By now you probably know that it’s a bit of a tradition around here to pat ourselves on the back at the end of the year and tell you how good our marketing team and our content was! Just joking, sort of! We do like to compile a list at the end of the year with the best content (in our opinion) that we posted throughout the year. It’s a chance for us to archive things that we’ll want to point people to in the future, but it’s also a chance for you to make sure that you didn’t miss something epic. Again, we joke. And again, we’re only sort-of joking. What articles make our top ten list this year? From January until December, here’s the rundown.
January’s Pick: What’s Stopping You from Un-Cluttering?
We always focus on a New Year’s resolution in January, and in 2015 that resolution was de-cluttering. Of all of the content we produced that month (you can find all of it in our de-cluttering resource hub), we think that this is the most important for you to read. Many people hold onto “stuff” and clutter for an entire host of reasons that aren’t truly the reasons they can’t let go of material things. This article was designed to help you get into the right headspace about clutter and your relationship with it. Read it here.
Honorable Mention: For those without a clutter problem, we think you’ll enjoy this article on What To Do When You Love Somebody Who Loves Clutter.
February’s Pick: Can You Love a Thing?
Truly, this is one of the core questions at the heart of addictive consumerism and the consumer media machine. We took a spin and a twist on standard Valentine’s Day content to talk about whether you can or can’t truly love a thing. We think you already know what we concluded, but you may be surprised by the path we took to get there. We also added to our existing collection of eco-friendly Valentine’s Day advice in our Valentine’s Day Resource Center. But before you go there, explore whether you can really love a thing. Read the article here.
March’s Pick: Talking To Your Child About Celebrity Endorsements
In March, we took a turn into a topic that we don’t visit very often at Postconsumers but that is truly fraught with industrialized consumerism. The topic, obviously, was sports. We focused on eco-friendly sports tips as well as postconsumer ones. Where we think the two merged the best was in this article about talking to kids regarding celebrity endorsements. We wrote it from the perspective of athlete endorsements, but it can be applied nearly anywhere. Particularly for kids, celebrity endorsements can carry a great deal of weight and establish consumer beliefs that last a lifetime. Read the article here.
April’s Pick: Activism vs. Daily Activity: Finding a Balance Between the Two
Postconsumers is always busy in April. Between Earth Day and Arbor Day we tend to change much of our focus to eco-friendly issues. This year, we’re particularly proud of this piece that talks about the need to be both an activist and also to do less “grand” things in order to make impactful changes in your daily life. Activists can’t necessarily change the world. People unwilling to stand up also can’t change the world. The world will change when people embrace a healthy balance of the two and make real shifts while also advocating for much-needed huge changes on a societal level. Read the article here.
May’s Pick: The History of Wedding Gifts: From Cows to China Patterns
May was “going to the chapel” month at Postconsumers. We gave tips on avoiding consumerism and consumer-etiquette issues at weddings as well as a significant amount of eco-friendly wedding advice. You can find all of our wedding content right here. But because our main mission is about finding your idea of enough and educating you about addictive and industrial consumerism, we have to say that our article about how consumerism took over (or in some way always ruled) weddings hit closest to our heart. Weddings have always been about “stuff.” But at least in the past it was necessary “stuff!” Read the article here.
June’s Pick: 50 Things to Upcycle
We only published one article in June, but it was a doozy. We painstakingly scoured the internet for fifty things you can upcycle into great new products without having to spend a fortune on craft supplies (which have their own consumer-elements). In the end, we were even inspired to do many of the projects ourselves. We actually had to split the list out over five articles, but you can navigate to them all easily from this link to the first one. We hope you not only read them and enjoy the many visuals, but also get a little inspired yourself. Read the article here.
July’s Pick: Five Places to Visit Before Climate Change Causes Them to Disappear
We revisited a favorite topic in July – eco-travel. In fact, we realized that we had so much eco-travel content that we created an entire Eco-Travel and Tourism Resource Hub that month. But of all of the articles, tips, stats and advice that we published on eco-travel in July, this article was our favorite. Not only because it really hammers home the dire climate situation on our planet, but also because quite honestly it has some beautiful visuals to go along with it. Read the article here.
August’s Pick: The Parent Trap: Wanting Your Kid to Have “More” Than You Did and the Culture of “More”
In August we launched our section on Postconsumer Parenting, and we were especially proud of this content. We created tips for raising postconsumer children from the grade school years all the way through college. But this special article cuts to the core of the message of consumerism that gets passed down from parent to child. It’s about the culture of more and how many of us can’t break from it because we truly have the best intentions for our children, but “more stuff” is often not actually in their best interests. We think this is a must-read for all parents, honestly. Read the article here.
September’s Pick: Thirty-Seven Marketing Tricks to Be Aware Of: The Online Edition
We spent all of September trying to motivate you about marketing traps and tricks to look out for – thirty-seven of them to be exact! While we think that the content in each of these articles is useful and even insightful, we think that the most relevant and important of the five categories that we divided up is the online edition. So many of our transactions happen online these days that we need to have an understanding of how marketers approach us there. We actually talked to real marketers for this piece, and some things may surprise you. Read the article here.
October’s Pick: Your Favorite Halloween Icons Were Actually Postconsumers
And this one was just good old-fashioned fun. How were Dracula, werewolves, Frankenstein and other Halloween icon favorites actually the original Postconsumers? We think you’ll enjoy this piece – but we also think that it will give you something to think about. Or not. Sometimes it’s okay to write humor for no purpose other than to have some laughs. This one was definitely fun to write. Read the article here.
November’s Pick: What We’re Thankful For This Year: The 2015 Edition
Yes, we could have chosen any of the Black Friday pieces of content. There are many and we like to think that we’ve taken the time to craft them into something truly educational and useful. However, we like to focus on the positive. So in many ways it was a no brainer for us to select our annual thankful list for the featured best-of content from this month. We tried to approach this piece not only with authenticity but also with a sense of humor. We hope you enjoy it. Read the article here.
December’s Pick: Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Postconsumers
Gifts don’t have to be “stuff,” and that’s what we were trying to convey in this piece. We think a stuffed stocking truly is a great part of any holiday, and we even enjoy putting those stockings together for our loved ones. But there are plenty of ways to stuff a postconsumer stocking without buying into the consumer media machine. It may be after Christmas, but you can always get inspired with these ideas for next year. Read the article here.
What were our favorite articles from 2014? See the list here.
What were our favorite articles in 2013? See the list here.
Agree or disagree with this list? Want to tell us what your favorite Postconsumers content of the year was? If so, just tell us about it on one of the social media channels below.
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