen heroine would suffer with) just saying…
Honestly, flicking through IG and clearly under consuming is not a core value.
Then I check in with a few ‘fashion blogs’ geared to the ‘of a certain age’ crowd promoting items at out of this world prices…the theory that buying better will last longer. C’mon lady you are promoting and link dumping at warp speed again, buy, buy, buy!
Does she really hang on to a cashmere sweater for twenty years or buy into that cost per wear theory when she receives promos, discounts, freebies as a fashion blogger? Doubt it.
Lies, damn lies…that’s social media for you.
I know the name is terrible, isn’t it? But if adding the “core” makes it cool to the young followers, I’m all for it.
I’m a cynic (also an economist!). Young people mean well, but they typically just want to feel that they are differentiating themselves from their peers. They will eventually have children who will become consumers, too, and the cycle will begin again. People from developing countries, who have had less, understandably want to catch up to the west.
Human nature is such that we have to be forced, as a whole lot, to change our behaviours. I hope at least, as someone notes above, that manufacturers and politicians continue to support ideas such as “right to repair” and that manufacturers work to create better-quality products. The trends in clothing manufacturing are certainly going in the opposite direction in my opinion.
I moved around quite a bit when I was younger and grew up with a mother who had a cross-stitched admonition on the wall: Use it up/Wear it out/Make it do/Do without, so having lots of recycled things and making things work for a long time comes naturally to me. I have mismatched vintage furniture and objects and I’ve always been fine with that, even though I could afford new. I learned growing up that happiness did indeed come from being creative and focusing on things that last (like relationships and art), although I overcompensated at some points with clothing. In any case, if young people also learn that they are happier when they are less preoccupied with keeping up with trends, perhaps there will be some traction here. Older people for the most part are not setting a good example
I love that “use it up” saying. I grew up poor and am now well off, but still live by it!
Same for us. My mother grew up while her father was in university after the war, so she knew how to stretch a dollar. Now we don’t need to but the old philosophies are such a great guide. 🙂
I love that slogan, Stephanie. 🙂
Sue. Great video and we are all taken in by the “advertising”. I sometimes even try to copy the look of expensive jewelry I have seen a personality wear. Really!!! Now, I have blocked all the clothing stores I use to visit online and wish I was down to 5. I remember my mother mending socks for my dad. I still mend things as my mother taught me, especially if it is still a great item which I love. I rarely had new outfits in school as my aunt could sew and so she made most things. My mother was better at knitting and so if I needed a winter hat, well she was there with knitting needles. We need to be much more creative about what we already own. Change up the look with a simple broach, a scarf or a turn of the sleeve. I have found great buys at our local thrift store. Summer camisoles from designers for $5.00. Why would anyone pay $50???? So glad you are exposing this bad habit we women all seem to possess. My husband, on the other hand will wear a shirt until I tell him it really does have to go somewhere. He came from a really overly thrifty home where his mother did not know a thing about mending and so things with holes were okay. Stop writing or this will become an essay. I always do that even in emails and my friends are into their three word sentences. I really hate that!!!
My hubby is the original “clothes keeper” around here. 🙂
As one whose garden shoes literally fell apart this week (I had a pair of old sneakers waiting to take their place) I totally agree with the concept of buying/having/accumulating less. Too much stuff even on counters or tables literally stresses me out, and don’t even get me started on ‘bedscapes’…
I made my clothes in high school, and even now, 50 years plus later, I still sew up a curtain, cushion cover, or valance from a scrap or an old tablecloth if I need one. Tablecloths are cheap in thrift store, and you have to think beyond the table!
My SIL has a closet stuffed full of purses! Nothing else! They are poster children for accumulation. They think, because we can afford to buy anything we want, that we should buy everything we want. I want our money to be spent on travel, memories, and meals with family while we are here. That is what makes me happy, anyway.
There are videos on social media of creator’s bag collections. I always think, “How many black bags can one person use?” So many people justify overconsumption by the fact that they can afford to accumulate. But can the earth afford for us to keep on doing it??
Old shoes and 12 year old jeans are my garden attire.
So! Happy to say I am wearing a black…yes….a black linen dress to my Granddaughter’s wedding. I have worn it to my daughter’s university grad, law school grad, bar call, wedding, master’s degree grad and various other funerals, graduations and birthdays . I hope to be dispatched in it when the time comes. Very glad of that expensive 1994 purchase which I have slowly consumed. I have enjoyed every wearing. Love the concept of under consuming with purchases that will perform over time.
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Love it, Marou. That dress was obviously a keeper.
Great video. I remember having flannelette sheets as a child which had been cut up the middle and turned so the less worn outside edges became the centre and the thin worn centre went to the outside – so you slept on top of the new join seam up the middle of the sheet.I can think of so many examples of ‘make do and mend’. Do you remember dying shoes with a little bottle of dye, which came with a small foam pad on a stick, to either cover up the scuffs or to actually try to change the colour of the shoe to another more desirable colour? Happy days!
I remember sprucing up our white sneakers when we were kids with white shoe polish. They always looked great until we wore them and the thickly applied polish cracked. Ha.
Interesting and inspiring post,video and comments as well. It is insane how much people buy,not only clothes……I still remember all of my clothes and shoes during high school and university (and later )
Appliances,gadgets,cars,travel,holidays…..and yes,a lot of people work in industries that support it. One has to ask oneself “What could I do for the change?”and start doing it
Dottoressa
I remember all. my clothes too. And sometimes I wish I still had a certain piece of clothing that is long gone. 🙂
P.s. for the wedding I am also wearing 12 year old Fly shoes, family jewellery and driving in a ten year old car. Woo hoo! However, not being perfect, I do dip into fast fashion…especially with men’s Tshirts and sweat shirts. Balance, n’est ce pas? Have a good week reducing, reusing, recycling …..ahaaa…..leftovers for dinner here.
We always drive our cars for ten years, too, Marou. 🙂
As a first year baby boomer, it’s no surprise that my childhood memories are filled with a variety of tasks to get the most mileage out of everything. My father was a self taught handyman who added on to the house as the family grew. My mother would darn socks stuffed with a light bulb and all winter she hung clothes to dry throughout the house.
Today, my sisters and I question where our clothes came from. It wasn’t a local mall or online shopping. I cut my own hair, sewed many of my clothes as I got older.
Even as an adult when I could afford more it was difficult to shake this upbringing. I couldn’t tell my mother that I had gotten a dishwasher until she saw it on a visit. She was happy for me but I felt privileged.
When we were a young married couple we wanted to build a new garage. I was a stay at home mom raising four children.
On a modest income, I managed to save the money needed in less than a year. Throughout our marriage we purchased very little on credit. It can be done. You bought only what you could pay for.
You have a long history of making do, Jan. Good for you.
My goodness, the memories came flooding back with this one. Growing up, I did not realize that I was missing out on anything. My room had a nighatstand and a “dresser” made out of orange crates and plywood with a ruffled curtain, and a large rag rug. My mom was handy and made a vanity around the pedistal sink out of plywood and mactak. My aunt was a wonderful sewer and would remake some of her dresses for me with up to date patterns and even made a boho purse out of a placemat, I still remember the fun we would have. When I had my first place, mom recovered a sofa and chair that someone else was getting rid of and I made a bookshelf wall out of cement blocks and wood that my dad refinished. Some of those habits stayed with me for years and it frustrates me to see how some of my grandkids seem to think they need to start out with the best things.
A very thought provoking blog and video today. Also love reading the comments….. yes to restitching the sheets also.
I loved it when my mum would go into redecorating mode. Once we moved to the farm and she no longer worked full time, I remember coming home from school to find she’d cleaned upstairs and made my bed into a sort of canopy bed with a crocheted coverlet and the deep window well. 🙂
My grandmother was one if the original “underconsumers”. If she saw anything she considered still usable being discarded she’d say “but it’s still whole!”. Any paper she came across that had writing or printing on only one side was saved in a drawer in her desk to use the bare side for lists, notes, etc. No pin, rubberband, cork, screw or nail was ever thrown away. They were saved in little recycled jars in the basement. Buttons, snaps and zippers were removed from the rare article of clothing that she deemed no longer wearable and put in her sewing box. The fabric was washed, folded and put in a drawer to be resewn into something else or used as a rag. She had an old green cardigan that she wore around the house almost every day. When she wore holes anywhere in it she mended them with matching yarn and her wood darning egg. I can’t imagine how old it was. I never saw it without lots of mending. Her “house slippers” were also old, maroon felted wool. When her toes poked through she crocheted little circles and sewed them over the holes. Sometimes she crocheted tiny three dimensional roses to cover the holes. My parents gave her a new sweater and slippers exactly like those old mended ones. They were all still brand new, unworn in the gift boxes when she passed away, because the old ones were “still whole”. She was perfectly happy with two aprons, three house dresses, one “good” dress and one coat. She saw no reason to have more.
We used to tease my mum that it was time to crochet a new pair of slippers when they looked great on top but were full of holes on the bottom. Ha.
I enjoyed this, Sue. Thanks for explaining it to us so that we didn’t have to watch any annoying videos. I avoid social media for the most part. I look at Instagram only if directed there by a friend or an article that interests me. I have never been on FaceBook and don’t watch Tik Tok. So I’m probably not up on all of the lingo of the youngsters. My parents were raised during the Great Depression, and my Mother never let us forget it. I made all of my own clothing in high school. I do admit to having “overconsumed” at times since then. Now in my 60s, I am involved in a drastic decluttering/removal of “stuff” from my home. Tomorrow marks my sixth week, and I’ve put in several hours a day for at least four days a week. It’s slow going, but very rewarding. Bravo to these young folks for embracing this “trend,” and may it take hold.
Hope you didn’t mind my video, Judith. 🙂
I appreciate this message, Sue. I’ve known for some time now that shopping was taking up too much space in my life – and closet – and have slowly emerged from the fog of wanting new when old will do. It’s a very good place to be.
Thanks, Liane. “Emerging from the fog” is a great way to put it. Once I developed a sensitivity to overconsumption, I can’t see some online content any other way. It’s as if my eyes were opened.
I know I already left a comment; but thinking back about all the things I did to save money I could add making my own lined drapes for our family room, adding a border to a double quilt to make it fit our queen sized bed, making sheer curtains for any window that needed it. Sewing was a godsend and still is. I constantly use my sewing machine to hem up pants too long or take in seams or repair ripped out seams. Everyone should have a sewing machine and know how to use it. I am working on my third edition as a relative begged for my second almost new sewing machine and promised she would use it and she really did make a padded headboard for her new bed. “YAH” a win.
Oh, you just reminded me of trying to alter a purchased dust-ruffle to make it fit my old iron bed. Cascades of material all over the dining room and lots of swearing, but I managed it. I am NOT a good or happy seamstress.
It’s great to see people on social media promoting mindful consumption and challenging the fast fashion cycle. And don’t worry about those little video quirks—you’re being real, and that’s what resonates with people! I loved the touch of nature sounds instead of music.
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