Retail Therapy
What the current vogue for #restock and #packwithme videos reveals about our deepest-held anxieties.
Julie Kyles displays an empty container to the camera, then immediately starts filling its 4-by-4 grid.
Finally, she shuts the clear lid, her plastic vitrine complete.
Welcome to world of #restock content.
A staged domestic world made pink and sparkly and excessive, like a Juicy Couture tracksuit come to life.
But shes only one of many creators who work in this space.
But this is only the first half of the job.
Once everything is stocked, its ready to be plucked off the shelves.
Creators who make #restock content often also make its inverse: #packwithme videos.
The Girl Scout maxim always be prepared is stretched to its limit.
Surely,four notebooks is overkill, and the portable printercan be done without?
Its the dream of abundance, of wanting for nothing, of merging retail and domesticity.
Its an illusion not only of control, but of self-sufficiency.
How Did We Get Here?
But the Marthas warnings largely went unheeded, and Americans of all races and classes kept accumulating things.
A few decades later, clutter was deemed a serious enough issue that it might require expert intervention.
It was negotiated around an actual need and your actual stuff.
But Container Store consumerism can go on forever because it’s impermanent.
It can be moved around.
you’re free to endlessly be trying to optimize your closet.
you could endlessly be trying to deal with the more stuff that comes into your life.
Buy, organize, repeat.
Every now and then, counterprogramming emerges.
But inevitably, habits reverted to the mean.
The trick is to obtain hundreds (thousands?)
And the apparent whiplash between the KonMari method and the roided-up Container Store consumerism?
That was handily elided, as Kondo releaseda lineof organization products with the Container Store.
The images the Home Edit shares on the show and on Instagram are arresting.
So many things, so beautifully arranged, so satisfyingly restocked.
First I need the pantry space lol , reads the most-liked comment.
Arguably, the most famous photos come fromKhloe Kardashians pantry.
It looks not like a home, but an ultra-luxe bodega.
Our shelves are buckling under the weight of frictionless home delivery.
Writer Kelly Pendergrast refers to this phenomenon as therise of home-as-warehouse.
Nowadays, Americans dont just aspire to organize their store-bought goods.
They want to bring the store home to #restock, and then #packwithme.
Historically there’s a real difference between retail architecture and home architecture, Lange says.
Trouble is, we are.
She, like many of us, feels domestic order is prerequisite for peace of mind.
Oh, I wasnt sad, the text reads, I just needed an organized fridge.
The relief and excitement is palpable.
Sometimes, though, people are sad.
Its hard to pinpoint what exactly was the pandemic versus the Netflix series.
Now weve got a solution, he said.
You look at the environment right now and its a lot of uncertainty, anxiety, mental health issues.
There is shame in failing to maintain order.
But what of living in a disordered world?
Buy, organize, feel better.
Being able to buy stuff I couldnt buy is insane.
I enjoy it and I dont feel bad about it.
Like prepping, restocking offers a promise of self-reliance.
No visible disorder, nothing to pathologize.
These days, the messages on the societal effects of consumption are mixed.
But for the individual, the pros are obvious and the cons remote.
And you never know when youll need that portable printer.
