Start by going trough the consumer test (kuluttajatesti) and calculate your own ecological footprint.

1. What do I own?

•  Write down one below the other all the goods that you own, as many as you can, in one minute. (Teacher to time the students).
•  Now write beside every item the reason/justification for owning the mentioned item.
•  Then evaluate the items by giving grades: 5 = really necessary, 4 = somewhat necessary, 3 = not necessary, but makes life easier, 2 = somewhat unnecessary, 1= could do without, unnecessary. 
• Form pairs. Compare your results and discuss your reasoning.
• Compare your results to the “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”. 
•  Draw a suchlike triangle and place the goods you mentioned inside different partitions of the triangle. In case some partition stays empty think what things you own or the people close to you own that you might put in that compartment.
•  Discuss all together different reasons for owning goods.

2. The test of the movie.

In the movie the main character (Petri) put all his stuff in storage and then collected back from the storage one item per day.

• What would be the first item that you would collect from the storage? Second item? Make a list of seven items that you would collect back during one week.
• Compare the items in your list to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Into which category do they belong to?

3. What would you take with you on a deserted island?

• Divide the class into two groups and give them a list of goods (lista tavaroista),
• You are to pick out 10 items from the list to bring with you to the deserted island.
• Finally compare the goods picked out by the groups and rationalize your points of view.
• You can carry on with the assignment by letting each group pick out only 5 items, and by telling the groups to choose 5 shared items.  

4. Vanity of the year

In 1895 a travelling salesman King Camp Gillette got an idea of a replaceable razor blade, something that the buyers had to buy again and again. This kind of purposeful ageing process of a product, which started as a one-man business aiming to guarantee endless sales, became a largely used approach. (Lähde: Maailman tila 2004, s. 131)  

Every year there is  “the most futile gadget of the year” chosen in Finland. See the winner of 2012”: vuoden 2012 turhake.

Here is a list of “futile gadget of the year (turhakkeista)" through all times:

• Have you ever bought any of these things?
• Why are these futile things chosen?
• Invent a completely new product, which could compete for winning “the most futile gadget of the year” title. Invent a name, product description and price.
• The goal of advertisements is to get the product sold. Make up a sensational advertisement of your product and present it to the rest of the class.
•  Finally make a vote for the most unnecessary product.

5. Where can you buy or borrow?

Sometimes you do have to buy something, but money spent on unnecessary goods is wasted and after all you don’t always have to own yourself every item. Look for websites with answers to the examples found here. Justify your choices.

•  If you have time you can ask yourself if you have some extra stuff that could be useful to somebody else. Where can you try to find a new owner to your unnecessary stuff or try to rent the stuff to somebody?