Consumption Journal! (Kaley McKean)

It was a pretty big surprise to take a look at all the things I consume during a day of doing nothing but sitting around at home. And looking over my list now I can think of a handful of things that I used that are so ingrained into my daily life that it didn't even occur to me to write them down! Like my cellphone, or the refrigerator, or my bedroom door.

I split things up into the typical category of essential vs. non-essential, which was harder than I expected. There are so many things that, while not vital to my survival, are vital to my life as I know it. Without things like my phone and computer I would not be able to communicate efficiently - or even make this blog post! Without art supplies I wouldn't be able to succeed as a student and develop a career. Does that make these things essential? Anyway, I tried to narrow it down to things that were actually necessary for me to live, but it was tough.So obviously most of the things I use in a day are non-essential, but it's really not as simple as that, as I'm sure you all know! Still, there is a lot I could cut out if I had to.

Another way I broke things up was into Reusable vs. Non-reusable. I was pleased to see that most of the things I use are reusable. Of course, there's not a lot of things that are reusable forever, so I only applied that label to things that I thought would last me for more than 6 months or so. Interestingly a lot of the reusable items, like furniture, dishes, or clothing, were purchased second-hand or received as hand-me-downs. They're being re-reused! Whereas all the non-reusable things, of course, had to be purchased new. Most reusable items were also things that were shared with my roommate.