Cycle “About the Item” 00: Why Do You Buy What You Buy?
You have items at home you don’t use, right? Some belong to the “just in case” category, others — “it was on sale,” and a few — “it looked nice, I couldn’t resist.” And now they just sit there. Silent. Watching you. Judging.
We live in the age of the great furniture feast. Everywhere you look: “Buy now! Hurry! This will change your life!” — though the only thing that’s really changed since your last purchase is the amount of dust on your shelves and the zeros on your bank card.
The “About the Item” series isn’t a guide on “how to declutter your wardrobe and soul,” nor a call to renounce material things. It’s about survival in a world where items have become a new religion — and we, little by little, its sacrifices. We’ll talk about the philosophy of design, conscious consumption, aesthetics and functionality — and about how to choose items without selling your soul to marketers.
Why Do You Buy Anything at All?
The world of items has become a therapist without a diploma: you’re sad — buy, you’re happy — buy, you’re simply living — why not buy?
Advertising is your new best friend — always nearby, always knowing what you want, often before you do. Its goal isn’t to sell you something useful. Its goal is to sell you a dream, an illusion, a distraction from what you’ve long wanted to change — but haven’t.
Items have become our silent therapy. And only you can break free from this cycle of consumption — not because it’s trendy, but because it’s your life, your space, your money, and your mind.
Why Do You Need to Know All This?
Because the ability to choose is the ability to survive.
At school, you were taught how to solve quadratic equations — but not how to not buy your eighth identical mug. You learned to read “The Kaidash Family” — but not how to avoid living in an apartment that looks like your grandma’s “everything’s useful” room.
Conscious consumption isn’t about throwing everything away and living in a monastery of minimalism.
It’s about not letting items control you.
It’s about the culture of choice, critical thinking, and balance — where aesthetics and functionality are not rivals but allies.
The Basics — or “How Not to Become a Hamster from IKEA”
We’ve gathered four simple yet vital rules — the foundation upon which the “About the Item” series is built. Think of them as your first-aid kit in a world of deceptive design and aesthetics on steroids:
1. An item is just an item — not a friend, not a status, not therapy
Your blender won’t make you a better person. A llama blanket won’t save your relationship. A chair won’t give you self-respect — if it’s not there to begin with.
2. An item must work
It sounds obvious, yet we constantly buy pretty junk — shiny, glossy, but impossible to use. Because it’s “Instagram-worthy.” Because it’s “trendy.”
Ask yourself — how often do you think about functionality before saying “I’ll take it”?
3. An item must be safe
And not just in the sense of not cutting your hand or burning down your house.
It should also not poison you with cheap materials, toxic paints, or false promises — when yet another “must-have trend” turns out to crumble within a month.
4. An item must bring you joy
That doesn’t mean it has to be pink and glittery (though if you want that — go for it). But it should evoke feeling. Your space is your skin. Everything you surround yourself with either heals you — or weighs you down.
You Are Not a Storage Room — You Are a Human Being
Habits form faster than you think.
And if you don’t start seeing items as an extension of yourself, rather than a mask you wear, you’ll keep living in an apartment that’s just a plastic copy of someone else’s ideals.
Conscious consumption isn’t a boring lecture term — it’s self-respect.
Design philosophy isn’t reserved for architects — it’s your daily choice.
How should you choose items? — with thought, with feeling, with refusal of what’s imposed, and with a smile. Because laughing at this absurdity is also a way of living consciously.
We hope this and the following reflections shared in the “About the Item” cycle will help our reader find that sense of balance, meaning, and calm in their own space.
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