Why 'Underconsumption' is a wild term

And why I'm using 'enoughness' instead

I struggled with what to write about and what to title this. I think that’s been the thesis of my ‘Make-Some-Damn-Content-Ashlee’ journey these days. I’d wake up nearly every morning with that nagging mental note of “you need to make a reel of how the first month of the book has gone” (great, btw). Or “you really need to write and tee up some Substack posts.” And every day, I’d feel at a loss.

I got to launch the book on Live with Kelly & Mark (they’re always so nice) wearing a outfit repeat suit I wore on the show in 2022!

Life lately

Maybe because SO much is going on, that everything feels banal? Does that even make sense? Like, since my last dispatch (using that word makes me feel like I’m in a 80’s buddy-cop movie and I love it), I’ve had a two-city book launch, four television appearances, done over 35 media interviews, and recorded 15 podcasts related to No New Things. I gave two corporate talks for Earth Month and onboarded two sustainability consulting clients. And, because I was feeling lonesome working for myself (not even joking there, but I’ll elaborate on that in another post if y’all are interested), I also started a job (a full-time job, in addition to my existing full-time career as a sustainability person) directing marketing and communications at Chicago’s largest open-access animal shelter. To say life is full is an understatement, but also, everyone is busy. So I always feel like a heel enumerating the trappings of my busy-ness.

Nonetheless, here I am tapping something out because I am trying to 1) make progress on these things, even when the conditions are not perfect, and 2) start treating the things I do every day as useful and potentially valuable to share (even if they’re rote and kinda un-extraordinary to me). So often we require perfect conditions to share something, and as we all know, those conditions never manifest. So, I’m trying to share things that are purposeful without needing the perfection. Can anyone else relate?

I’ve become the old lady of my dreams who peeps heirloom irises in my new neighborhood. And I ain’t mad about it.

Consumerism hijacks purpose

So, let’s talk about purpose for a moment. I’ve been thinking a lot about how consumerism often usurps our purpose in life and also the purposefulness that’s inherent in our everyday activities. As I cover in my book, shopping is never actually about shopping—it’s an activity rife with emotional and logistical subterfuge. We shop to solve problems, to seek meaning, to assuage uncomfortable feelings, to test our self-worth, to insert more extraordinariness and wonder into our lives.

And because of that, shopping for new crap can be a deflection from determining what would actually give our lives enduring purpose. And that purpose isn’t this grand awakening - it often comes in the smallest, most banal tasks and moments. Like, when I’m making some interesting (and actually delish) meal from the odds and ends in my fridge, that’s banal to me but oozing with purpose. The primary purposes being I want to stem food waste and also feed people. Ancillary purposes could be that I get to flex my creativity and also feel really accomplished feeding two birds with one scone (stemming food waste and eating something tasty). What the heck am I going on about here? I think it’s that while I’ve never been much of a content poster, I’m going to stop waiting for the perfect conditions and post the purposeful things, the everyday No New Things-type habits that I may find ho-hum, but y’all may find imbued with purpose and solidarity.

My new apartment has an especially sunny room I like to call ‘The Solarium’ and Skipper has declared imminent domain on it.

Underconsumption vs. Enoughness

This is often called ‘underconsumption,’ which I take a little umbrage with (ah, at last, she gets to the dang point of the title) because ‘under’ conveys we’re not getting our needs met. And let’s face it, most of us are, even though it’s hard out here for many folks.

But because western consumerism is ever-ascending, the limit does not exist, and the goal posts are constantly being moved, we never have a societal baseline of ‘enoughness,’ and thus, never have an individual sense of what’s enough. So, even our definition of ‘overconsumption’ today could very likely become tomorrow’s ‘regular consumption.’ And that’s pretty scary.

I like seeing folks recalibrate and find their own level of normal, or adequate, consumption. That sweet spot where they get their needs met, but they’re not hobbled by an incessant need to consume. And I love finding out the little quirks and occasionally cringey tricks people use to get there. So, I’ll share mine, and I hope you’ll share yours too. Show me your 25-year old car or your imperfect attempt at mending your socks. I mean it when I say I want to see your trash finds and upcycles. Those are so much more fun and interesting IMHO. And through that, we’ll further contribute to the normalization and optics of what enoughness really means.

So, if you like watching me plant green onions that were bound for spoilage or washing and recycling empty beauty products once they’ve d hit pan, you’ll probably dig what’s to come.

Sorry for the foot appearance but these are the chickpeas I reference below that have been SPARKING JOY with every meal prep.

Some things I’m enjoying lately:

• This plastic plant-hanger glow up DIY

• Making these ‘Marry Me’ chickpeas for meal prep (with modifications based on what I already have, of course). When I tell you the sauce is DRINKABLE.

• Set weekly grocery shopping dates with my partner. Yes, I know that sounds lame, but grocery shopping on a Friday or Saturday night is elite. The shops are less crowded (especially if you live in a big city like I do), we have fun strolling the aisles, and then we make something fun and tasty after. This helps us stay on track with having and prepping food for the week, and it turns something banal into something fun.

• Listening to an entire album. I recently inherited my Dad’s prolific record collection from the 1960s-1980s (he’s still alive and well, just didn’t want them taking up storage space) and instead of always defaulting to podcasts or playlists, I’ve been picking an album and listening to the entire thing as intended. Yes, it’s way more analog, and yes, I definitely have determined that one needs to be exceptionally high to enjoy Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire, but it’s been a cool experience that helps me cultivate more patience and appreciation for less on-demand media.

• Setting a timer for stuff I don’t want to do. Look, I’m never going to want to scoop the litterbox or handwash the dishes (no dishwasher, alas), but something about gamifying these tasks by setting a timer helps me to plow through them with some…joy? Or at least less begrudgingly. And then they’re done. It’s working for me, and for that, I’ll list it as something I enjoy.

• Reading the positive reviews of No New Things. For real, it’s only been a month and some of y’all have come in hot with your life-changing results and I’m so thankful to hear them. If you feel so inclined, leaving a nice Amazon review (you don’t have to have purchased the book from there, btw) is a free way to get more eyes on the title, as well. And this isn’t just for me - any author or book you admire I’m sure would appreciate the gesture.