Confronting Consumerism and “Stuffocation”

Perceiving the Enormity of Our Stuff

Walk the aisles of Walmart, Target or any major retailer, and you might find yourself overwhelmed by their gargantuan inventories of stuff.

I know I started to—especially after writing The Unrealized Impacts of Disposable Stuff.

Choice upon choice, resource upon resource, flashy promise upon flashy promise. The clamor of consumerism is an ever-drumming tune that keeps our billboards flashing and our televisions singing. “Buy this!” they squawk. “Try that! Seize our annual deal! Get ’em before they’re gone!”

In modern times, there’s seldom an escape of being sold to. Sometimes, the noise and the visuals and the hoopla of indulgence feel endless.

Double-Edged Awareness

As members of globalized, consumer-driven societies, the buy/waste/repeat cycle is one we’re blindly accustomed to (and conditioned by). Gaining insight into its negative impacts on the environment—and the global community—can starkly change our perspective.

Plastic, for example, is a particularly ubiquitous and troublesome material. In retail storefronts, it’s rare to find a product that hasn’t been wrapped in at least one layer of packaging. Often, there is even more than one! (Plus zip ties, tapes, films… the list goes on.) Many produce departments are similarly plagued, offering individually-wrapped bell peppers and pre-sliced vegetables in Styrofoam trays.

Despite its popularity, plastic has horrific social and environmental implications. Its extraction, refinement and disposal threaten not only marginalized communities, but also the world’s water, air and ground systems—which ultimately affects all of us.

On the positive end, as our awareness builds, we are thus inspired to be more conscientious as consumers. We might look to reduce our impact by supporting local and small-scale operations, reusing our stuff more often, or buying fewer plastics in general.

However, our awareness is not without feeling. Once our understanding of these tenuous systems and our role within them has awakened, we might also develop climate fatigue.

The stuff lining shelves can quickly become triggers for suffering. Or, as I’ll later call it, s(t)uffering.

Amassing and Storing Stuff

Beyond the market aisles and displays are our houses, which have been growing steadily bigger—and not necessarily more functional.

In competitive consumerist societies, there is an intense favoritism of single-family home ownership. The United States, for example, has become a world leader in square footage. Hence, there is an increasing number of suburbs with unoriginal homes that are basically mini-mansions (given their person-to-living-space ratios).

While the “prestige” of a massive home is enticing, it would be wise to consider how that superfluous square footage is being used. But peek behind any closet, basement, or garage door, and behold the answer! Most of the extra space is used for the storage of stuff. And once we run out of space in our homes, that stuff gets outsourced to storage units—another industry America champions. 

The Double Edge of Awakening

“Stuff.” It’s a horrendously plain word—only five letters long—and yet it bodes an uncomfortable amount of weight.

We are constantly bombarded by environmentally and socially challenging messages. Advertisements on the television box, billboards, and social media promote an ever-expanding list of products. Seeing their fated obsolescence, these promises will start to exhaust the awakening consumer.

To add to the old adage: ignorance is bliss, and awareness can be cumbersome. 

Facing the massive, global burden of the West’s waste culture feels like standing at the base of a tsunami wave. Each of us is utterly diminutive in the grand scheme, so fixing the problem on an individual scale seems as fruitless as using an umbrella to protect oneself from the wave’s inevitable collapse. 

But thankfully, the idea that one person can only have a minuscule impact on the planet is a fallacy.

Reallocating Action and Intention

Every action is an outward flow of intention… and the energy behind that intention reverberates well beyond the person it originated from.

A single raindrop can inspire an entire pond to move. Similarly, the actions of an individual person influences the attitudes of their peers—and the world’s. 

Here’s an illustration.

> A person called Hugh decides he’s sick of feeling "stuffocated." 
> Going through his home, Hugh gathers every bit of unnecessary stuff he’s accumulated. 
> Hugh sorts through what is still functional, recycles/composts/landfills what is not, and donates the rest to a nonprofit. 
> Within a few days, the stuff makes its way up front from the donation area. 
> A patron searching for the perfect something finds one of Hugh's trinkets and gives it a second life. 

Now, our “stuffocated” friend is freed of his materialistic and mental burdens. And the next person found a piece that 1) was discounted from retail and 2) used zero new resources!

It’s simple to see how the effects of one man’s decision to de-clutter compounded. His own simplification ignited a cycle of repurposing—which benefited not only an individual wallet, but also the environment at large.

Decisions for a Less-Stuffed Future

The nature of these considerations goes beyond one blog post, but at least this message rings true. As individual manifestations of life, we can only captain our own actions and reactions. If we succumb to the degree of stuff humanity has accumulated, then we’ll be paralyzed with fear and despair.

There is an alternative, though; one where we are liberated from s(t)uffocation. We can be empowered to continue working for collective action that heals the current situation. And hopefully, we can do so without numbing ourselves with complacency and compassion fade.

The future is a fiction—an entity we’ll never truly reach, because every new moment is simply the present. Thus, the reality of a brighter, cleaner, greener tomorrow is built by an aggregation of individuals making informed decisions now. 

To be clear, the wellness of the future doesn’t depend solely upon any one of us. But if we each commit to reducing our ecological impact and expanding our awareness, then we’re well on our way to doing our part.

Continuous virtue in mind, heart, and being is your responsibility; the totality of the planet’s frenzy is not.

Remembering this is how to evade s(t)uffering and establish peace, despite consumerism’s tsunami wave being oppressively tall.

⋆.ೃ࿔ :･⚝⭑

Revitalized from The New Leaf Project, a previous blog. Originally posted on 15 June 2022.