If you were one to get caught in the pool of people rigorously following the Marie Kondo method of organising, you might not like this style of organisation. The viral wave of restocking videos on the internet may seem to be the opposite of the decluttering style of Marie Kondo’s organisation styles but there are multiple takers for these kinds of videos too.
The virality of these restocking videos started on TikTok but as the short-form video app is banned in India, these videos ended up on our Instagram feeds sometime around the lockdown. Soon, no one knew when these videos gradually became a genre by themselves where people recorded themselves unpacking their groceries, organising them in their homes, and emptying them in aesthetic-looking containers.
Restocking, but make it aesthetic
My first introduction to restocking videos during the pandemic was people in the West emptying their groceries—different kinds of pasta, coffee, sugar, veggies, eggs, milk, snacks, chocolates, drinks, and more. These videos also go beyond groceries such as laundry essentials, detergent pellets, bathroom essentials, stationery, and more. These videos may seem a bit boring but what makes them stand apart is the ASMR sound of the pulses hitting the container as they are emptied, the rustling of wrappers, the ‘glug-ing’ of milk or juice in transparent glass bottles, or even the pop of shutting a container.
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For the ones who don’t know, ASMR or an Automated Sensory Meridian Response is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves to the back of the neck and upper spine. It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attention control.
Some of the stimuli that can trigger ASMR include listening to a softly spoken or whispering voice, listening to repetitive sounds resulting from someone engaging in a mundane task, such as turning the pages of a book, listening to tapping typically with one’s nails onto hard surfaces, watching somebody attentively execute a mundane task, such as prepping food, listening to “crinkly” items such as paper, and more.
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These restocking videos incorporate most of the stimuli that trigger ASMR. From watching someone do the mundane task of organising and stocking up groceries and essentials to the repetitive sound of the containers, the crinkling of wrappers, and more.
On a rewatching spree
These fridge, kitchen, laundry, and stationery supplies slowly turned into watching women with well-manicured nails make different shapes of ice with fruit, glitter, and coloured water. Think pink-coloured flowers, lemon and mint-infused ice, a variety of coffee-flavoured ice, and more.
As much as I am guilty of admitting it, watching these restocking videos slowly turned into an obsession. I found myself following #restocking and #asmr for my daily dose of “satisfying content.” I didn’t even realise when I started sharing these reels with my friends, even without checking if this was something they liked. After what I would like to consider a significant amount of trial and error, I found a friend—a partner in crime—who shares my love for restocking videos and even the ones where people make fancy ice.
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Watching these videos calmed me, perhaps it was the effect of ASMR sound that had a soothing effect on an already stressed mind. Or perhaps, it made my inner cleanliness freak happy to see someone who tidied up their house. It also gave me tips on how I could organise my house or my room if I ever had those specific kinds of products. Or maybe it just convinced me to shop for organisers or those mini storage bottles with labels where I could store my masalas. While I was successful in controlling myself from any of these impulse purchases, I did give and buy two different kinds of ice cube trays—one that made mini ice spheres and the other was a mini heart-shaped tray. While this shopping spree did make me feel happy, it gave me a sense of hope, albeit wrong, that I too, could be a content creator making restocking videos in this ASMR video genre.
Almost three years on, this obsession for restocking videos, and ice-making ones only seems to be increasing. It is the few seconds of calmness in this otherwise chaotic life and this is the kind of obsession I’m okay with.
Professionally decoding this trend
Mumbai-based psychologist Purvi Shah, decodes this obsession. “You know the feeling when you are in a supermarket with aisles full of the same product from different brands?” she questions. “People often go to buy one thing but end up buying four or more things,” she explains. This is because the products have a packaging which is not only colourful but also very appealing, luring the customers to buy as much as well.
A similar correlation can be made to these videos as well. “Majorly with these restocking videos,” starts Shah, “it is more about the colour and packaging so your brain wants to have it.” She also terms this to be a marketing gimmick where the labels and packaging are strategically made more appealing.
While this may have worked from a brand’s perspective, the packaging never attracted me. It was the sound that had me hooked. “Sound is very stimulating,” agrees Shah as she talks about the excessive use of ASMR in these kinds of restocking videos. “Just by listening to the sound, it feels that something is giving the person a sense of closure, making them good,” she explains. It is the constant rhythmic sound that makes the person want to watch these restocking videos even more. “It’s more like therapy,” she explains, and thus has a calming effect on people after they watch these videos. As someone who is hooked on restocking videos for the ASMR, this explanation made sense.
Photos: Canva, Unsplash
In terms of looking at these videos from an organising perspective, Shah says, “A lot of us are not very organised and want to be more organised. So when we see these videos, in our head, we feel good that we also have finished the task.” These videos can also act as a way to incorporate the whole idea of “Amazon finds” where the audience can see cool things to use to make organisation and restocking better and more aesthetic, just like in videos.
How to curb this obsession? I asked Shah because the more you see, the more your Instagram algorithm is tuned to show similar content. “Just like anything else, you need to limit your scrolling and have a cap on how many images you want to see,” she concludes.
