Underconsumptioncore

24 Jan, 2025

Not going to lie, I didn't know what to title this one. Hell, originally I was going to do another 2kki log and just call it a day, because those screencaps are piling up fast. But I figured I'd at least attempt to wait a little bit longer before doing yet another 2kki log. So, I'll talk about some of the things that have been on my mind, and what not. Well, if this ends up with a completely different title somewhat later, I want you to know the original file was named "Minimalism," because I don't know how to name articles.

Anyways, despite the title, I'm not about to show up and say I've turned over a new leaf and am going minimalist. The more I look at my room, the more I realize I'm getting close to having an Itabeya, which is a pretty maximalist style. Maybe one day I'll finally get around to doing that room tour, but considering the last 2 things I bought for my room as a part of my yearly Christmas order should be arriving soon, I'm going to wait on that yet again. Instead, I want to talk about some of the... I don't know how to describe it, but I suppose they'd be, "Minimalist-adjacent" trends? Or at the very least, "Underconsumptioncore" trends? Honestly is there a better word for it than the term "Underconsumptioncore"? Like, I've seen people go, "Oh yeah, that's Minimalist." But I don't think Minimalist describes it. And calling something a -core feels a bit weird. But I'm not really sure what to say. Maybe just "Underconsumption?" Whatever. New name for the article. "Underconsumptioncore" works, even if I'm not necessarily becoming that. I'll talk on all my feelings related to that later

First things first, I want to talk about the main reason I'm writing this article. It's related to a few new trends I've seen pop up lately on Youtube that have been getting people talking. I'm talking about things like Project Pan, No Buy 2025, and the alternative, Low Buy 2025.

I'll be honest, I think these are all good ideas. I think people should actually be striving for these things. I've seen people accumulate hoards of things, especially over the pandemic years, that just don't get used. They just sit there. I'm guilty of this as well, and I think stuff like this is honestly a great way of reassessing our needs, along with acknowledging any sort of issues. This kind of thing is healthy. Possessions are fun, but what's the point of it just sitting there? At the very least, if anyone participates in any of these, consider participating in Project Pan.

Project Pan is essentially what it sounds like. The goal is to hit the pan of your makeup by using it. After all, what is the point of all this stuff if you're just going to let it all expire, right? The name Project Pan is just kind of a catch-all in this case, but it definitely applies to just about anything cosmetic. Go out there and use your stuff. Accumulated a hoard that you couldn't possibly finish before it expires? As much as it sucks to do so, give it away. Do something to get it used. Hell, go on Mercari or something and sell things that haven't been tampered with at a discount. Something's better than nothing. I know that sitting here and typing this to my screen does nothing, because who knows if this info will go out there and reach someone, but hey who knows. Maybe I'll get someone to consider doing something with their hoard. Anything could be done. Even if you're doing something like using a tiny bit for a review and turning around and giving the rest to relatives, it's better than letting it become an unused product that hits the landfill.

I bring Project Pan up because it's the one that I'm definitely participating in. I don't have a super huge makeup hoard or anything. Hell, pretty much all of my stuff is contained to the top of my dresser, where I kind of have it on display. I know people who are into design will say stuff like "That's a lot of unneeded visual clutter," and they're absolutely right. However, putting it out in the open where I not only see it but am incentivised to interact with it because my clothes are in there legitimately helps me. I have ADHD and I'm incredibly guilty of the "Out of sight, out of mind" mentality. So, if I see a ton of makeup stuff there, it's going to keep me using it. Or, if not using it, then at least acknowledging that it's there, waiting to be used. At the very least, for all the eyeshadows and blushes I've collected, I'd like to turn them into watercolors. I'm also attempting to use some of the nail polish for those little nail polish flowers. I don't think I'll be using UV Resin to make jewelry out of them, but probably will use them for stuff like my cabinet. It's some cool DIY projects for someone like me, who will end up getting a gift that they're never going to use that they feel they can't get rid of. Begging my family to not buy me products anymore that I don't ask for. This is how I end up with tons upon tons of unused fragrances, lotions, lip glosses, and so on. Honestly a gift card is better than junk.

At the very least, my main goals are to keep the things I do tend to use nice and clean and not buy any product I'm not going to use. Though, that should be pretty easy for me because the only things I tend to buy constantly throughout the year are things like face cleanser, face moisturizer, and sugar scrub whenever I'm about to run out. I think my only issue is the occasional body spray, but considering I have 4 piled up (Well, 5 really, but one was me grabbing a scent they don't normally keep) I've told myself I'm not allowed to restock the other scent I use until both of the bottles I regularly use are gone. That, and I'm going to try to use the smaller perfumes I have more often as well.

I'm also trying to apply the mentalities here with beauty products to things like art & journaling supplies, which I tend to have a lot of issue with buying quite often, so using what I own is honestly the biggest goal for not only this year, but going forward. Luckily, it's not like I have a huge selection of art supplies or anything like that, but it's the one that gets me the most. For example, within the last 3 months I've bought several stickers that I haven't used, ribbon, lace, fabric, wire, gouache paints, alcohol markers, water markers, gel pens, and several notebooks that have a few things written in them. Yeah, it's time to stop that. At the very least, I've been doing a bit better on using things I've gotten as one of my old bullet journals is finally being used, even if it's for a daily to-do checklist type of thing. And ever since the hack, I've forced myself to go through and document every password I have and I started stuff that I've had sitting here for literal years to write in said book. So, I'm trying to ban myself from these types of purchases, unless things get used much more often. At the very least, a handful of the fabric has been put to use, but I'm really trying to tell myself to at least use the sketchbooks. I have a gift going to a friend soon, so maybe I'll make her a little zine filled with Bakura drawings, or something like that. I don't know. Anything to get stuff used instead of just sitting here. Sketchbooks that are empty are boring. Sketchbooks that are filled are interesting.

Anyways, I rambled on too much about Project Pan, let's talk about the No Buy & Low Buy 2025 trends, at least for a brief moment.

I feel like these two are very self explanatory. The goal is to not buy during 2025 and focus on using what you already have. To be honest, I'm grouping them together because I'm unsure of the exact rules on them considering everyone seems to have a different take. Some people are going cold turkey and swearing on buying absolutely nothing, meanwhile some are limiting it to just 5 things in several categories of necessities, and others are just aiming to keep it low. I'm unsure if specific numbers are even needed in cases like this to be honest, when the entire point is to make you sit there and consider that you might not need to make impulse purchases. All around, that's a pretty good idea. These are another one of those trends that I think people should consider actually doing, as long as it works for them. Everyone's cases will be different of course, but if you reconsider some of your impulse purchases and put it down, that's always a good thing.

Unlike the previous trend, I'm unsure if I'll be fully participating for this one. In some ways, I'm already doing so. I did just write an entire set of paragraphs on making sure to actually use my cosmetics and fragrances, as well as my art supplies. On the other hand, I'm wondering if I've technically already messed up. Aside from paying for my preorders, which are commitments I've made back in 2024, I have done a fair amount of shopping. It's not overwhelming, but I found myself buying things I didn't super need at Ikea (while forgetting to pick up one of the 2 things I did need.) I also went into places like TJ Maxx and Walmart and came out with, once again, more things I didn't need. Sure, the amount of unnecessary stuff I accumulated was on the smaller end--Assuming we're defining the term of "Unnecessary" in this instance as "Stuff unrelated to my personal hobby of Anime Merchandise Collecting," but the issue that I have is that it's still only January and I managed to end up with 6 items I didn't really need. Some were completely planned, like wire racks I grabbed so I could change my display boards as I've been unhappy with those for a while now. Meanwhile others were things like gouache, gold wire, and alcohol markers. Meanwhile, I haven't bought new shoes, which I haven't gotten in 6 years. Or a side table that I can put my printer on so that it's accessible to other people in my family. Or most importantly, a new laundry basket because mine is quite literally falling apart. Yeah... That's the thing I was supposed to get at Ikea, other than a bookshelf.

I do still want to see if I can aim for Low Buy 2025, of course. But I feel like one of the issues I have with things like this is that when you generally live a frugal life, making exceptions only for your hobbies, it ends up in a weird mental rut where you beat yourself up for not adhering strictly to it. For example, I saw someone sit there and say "Oh, I plan to buy only 2 shirts a year," and my brain went "Okay, that's easy!" and then immediately realized that I had grabbed 1 shirt on preorder back in September that came during the 1st week of January, and ended up buying a separate unrelated shirt at a Ross and my brain immediately went "Wow, I'm a failure at this!" Not a healthy mentality. I get the idea of needing to reflect on purchasing things impulsively, but I wish someone out there put resources for the mental health side of getting used to this. Because I feel like the idea of telling yourself "Don't buy everything on impulse," is one thing, but telling your brain "Okay, you did good on step 1, but we need to get you feeling better about step 2, so we can address actual issues here." I want to say, I've done no studying on Shopping Addiction. I know it's a thing, I've heard people mention it's a thing, but I have no idea where to even start looking into that. And that's not me trying to say, "Oh yeah I'm absolutely shopping addicted," because I don't tend to buy all that much. Like I said, 2024 was just a year of getting back into the hobby and having a friend who enabled impulse buys because we did it together. 100% not a good mentality at all, but it's not something I want to keep up. I don't know if I've said it at all, but since I've re-entered the figure collecting hobby properly (Instead of just buying Yamato Oshikatsu, as I normally do) I've also sat there and considered things like when the proper time to exit the hobby is and where do I wan't to draw a line with my collecting. I find myself pondering on, "When do I actually think I'll have enough of a collection to be happy with it?" And sure, it's probably weird to finally reach this tangent of an article, but considering in the collectors space there's a lot of people who only think of the buying and accumulating rather than everything else, maybe I'm doing a bit better in terms of mental health in relation to owning physical products, but I generally think I could use some work. After all, I've barely begun to really get over the idea of "Needing to repurchase things I've parted with," and have fully just let go of the idea of needing them back at all. The idea of having owned them was fun, but realizing that life isn't just about what you own is probably the overall theme of these challenges, and the entirety of "underconsumptioncore" in general. And I don't know, I guess it just makes me feel better about parting with stuff that I never really wanted to give up. It made me feel like maybe that's the point of all of this.

I don't think I'll ever truly be someone who's "underconsumption-core" at heart. Mostly because as personal as this blog is, I don't really like advertising stuff like owning the same 2 reusable water bottles which were both gifts, with the paint chipping off of both, as some counter to the people with walls of Stanley cups. I mean, even if that didn't become a trend, I was still going to own those 2 bottles, and 2 other unrelated cups as my only dishes. I have a single ramen bowl, a few pairs of chopsticks, a boba straw, and that's it. If I lived on my own, I'd probably absolutely live one of those underconsumption-core lives where I only buy what I need with the exception of one hobby which is collecting anime merch. Honestly, if I didn't get back into the hobby, at some point I'd probably purge more of my stuff and continue to be living in some sort of male living space looking room. Seriously, my room was that bad for a while. It only looks as maximalist as it does now because I told myself to take out the piles of merch that I had bought that I wasn't really using and I went through it, so my room looks so much more maximalist. But at the same time, it looks more lived in now. Sure, I could trim down on the amount of plushies I have, but I'll get to that later. At least they finally have a home for the most part. I've been trying to at least do my work, get things in order, and really think about the mark I leave on this planet. It's part of why I told myself that it's okay to buy the things I want, but to really consider leaving a hobby that's all about plastic in the long run. Spend the rest of my time, energy, and money on having experiences. Will there be things I miss out on? Well yeah, that's a given. Will I eventually break and buy stuff I don't need? Probably. But hopefully, learning from this will do some good. And maybe if a bunch of us do it at once, it'll get people to slow down on the constant buying. Either way, that's all for now. Time to finally get to work on more of the many things I need to finish. Just one more page is left, at the very least. Well, until I finally make more entries where I talk about the anime plastic I buy as a part of my hobby. Can't wait to look like a giant hypocrite.

Also, the term I was thinking of, instead of using a -core? It's "Frugality."

Edit: Why are my article thumbnails on Neocities constantly not generating? Not seeing this happen for anyone else. Even after renaming and reuploading this won't fix it.

Life

13 Jan, 2025

I feel like whenever I make plans for this site, I always put a due date in attempts to spur progress. So far, this doesn't seem to be working. Considering the amount of times I've mentioned having ADHD, I'm sure this would surprise absolutely no one. Deadlines are something I've always struggled with when they aren't absolute. However, seeing as this is a personal hobby site and not a project I'm being paid to work on, maybe that's a sign to be a bit nicer to myself over the whole deadline thing.

Anyways, I suppose the thing that has me a lot more distracted from doing what I said with this site lately has just been, well, life. At the moment, we're still having to get Felix used to living without Oscar. He's really struggling. Lately, my grandpa has been letting him sleep in his room, so he won't cry as much. But sometimes, even when he's in the laundry room where he tends to sleep for most of the day, you can just tell how sad he is. It's pretty hard to watch. I try to keep him in my room from time to time as well. It's a bit hard, considering the amount of cords I have near the ground. Well, that and plush on low shelves. Both of them used to love to demolish anything they could rip up.

Other than that, I've generally spent quite a lot of time since last summer just decluttering. It obviously hasn't been all at once, and it happens in spurts. But it does take up a lot of time. I finally made the effort to begin going through all my old PC parts so that I could throw out older boxes. However, I do feel like at some point, I should make yet another effort to touch on all of that again so I can clean out things that I've held onto that just don't work anymore. I think Target has an e-waste trashcan. I might see about getting rid of all the old fans, and just anything that isn't a harddrive. Though, I don't know if Target will let you just walk in and dump it all in there. I'll have to check that out, I suppose.

Speaking of harddrives, I should probably get around to looking at my other drives. But that also requires me to take out the other PC, set it up, and so on, so forth. Maybe if I had another monitor and didn't have to take my ethernet cable out of all the cable managing tubes I've set up so they're just out of the way, I'd do it. But I just don't feel up to doing it right now. I guess if I end up painting my desk, I'll get around to it. An idea for later, and what not.

Either way, I feel a lot better going through everything and getting rid of what I don't need. I know people have been calling out all the decluttering trends, especially when it comes to how people are promoting things like extreme minimalism or decluttering as a way to turn around and buy into extreme maximalism. But I'm just here like, while I do have hobbies revolving around the idea of accumulating unnecessary items and displaying them in an aesthetic manner, I'm also not doing this all the time. In fact, most of what I've changed out was stuff that I had for at least a decade. Some of it isn't changed out yet. My old computer tower was 12 years old. The chassis was yellowing. The parts inside were at least 7 years, if not older. My old itaboard displays for all my keychains were on corkboards which were around 10 years old. Changing them out for a rack that might be on trend might seem drastic to some people, but it's not like they were new. They were well loved, but they just weren't the look I wanted for my room anymore.

I know I'm probably justifying my changes to myself. Nobody here is actually calling me out. But I guess my brain is also constantly telling me to feel guilty when I don't use something to the point it's falling apart. Maybe it's because in many aspects of my life, I did actually live that extreme minimalism lifestyle to a degree. Sure, it wasn't 100%, as I've always been a collector. But it's funny to sit there and think on what your brain will rationalize when it comes to purchases. Like, I don't want to pretend I haven't purchased my fair share of containers that I probably didn't need over the years. However, it did take me over 15 years to finally get rid of the sterilite containers that I've shoved a majority of my makeup in for years without feeling a bit bad about donating them. Seriously, some of these I've had since I was in highschool. And I graduated during the year of the recession. I got beyond enough use out of them. I won't lie and pretend I didn't change them out for a more aesthetic container to put some of said makeup in. But the point of it wasn't to remake a "Let's tidy up my 5000 skin serums" video. It was to have something that was open and would get me to interact with my makeup, instead of it just sitting there. Well, that and the other purpose was to downsize and clean out all the old expired stuff that desperately needed to go. Seriously, while they were almost all gift sets, nobody needs 40 MAC lipglasses. I have like 8 from 2 newer sets, and I only use 2 of them. I'm begging my family, stop buying me makeup sets you think I'm going to use, and just let me pick one shade.

I will admit though, I am 100% guilty when it comes to hoarding old eyeshadows at the moment, because I do plan to use those. My goal is to turn them all into watercolors. That way, they can finally be used.

I dunno, maybe my brain is guilt tripping me for a reason. I do try to be conscious about the amount of things I consume. I try not to buy for the sake of reselling. I also try to avoid things ending up at thrift stores, because every time I move outside of cleaning my room and try to get my grandma to clean her stuff, things just end up in a pile of things meant for GoodWill, and in all honesty, I feel like that's really bad. I think this year alone we've made 5 donation drop offs, and that just isn't good. However, telling her to cut back on her spending if it's just going to lay somewhere and never be used is talking to a wall. Both of my grandparents tend to do that. They tell me I'm the same, but I really am not buying things that don't see the light of day because they're shoved in some closet or the garage and get forgotten about for several years. Seriously, I wish my uncle didn't move out at times. She turned his old room into a storage room instead of treating it like a guest room. This year, we finally sold an old desk we had in there, and cleaning everything off of it was a hassle, because she just moved it over to another unit that she refuses to sell despite it doing nothing but sitting there. Sometimes, things are just piled ontop of the bed that's in there. I keep telling her to clean, but everything turns back to clutter. I had to work hard to clean it further, so I could finally get her to stop using my closet to hide her seasonal stuff. But everything either ends up in a "pile to keep" or at the GoodWill. Really not an ideal solution. She's told me to attempt selling it on Mercari, but that means I have to go and make physical space for it in my room, which just turns into me keeping other people's clutter. Really sucks, becuase I'm trying to sell off the rest of my oshikatsu that I had to trim down on, and I haven't had interaction in ages. So selling her stuff on top of mine is just stressful.

Part of me thinks some form of hoarding disorder just runs in the family. It's why I've tried so hard to keep my things clean and the inside of my closet accessible. I've also done fairly well when it comes to telling myself "If the purpose of the item is to be displayed, display it or sell it." But I will not lie, I do fall victim to the whole "Purge your collection and acquire a brand new hoard," from time to time. It's why I've been attempting to make a collection that I'll be happy with, so that I can buy everything I would be comfortable purchasing, and then just slowly drift away from the collecting hobby. Like yeah, sure. I'm going to get more interests when it comes to anime & gaming. That's a given. But out of all my interests, I don't try to collect something from every property. For example, there's series I love a lot that I probably wouldn't buy things from anymore. FullMetal Alchemist comes to mind. Love it, but I don't feel the need to go out and buy it for the sake of buying it. I can simply like things from afar. And if one day, I decide that I really want to place something of those characters on my shelves, I'll do so if I have the space for it. I'm basically just trying to get myself to not purchase impulsively and really put thought into what I buy, and make sure that it's stuff I love. Rebuying the things I lost is fine, but even then, I am trying to get my brain to accept that I've parted with those things. I don't know. I might still be struggling with it because it might be some form of trauma.

Anyways, I guess that's enough about my buying habits. I'll turn the attention to one last thing before I sign off for the night.

In attempt to get better at making sure to use the items I own rather than just hoard them, I've taken up bullet journaling. I'm not really good at sticking to using a physical journal, to be honest. I'm sure for some people, they'd be like, "You're literally running a blog. What do you mean you're 'not good at journaling?'" It's just the physical aspect I suck with. There's this weird anxiety about using stickers that I sometimes have. Where your brain sits there and tells you "If you use this, you're probably not getting another one." Really weird that brains can do that. However, I've decided to fully ignore my brain on this, and honestly it doesn't feel bad. I would show my spreads, but it's literally a daily checklist. I'm just not that good at bullet journals yet. Hell, I didn't even do anything fancy. I didn't even do a week spread. I just did as many days I could fit on each page. There's not even any drawings, because I had no ideas on what to put. I eventually decided that the theme was just "blue," and that's simply because the journal was blue. It's not doing a good job of being a creative outlet, but I also don't have thousands of sticker sheets and washi tapes at my disposal. Maybe next time, if I make another for next year, I'll just draw. But I'll see how this year goes. Knowing me, I'll give up on it halfway through the year. I hope not though.

Anyways, sorry for another entry where I essentially vomit everything that's been on my mind. I kind of didn't cover every single thing, but if I did, I think I'd turn it into some sort of breakdown on all the stupid trends I see online and what I think about them, and I think you should all be spared from that kind of content. You really don't need me of all people to tell you that the "Sad Beige Millenial" trend sucks. Everyone knows that already. Seriously, they look like reusable grocery bags.

I also didn't want to get too into the topic of the fires out here. They've been kind of stressful to see, and while I'm not super close to them, I'm also not super far from them. Without giving my location, I will say that we're affected by the changes in air quality. We're also back on wind advisory, and this time, my city will be getting hit a bit harder by said winds. I'm hoping no other fires pop up.

Anyways, I'm going to hope that later today I can get much more of my minor updates out of the way. I'm nearly done, but I left all the hard stuff for the end. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. Oh well, I'm going to need to change a bunch of pages eventually anyways. I just applied to another webring, and I'm probably going to aim for a 3rd pretty soon. If I get approved for them, then that's another change. But I'll worry about it all later. Time to go rest my brain.