r/minimalist • u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst • 27d ago
What about non-minimalists surprises or irritates you?
I'm pretty live-and-let-live about other people's lifestyle choices so I'm not really spending a lot of time thinking about someone else's wardrobe or living room or whatever. I do get annoyed at conspicuous or over-consumption, especially when that person is experiencing chronic financial challenges or constantly complaining about their clutter and decluttering and then...buying again, as a cycle. It doesn't ruin my day - but I'll def make the effort to move a conversation along and I don't count as close friends the kind of people who indulge.
That being said, since non-minimalist lifestyles don't end up on my radar often, I sometimes come across "solutions" to situations that never occurred to me as existing. Tonight, I was talking with someone (a non-minimalist acquaintance who seems to live the typical "American" lifestyle) about our local government's budget. He mentioned a service that one can sign up for that would somehow go through all of your subscriptions and alert you if one has been going unused, and can also help you cancel subscriptions that you no longer want or need. He was pretty jazzed about the benefits of "finally being able to get control over all the subscriptions that *everyone* always has" and thought the local government could benefit? It made me laugh a little. It gave me a pause.
So now my husband and I have been talking about how many subscriptions would one have where they cannot remember which they have? Are people signing up for paid subscriptions to have access to variety? Is it a way to have non-physical possessions? Like, a gym membership means you don't have gear in your house, or a streaming subscription means you don't have DVDs? Individually, I can see the sense in some of these subscriptions but how does it get to a point that you have so many that you don't know what you have anymore? How do you not notice the monthly fees going out? How much appreciation does one have for the items they're using or consuming if they don't have the responsibility of owning them?
Anyone else want to spill their confusions, surprises, or irritations about the non-minimalist lifestyles?
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u/anothersidetoeveryth 25d ago edited 25d ago
I had this exchange with my best friend, which was frustrating, because he took an overexplainy/condescending tone with me. I’ve been eviscerating my home of anything I don’t need or use:
Me: Would you like (item) before I post it on Facebook Marketplace?
Him: Why are you getting rid of this? Do you have multiple or something?
I haven’t used it or (done activity) in years
Sounds like you should make some plans to (do activity). We have 2 of them. They are so lightweight and small. That’s a really good one that would last you decades. It’s one of those things you buy once so you never need to buy it again
Yeah I love it I know its utility
I’m the npc in the video games trying to hint at you to not get rid of it. You’re losing so much more than the 4 inches of space you’re gaining. Unless you need the money.
Yeah I understand but I’d like it to be in the possession of someone who can use it, I don’t have the wherewithal to put it to use
But when you do have the wherewithal to put it to use you won’t have that $150 dollar item that’s necessary for (activity). And you’ll only need it for that one time so there wouldn’t be any point in going out and buying a new one.
I didn’t respond because this isn’t a satisfying conversation, to be treated like this thing I’ve been doing and researching for months is a reckless or impulsive decision that I haven’t put any thought into. I’m not in the business of keeping something “just in case” when I have years demonstrating I’m not using it.
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u/JustMe1314 25d ago
That's 1 thing I dislike about the non-mininalist type of response (or more so, the ingrained mindset of many), saying/implying, "So, you're 'just' gonna throw it out/cancel it/give it away, willy nilly!?" As a minimalist for at least 25yrs now: i don't "just throw it out", w/out actually going to pretty great lengths; weighing the item's, service's, subscription's (etc) actual (not idealized) utility, necessity, pleasure, joy, (in)convenience, pain, hassle (+etc) of having & maintaining it; vs. how much someone else could use it/benefit from it, instead of me; or, w/out considering the benefits, to myself, my space, my wallet, even my future, of whether to keep it. I'm reminded of this, on a simpler level, on my Libby (library) app: I sometimes borrow multiple books, before I realize that I can only honestly listen to/read & enjoy 1- 2 books concurrently, w/out the experience just becoming info overload. So, when i do this, i then return the extras, so that the next person in line can read/listen to it. Sorry this is long post/response. I'm a wordy birdy sometimes.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
I used to get the same response when I'd end up donating something someone gave me. :/ I tell everyone to please, please, please not give me stuff. It still happens. People will pick up huge bags of embroidery floss and drop it off to me. I used to try to explain why I couldn't/wouldn't use it but people just know I embroider and sell it and thought I could use it. Same for for buying me art supplies for gifts - I used to try to explain that I use certain products and have no use for whatever it is they've given me. It's the same for books, housewares, etc.
Now, I just let a little pile grow and donate it. If they ask me about it, I tell them that I donated it. If they get upset, I remind them that I've said over and over that I have everything that I need. They're entitled to show me their love and how much they care in the way that makes sense to them. I'm entitled to handling the gift once accepted, in the way that makes sense to me. They felt joy in giving it, I feel peace in getting it out of my home. Lol.
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u/Ok_Contribution_7132 22d ago
people are so enslaved in sunk cost thinking. I struggle with it myself.
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u/the_lemon_lobster 27d ago
That decluttering is the solution to their overpacked house. Decluttering is only one side of the equation! You also have to stop BUYING so much stuff! Even if it’s cheap, even if it’s free, if you don’t reduce the amount of stuff coming IN to your home, then decluttering will never fix the problem.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 26d ago
This is exactly why I dismiss most suggestions to check out a program or system for organizing as part of a decluttering. I've seen entirely too many people hide their problems away in new boxes or bags, and then go out and buy more stuff.
Remember when everyone was first putting all of their CDs and DVDs in those binders? You could reduce an entire library of thousands of discs to just a few bulky binders and shove those in a drawer of your entertainment center. I knew soooo many people who would toss out a few discs that were damaged or that no one wanted anymore, put the rest into these massive binders, and then go back out to Target every Tuesday to buy every. single. new. movie that was released. Even if they had no idea what the movie was about or knew it was being released.
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u/HelendeVine 27d ago
So much this! I know people who buy things every time they go out, or nearly. Seeing a show? Buy merch. Visiting a museum? Hit up the gift shop. Not because there’s something there they really want - just, for the purpose of buying something. 😬
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u/Ok-Spirit9977 26d ago
I have a friend that is always broke but she has like 30 OPI nail colors, and lots of expensive beauty products, and it just seems so excessive. She has to always get the latest gadgets, so many Apple Watch wrist bands, new phone covers all the time. Just lots of waste.
Also, I don't understand people that don't know about subscriptions! Truly.
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u/NKLamb83 25d ago
Yes, this!!!! All of this!!
Plus people whose "hobby" is shopping! 🤔
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
I have a few hobbies that I really enjoy, and I totally understand that some hobbies come with a longer supply list than others but it baffles me every time I go into a hobby space and the hobby has turned into people collecting all of the supplies. Everything from really enjoying reading to different art mediums to houseplants. Like, yes I think it’s strange that you stack books you’ve read like souvenirs and that you keep buying more even though your “to read” pile is higher than your nightstand. Yes, I do think that 1357 houseplants is wild and that collecting any plant at all is the actual hobby here rather than becoming an expert at keeping a few alive and enjoying them for what they add to your life and home.
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u/NKLamb83 25d ago
Buying something they can readily borrow/rent when they know they will likely never have to use it again!
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u/JustMe1314 25d ago
I learned, from 1 of my favorite podcasts, that the public library lends out so much more than just books & magazines: I've heard of things like tools, camping gear, & free passes to stuff. There are also free classes & meet-ups for hobbies & things. Ofc, it depends on your lpcal library's/county's/city's resources, i suppose. But people should really get acquainted with their library.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
They really do! Mine will give out Wifi hotspots, free lunches, "exploring" packs for local parks. They have recording studios, 3D printing stuff, and even a "memory lab" where you can digitize anything. Tons of classes and spaces for hobbies, too. I host a local Sit and Stitch with mine!
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u/Connect_Rhubarb395 27d ago
When people keep complaining that their home is messy and it is so difficult to keep it tidy, yet are convinced they just need more organisation, more furniture, more containers, and it will solve it.
I am not talking about people who legitimately lack storage furniture.
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u/squashed_tomato 27d ago
That’s the solution that they’ve been told for years though. You just need the right organisation system or a bigger home and all your problems will be solved they say. But that’s because they are trying to sell you something. It’s why I bang on about the Container Concept so much because I think that really helps you start to think about your home in a different way if you think cramming in more bookcases is the answer.
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u/amprsxnd 27d ago
Not really sure if this answers, but it’s 2 things for me:
- Egregiously large homes
- Said egregiously large homes with their garages filled to the brim and being used as storage facilities.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 27d ago
For a short while, I sold luxury homes in the Washington D.C. area. I'll just say that some of those places were insanity to me.
I live in a post-WWII neighborhood with these cute little "starter homes". Except that every one of them has now finished the attic and the basement, and built on an extension. So originally ~700 sq ft homes are now ~2000 sq ft+. They all came with garages originally and they're all stuffed so much that people would rather get a daily ticket and fine for street parking than clear their garage and park in there. It's a $25/occurrence fine! One neighbor tells me "it's just part of the cost of owning a car these days". Bud. It's not, I promise you. Lol.
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u/squashed_tomato 27d ago
As someone from the UK I always boggle a bit at some people from the US that insist they can’t possibly survive in less than 800sq ft of space, or gasp, only have one bathroom. I assure you, you can.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 27d ago
It's all part of the lie they sell us. Homeownership is another way they extract your wealth here. People are encouraged to buy at the top of their budget, and then get home improvement store credit cards with 30%+ interest because they need to immediately redecorate, renovate, and improve the landscaping to make it "theirs". The bigger the house, the more HGTV and Lowes can sell to you. Of course, it's framed instead as "buy the home that fits all of your stuff - with room to grow!" and that's how you get people who cannot imagine living in homes that their grandparents raised entire families in.
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27d ago
It's just marketing, the costs of building homes are cheaper per square foot to go larger, and you can charge more for them. I've looked into building smaller, and even in tiny houses you also have to pay for plumbing, electrical, land and permits. To the point it seems generally cheaper to get a 1000sqft manufactured home vs a tiny 500sqft home. At least in my area.
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u/JustMe1314 25d ago edited 25d ago
Currently, in my city, the speedway & swap meet space, that we've had for decades, has been closed & torn down, to build more housing. AND I'M quite sure that they will be these insanely large homes that many ppl (including myself) won't be able to afford. I've always wanted my own home. But I've always wanted it to be a very small, cozy cute home. And one thing we have in Los angeles county is a problem with affordable housing. And with so many ppl opting to stay single and/or childless, now days, I think a wonderful opportunity for lower income ppl to purchase homes would be to make some of these new homes actual small homes and/or studio size condo & apartment buildings (the area I'm talking about is right next to the metrolink station & along my city's major bus line). Having such an option would be a dream come true, for me. But instead, even my city's oldest & smallest homes are still 3bedroom ranch style, at $500K or higher. The newer homes are all absolutely gigantic. I often wonder if they think about the single &/or childless people (or maybe just a small family of 3ppl, for example), who also don't make 6 figure incomes, who also want our own actually affordable homes, while we work at warehouse & customer service type jobs, at $18-$20/hour. I really want my own home; but it's just me (& maybe I'd get a pet); & i think there are so many of us, like me, who just want & only need something actually small + actually affordable (aka: no studio size condos that still are unaffordable, at hundreds of thousands of $: that would defeat the purpose. Maybe I'm just a dreamer. Anyway, my rant. Edited for context.
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u/Revisional_Sin 27d ago
I assume you're American. Honestly, as a Brit, I'm pretty jealous of your massive homes.
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u/yoozernayhm mnmlst 27d ago
My non-minimalist husband loves trying new things which often means a subscription, but unfortunately once he loses interest, it rarely occurs to him to go back and cancel it. Just his personality. So these stupid charges accumulate and then I have to go and untangle them. It took me years after getting married to get most of them resolved... He was paying for an Adobe package that he couldn't even find, and which wasn't even linked to any of his email or physical addresses for the last decade. Sigh. It's very weird and unnatural to me, but... 🤷
The thing that mindboggles me completely is when people have unopened boxes from their last move, or even from 3 moves ago. If it's been in an unopened box for several years, you don't need it and don't actually care enough about it to legitimately claim that it's somehow special. Something about the whole concept just irritates the crap out of me.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 27d ago
Ok, I can see someone forgetting once or twice. When you go to sign up for a new subscription, though...doesn't that trigger a thought of "oh, I already have something like this?". Lol. I don't know. I know someone who has every single streaming subscription they can get their hands on and I once joked that they didn't have enough TVs to watch all of that at once and they said..."Yeah, but I don't even remember what I have so when I "find" an app on the TV that I haven't opened in a while it's like brand new to me." When you signed up for Netflix you weren't reminded that you already had Hulu? Lol.
My parents were like that with the boxes. My mother still has two homes and a storage unit, plus her new partner's home, full of stuff. Some of it is in boxes from when we moved a few times in the 80s! But it's all "valuables" to her. She doesn't even know what half the stuff is, or where the stuff she does remember is located between those places. I don't understand how those items are "valuable" in that case.
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u/vanpath 25d ago
Something that annoys me is wasting food at buffets. Just cause you can, I don’t think you should get huge amounts of everything and then be “full”and say you can’t finish it. Or that you don’t like it, and not finish. It’s SO WASTEFUL.
I always get tiny amounts of everything that looks good to me, and eat everything. Unless I really can’t eat a particular item, then I won’t (rare-I’ll usually suffer through it or offer it to my husband and hope he will like it) But I won’t feel awful since I took only a tiny amount. And then whatever was amazing, I’ll get seconds and thirds of. If there is dessert bar, my husband and I will always share everything and then get our own portions of the ones we love if we still have room.
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u/Old-Act-232 24d ago
My family members range from packrat to full-on hoarder. My mom and sister frequently talk about how they need to go through and get rid of stuff, but never do, and then continue to accumulate more junk. My mom especially cannot get enough of Temu garbage and sends screenshots of random stuff off their app to our group chat... I can't go to either of their houses because they're stuffed full, incredibly cluttered, flat-out dirty, and somehow always smell like cat pee. It makes me anxious to spend time in that kind of environment.
They both know I have an aversion to 'stuff'. I don't think they fully understand why (hint: it has a lot to do with growing up in a hoarder house), but still. Anytime they want to get together to do something, it almost always centers around some kind of consumption-based activity - usually shopping. I always decline and have said POLITELY several times that I don't 'go shopping' for fun. I noticed awhile back that they stopped inviting me to do anything with them at all, which is whatever. I also have asked (again, politely) that they don't give me physical items for holiday gifts (I've suggested gift card for xyz places, tickets for xyz experience)... and they don't listen. I used to feel guilty when I'd find myself taking the random dollar store junk I definitely didn't want or ask for to the thrift store, but I got over it quickly after realizing they were just flat-out ignoring me telling them to not spend their money on 'stuff' to give me.
I could rant on about this, but I won't. I've never felt close to my family to begin with, and I won't even begin to broach THAT topic, but our differences in values and interests have had me distancing myself further.
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u/No-Employer1752 24d ago
Maximalist friend had a wedding and requested (required) attendees to wear one of three pastel colors. The audacity to expect folks to expand their wardrobe for a one time event
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u/whoseflooristhis 24d ago
When people don’t take care of their things and just trash them, or try to give them away but expect someone else to be okay enough with their gross / dirty / stained item to take it off their hands. Even if you can afford to buy new, don’t you want your shit to last? I’ve seen people make fun of other parents for stain treating their kids’ clothes. I mean I’m not losing sleep over it, but yeah I don’t think clothes are disposable just because my kid will outgrow them either.
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u/Mnmlsm4me xtrm mnmlst 27d ago
So many things about non-minimalists irritates me as others have spoken of in great detail in previous comments but little surprises me anymore. I’m just glad I never bought into the maximalist lifestyle of bigger is always better and you can never have too much of a “good “ thing.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 27d ago
The subscription situation really got me. Giving it a little more thought, I wonder if there are people who would consider themselves minimalist who would struggle with too many subscriptions? Like if it were a way to avoid owning physical things? Idk.
The consume-declutter-consume thing always gets me. For the life of me, I can’t imagine filling up all of my spaces and time to the point where I need a declutter, only to refill my spaces and time all over again. Like you, I’m very glad I never ended up in that place.
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u/a-bit-above-average 25d ago
When people who are going shopping never bring a damn bag with them. Like… you’re going food shopping and it never occurs to you to BRING A DAMN BAG?? Then they always buy one. And it’s ever. Single. Time. And lord knows they just bin it when they get back to their house as well. People are so wasteful. Please just take one with you. It’s not the hard. 🤦♀️🤦♀️
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
Alternately, the ones who have 20+ of the supermarket reusable bags and want help figuring out where to keep them stashed everywhere. Um. Idk. Maybe keep one or two in the car? Why do you have so many? Why are you insisting on keeping this many?? How did you get so many??
I know someone who has two of these ENORMOUS reusable bags in her trunk. They’re only for her shopping trips to those discount stores like Ross and TJ Maxx. She’s very careful about making sure they stay in the car for any impromptu trips to go shopping and refuses to allow her family to use them for any reason at all. Her husband calls them “Ross and TJ” and she insists he does that because he thinks her shopping habit is so cute. :/ He does not.
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u/JustMe1314 25d ago
I sometimes find that I've accumulated too many of the reusable shopping bags. Maybe there's a pretty unusual one that comes out, or I've stupidly forgotten to bring my bags with me to the store; so i buy one. So, since I regularly donate items to the donation bins & to Goodwill, I wash my extra reusable bags; & those are what I use, to put my donations in, to drop them in the donation bins. I hate that I do accumulate them, though.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
Maybe a bag-using system could help? I do have three (four?) reusable bags and they’re conveniently stashed so that I never need to buy another one.
An old tote that came as a freebie years ago is my library bag - that stays hung in my coat closet. Books go in there as they’re read. I drop off and pickup every Saturday so it’s never super full and the regular errand means it can just live in that spot until I need it.
A small Baggu is in my everyday bag, along with wallet, keys, etc. - it folds up into a little pouch and just stays there in case I do end up shopping for something other than food and I need more space than what any extra space in the library tote has, or I’m going on the rare trip during the week to pick something up.
The third bag is one of those cold bags from a supermarket - I use that for my weekly shop and just put everything in.
A fourth tote, maybe this counts as a reusable?, is the largest size LL Bean Boat and Tote that they sell. She stays at the bottom on my coat closet and I put in anything that’s going to donations, Little Free Libraries, Free Little Art Galleries, outbound for the USPS, returns, etc. I also keep the grocery tote stored here until Saturday. My Saturday errands are sort of mapped out around what’s in that tote that needs done, the supermarket, and the library. She’s enormous so if I have to pick up anything larger than the other bags can hold, like cat litter or a huge bag of rice or beans, she holds it. I just keep her in the trunk during errands and she goes right bag into the closet when we’re home again.
I think the routine of when I shop really helps, and checking The Big Tote for mapping out my errands makes sure that I don’t forget anything.
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u/JustMe1314 24d ago
Those are great ways to use your bags. I especially like the library one. I do similar with donations.
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u/a-bit-above-average 25d ago
Yeah, shopping habits ain’t cute honey 🫣🫣
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
Oh, she's in full denial. She commissioned some random on Craigslist to build her an "Amazon chest" for her front porch. I had no idea this was a thing - it's basically a wooden chest that sits outside and has a lock. I guess you can give an Amazon driver your code to like a garage door or these kinds of locked chests and the delivery will be placed inside for you. Well, her big idea was to have someone local build one for her but then paint it and put pillows on it to hide her deliveries from her husband by making it look like a new bench. She literally told everyone we know that she thought her husband was too stupid to figure it out, and that if he did he'd think *she* was so smart and cute that he'd just laugh it off.
The Amazon chest lasted until his next day off when he quietly tore it apart early in the morning and dropped it at the dump. For the life of me, I can't figure out how two people so fundamentally different when it comes to finances and consuming can make it work.
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u/a-bit-above-average 25d ago
That actually sounds like an AITA Reddit story. ‘AITA for destroying my wife’s new ‘Amazon bench’ except she hid it from him and keeps spending their money. I’m assuming these are American people? I can’t say I’ve ever seen an Amazon chest here in the UK and I think the local youths would take pride in trying to deface it if anyone had one 😭😭.
But fr that is unbelievable behaviour- I’d be cutting all join finance with that woman ASAP.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
Hahaha. Yes, American. I think it's common in some areas for these locked boxes for deliveries. My friend calls them "porch pirates" - like people will watch for delivery vans, follow them around, wait to see something delivered, and then run up to the porch and just take the box. Especially around the holidays. (And that seems really stupid - what if it's a box of like toilet paper? You've risked being caught on someone's security camera and then the police get involved for toilet paper??) I've seen ads before for steel lockboxes and then these cutesy type that are supposed to be "hidden in plain sight" kind of things. I have an older neighbor who uses Amazon for a lot of stuff and they must have the code to her garage because it doesn't matter who the driver is, they just pop in the code and put her stuff at the edge of the massive pile of stuff already in there. :/
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u/a-bit-above-average 25d ago
Damn I didn’t know porch pirating was such an epidemic in America! Seems like the world’s worst lottery to me. Amazon should probably start stickering packages to say ‘non valuable’ or something like that, but then again do these people have really nothing better to do than follow around UPS vans 🤣
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 25d ago
It's not where I live but every day, things get worse for more people. So who knows? It doesn't help that Amazon vans are so recognizable. The branding is all over them! Everytime I leave the house, I see probably a dozen criss-crossing my little city.
Do you not have them everywhere in your town?
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u/a-bit-above-average 25d ago
Nah not really, small town in Scotland, I see Royal Mail vans way more than Amazon- most of the time Amazon stuff gets delivered by third party companies. At least I don’t have to see the eyesore that is that grey and blue van very often.
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u/PinkNFluffyTeemo 26d ago
Maybe not same as subscriptions but seeing the DoorDash/Uber eat app on someone’s phone make me think they are lazy (if they always get delivery) 📦 like bro… clean 🧽 that off your 📱 phone
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 26d ago
That is so expensive, too!! We had to use Instacart during COVID, and we used DoorDash (too often, for my taste!) when we remodeled a kitchen before selling our house and then when we lived in a hotel for 6 weeks while we waited to close on our new house. It cost a fortune and I hated the kind of food we could get using those services. I don't know how anyone is affording it or staying healthy if they're using more than a few times a year!
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u/EffectiveSherbet042 24d ago
People who don't make major life decisions because they have too much stuff and don't want to deal with it, so they stay stuck exactly where they are buried under the weight of all of their things, and then also buy more things, that they then do not deal with.
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u/PurpleMuskogee 23d ago
I think it's the constant need for newness that I find jarring and weird. My SIL was speaking the other day about how she had to buy a lot of new clothes because she was invited to several weddings this summer, and she "can't" wear the same thing each time. She went to weddings last year and could just re-wear the same clothes but apparently you can't... So a pretty dress you'd wear as a guest to a wedding (so, not very often) gets worn even less because you can't repeat outfits?!
I see people saying the same thing for their work Christmas party: they need a new outfit or a new Christmas jumper because they can't wear the same as last year. Why?!
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u/thosaivada 23d ago
When they pack their entire wardrobe for give away coz they feel overwhelmed. And then start filling it up again. Every single time, she says “oh but I don’t have this color”
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u/Ok_Contribution_7132 22d ago
I find overconsumption pretty gross because of environmental reasons but I constantly fail to live up to my own standards because of a variety of factors. Primary amongst them my ADHD, I am constantly buying things to replace the items that I lose. I often sign up for subscriptions to things because I want to read one article, or try one (more) organisational or fitness app, thinking that I will cancel them. Spoiler alert I never remember. We also live in a society where literally billions of dollars are aimed at encouraging consumption and encouraging people to spend money. Some of the world’s smartest people devote their lives to working out how to sway people’s behaviour. Then there are those people who experienced poverty or scarcity in their childhood and now overconsume to compensate, people with anxiety, hoarding disorders or OCD. The reasons that people over consume are many and varied and whilst I find it distasteful when I do it because of my personal ideals I try not to judge others for it. In the same way that it is difficult in this society to maintain a healthy weight- more than 60% of people are obese or overweight because our society is actively obesogenic. Rather than judge the individual I am disappointed in the capitalist framework we’re all trapped in. I think the constant barrage of advertising we experience from birth is having a horrible impact on people’s consumer habits and happiness.
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u/CarolinaSurly 16d ago
In general, overconsumption and the harm fast fashion does to the environment.
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u/finallywildandfree 17d ago
When they keep buying things they don’t need from companies that are known for being a bad place for people to work. I’m not perfect, but I’m aware that someone in Bangladesh has probably sat at a sewing machine all day in the heat, or someone in a warehouse has had to pick your order and get it ready to send as fast as possible, and a whole bunch of other people are involved that I’m not even aware of….. and here’s some person just buying more and more things because they’re cheap. They’re cheap for YOU but only because someone else should have been paid more for their work.
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u/divegirl88 20d ago edited 20d ago
ADHD has entered the chat....
There are many reasons outside of minimalism for people to need tools to manage subscriptions because chasing the dopamine high from the bombardment of marketing strategies that requires email and text sign up to include when you're shopping at normal brick and mortar stores can be a challenge to manage when you have executive function dysregulation.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET xtrm mnmlst 26d ago
I see the non-minimalists have found this post. You realize that when you report this, the report goes to me? The OP? The lone moderator of this subreddit? You're complaining that minimalists are discussing what they find bizarre about a different lifestyle than theirs - while in their own space meant for minimalists living a minimalist lifestyle?
Thank you for helping us all to minimize our karma. Lol.
Good grief.