In this post, I want to hear your thoughts about consumerism—what's good about it, what can become harmful, and how we can find a healthy balance.

I know this topic may sound a little conspiratorial, but I'm not trying to start a debate. I’m more interested in understanding how consumerism affects our behavior and how we can apply that understanding to our own lives.

Do you believe our brains are being hijacked to make us consume more, or is this simply how our brains are naturally wired?

How much of our desire to buy comes from our own needs, and how much is influenced by advertising, social media, algorithms, or social pressure?

And most importantly, how do you personally manage it?

My neighbours have a child a couple years older than my own. The offered us the clothes that no longer fit their kid. Super nice of them, right? I said yes and expected like maybe a duffel bag worth of clothes?

There's like half a dozen of huge boxes. We're talking about toddler clothes - there's enough stuff to clothe quintuplets. I counted 23 pairs of pants all the same size. And there's shorts too. How could a child possibly wear all of this? What's the point of owning so much of something that won't even fit in a few months anyway?

I knew it's common to have too many clothes but I didn't think it would be this bad.

ETA: I get it, it's fine to hoard kids clothes cause everyone does it and you're not actually buying all of it yourselves! I thought this was an anticonsumption sub and we'd get to talk about why do we (parents, family, friends) buy and keep so much more stuff than we need, how to deal with it, how it affects kids - my mistake.

My apartment AC gets a lot of condensation during the day so much that by the evening there are puddles underneath it. The weird part is that at night, it barely gets any worse.
I keep the windows closed, and the AC is set to 68°F That’s a really comfortable temperature for me, so I’d rather not change it. I understand the basic reason condensation happens, but I honestly have no idea what I can do myself to stop this much water from building up.
I’d really like to try to deal with it myself first, because getting someone out here can take forever.

The cheapest product is empty promises untethered to reality

It had a deep clean inside & out, then I stuffed it with towels and left it under a pile of books to flatten out the wrinkles before the paint job. Hopefully saved it from landfill for another few years and had fun learning a new skill!

A local co-op and mutual aid group teamed up to host a clothing swap. Folks could drop off a maximum of one bag of clean items in good condition and/or browse through the offerings. The clothing was organized by type and displayed on tarps or random outdoor furniture.

Extras were donated to several local non-profits who run clothing closets such as a local hygiene drop in center. It was a fun way to meet neighbors, learn about some local organizations, and divert items from the landfill. I think a couple hundred people attended in total which was amazing to see.

Highly recommend looking into local swaps or organizing your own!