Reading Restraint

What "underconsumption core" and the KonMari method reveal about buying less

BACKGROUND & QUESTION

In 2024, "underconsumption core" emerged as a TikTok trend: creators filming themselves using up half-empty lotion bottles or wearing secondhand clothes for years, explicitly positioned against influencer culture's usual encouragement to buy more. It sits alongside a longer lineage of "buying less" discourse and popular minimalism — Marie Kondo's KonMari method, Cal Newport's "digital minimalism" — and a sharp critique of that lineage from writers like Jia Tolentino, who argues minimalism-as-marketed quietly assumes an affluent audience and blames the individual rather than the system for overconsumption. The question for a brand or strategy team: when a customer performs "buying less," what are they actually signaling, and is it the same thing every time?

METHOD

A reading of "underconsumption core" content and its press coverage (New York Times, The Guardian), Marie Kondo's KonMari method and its media reception, and Cal Newport's digital minimalism, set against critical commentary — principally Tolentino's essay on minimalism as a class-blind "gospel" — and classical social theory on status and consumption (David Riesman's "other-directed" personality).

THREE THEMES

  1. "Buying less" is often still an aesthetic performance, not a rejection of aesthetics

    Underconsumption-core videos follow a recognizable visual format — a specific song, a particular way of filming a half-used product — that continues the pandemic-era pursuit of "an aesthetically pleasing life" rather than breaking from it. It is a stylistic continuation of influencer culture as much as a repudiation of it, which matters for how sincerely a brand should take any given instance of "buying less" content.

  2. Minimalism-as-marketed carries an unresolved class critique

    Tolentino's critique — that popular minimalism treats overconsumption as a personal failing rather than a symptom of a system built on overproduction, and implicitly assumes its audience can already afford to buy less — is a live reputational risk for any brand adopting "buy less" messaging without engaging it. A brand that markets restraint to an audience that reads that critique will be tested on whether the messaging holds up.

  3. Ritual and animistic language is a proven vocabulary for object-care messaging

    Marie Kondo's method thanks and "greets" possessions, treating objects as things owed care and dignity rather than mere property to be optimized. This vocabulary has already proven itself capable of mainstream, global commercial success (millions of books sold, two Netflix series) — it is a validated register for brands wanting to talk about durability and care without falling into generic sustainability language.

TWO PERSONAS

*Drawn from real commentary and critique discussed in the book, not composite consumer personas.

The Aesthetic Restrainer

Performs “buying less” as a curated identity

WHAT DEFINES THEM Films and posts about using up what they already own, in a recognizable, stylized format—restraint presented as a lifestyle aesthetic.

WHAT EARNS TRUST Content and messaging that fits the existing visual and tonal grammar of the trend, rather than an overt sales pitch.

BRAND PROVOCATION Could a brand contribute genuinely useful "use it up" content rather than a disguised product placement inside the trend?

The Structural Skeptic

Reads “buy less” messaging as class-blind unless proven otherwise

WHAT DEFINES THEM Aware of the critique that popular minimalism assumes affluence and blames individuals rather than the system for overproduction.

WHAT EARNS TRUST A brand that acknowledges its own role in overproduction, rather than only asking customers to consume more responsibly.

BRAND PROVOCATION Where could a brand's own production practices, not just customer messaging, be the actual proof point?

What This Could Mean for a Brand or Insight Team

  1. Treat "buying less" content as at least two distinct audiences with different expectations — an aesthetic-performance audience and a structural-critique audience — rather than one undifferentiated "conscious consumer" segment.

  2. Before adopting "buy less" or minimalism messaging, pressure-test it against the class-blindness critique it will likely be read against.

  3. Consider object-care and ritual language (in the KonMari register) as an alternative to generic sustainability copy — it has a track record of landing at genuine mass-market scale.

  4. Look at what a brand's own production and supply practices say, not only its customer-facing messaging — this audience is primed to notice the gap.