A house full of things tells a lot, even when it remains silent. Bulky wardrobes, drawers that resist, appliances bought with the idea of always using them and then ending up in the corner of good intentions. For decades, well-being has also passed through there: owning, filling, replacing, showing. First the refrigerator, then the washing machine, then the television, then the car, then the telephone, then everything else. Each new object felt like a step up the ladder of familiar security.
Now, however, a less noisy movement can be seen within the budgets of Italian families. Over the last thirty years, the purchase of services has taken on a central role and today absorbs around half of monthly spending, the same share that seventy years ago was allocated to food, drinks and tobacco. It is a dry fact, almost accounting, yet it opens an interesting crack in the way we imagine sustainable consumption. Because a society that spends less on accumulating objects and more on using, accessing, moving, healing, learning, sharing or gaining experience can also become a lighter society. As long as you choose carefully where that expense goes.
From the pantry to the services
In 1953, 52.4% of family spending ended up on food, drinks and tobacco. Almost 80% of the budget was used to cover primary needs: eating, clothing, housing. It was an Italy still close to subsistence, with many families forced to measure well-being starting from the simplest and most urgent things. Today, food and tobacco account for 20.9% of total spending. The rest of the budget has shifted, expanded, changed shape.
This transformation also passes through the material history of the country. In the 1960s the car became the symbol of new well-being: between 1953 and 1963 the number of cars paying road tax increased more than six times, and in 1966 almost one in three families owned at least one. In the same period, televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, devices that change the day and the domestic imagination, entered homes. Consumption, then, had the sound of a running engine and a new appliance in the kitchen.
Then the picture changes again. Since the 1980s, the shares allocated to clothing and footwear have decreased, going from 10.4% in 1980 to 3.7% in 2024. However, the weight of housing, with water, electricity, gas and fuel, is growing: from 15.9% in 1980 to 35.7% in 2024. Within this pressure on fixed expenses, the part of services becomes increasingly visible. Daily life weighs less on the shelves and more on bills, connections, health, culture, mobility, restaurants, activities, home and personal care.
Possession loses centrality
The most obvious revolution is the one we have in our pockets. In 1990, 84% of families had a landline telephone; in 1997 it rose to 92.3%, while one family in five owned at least one cell phone. In 2024 the mobile phone is present in 96.5% of families, while the landline phone drops to 36.4%. In just a few decades we have gone from a stationary device at home to mobile devices that concentrate communication, information, digital services and entire pieces of daily life.
This shift says something very concrete: value, increasingly, lies in access. A subscription, a platform, a mobility service, a repair, a lesson, a visit, a day out, a sporting activity, a dinner, a course, a library, a shared service. The material good remains, of course. The house remains, the telephone remains, the car remains for many families. But the center of consumption has shifted. The isolated object counts less, what it allows you to do counts more.
This is where the environmental angle comes in, the most interesting and also the most delicate. Consumption data tell the story of an economic transformation, without directly measuring the ecological impact of individual choices. A service can be light or heavy, useful or superfluous, shared or energy-intensive. The direction, however, remains important: when a family chooses to use rather than buy, repair rather than replace, share rather than own everything privately, the accumulation model begins to lose ground. Sustainable consumption often arises from this very domestic friction: less stuff to produce, transport, store, throw away.
Sharing starts from the budget
Talking about the circular economy often makes you think of plants, recycling, industrial supply chains, big words. Inside homes, however, circularity also begins with more ordinary decisions. An object used by more people works harder and weighs less per single use. An asset rented for the necessary time avoids purchases that will end up at a standstill. A repair service extends the life of what already exists. A cultural or sporting choice can replace yet another purchase made to compensate for tiredness, boredom, automatism.
The data on the tertiarisation of consumption can be read exactly like this: a door already ajar. If about half of the monthly budget goes to services, then a huge part of daily sustainability comes from how we choose those services. Shared mobility, maintenance, care, training, culture, local experiences, less wasteful catering, closer tourism, activities that use common spaces instead of multiplying private goods. The transition is also played out in these small folds, where the word “environment” often does not even appear.
The issue of inequalities remains. In the South, families spend 20% less than the national average and over a quarter of spending continues to go on food, drinks and tobacco, compared to around 19% in the Centre-North. When the budget is tighter, choosing becomes more difficult. Sustainability cannot be described as a luxury for comfortable families, with the time and money to always choose the best option. It must go through accessible services, convenient repairs, efficient transport, less energy-intensive homes, lively public spaces. Otherwise it remains a beautiful word hanging in other people’s carts.
The European comparison also shows how much the obligatory expenses weigh. In 2020, in Italy, housing, food and transport together absorbed over two thirds of family consumption; in Spain 63%, in France and Germany 56%. French and German families allocated larger shares to recreation, entertainment, culture, catering, accommodation, furniture, household items and services, clothing and footwear. It means that the space to choose varies greatly from country to country, and often also from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Less stuff, more life
The real turning point, then, lies in removing that old air from automatic filling from consumption. Buying remains necessary, often pleasant, sometimes even right. However, the idea that every need must be transformed into an object to be possessed is becoming increasingly fragile. A part of Italian society has already shifted its budget towards services. Now we need to decide what form to give to this shift.
Sustainable consumption does not just involve the product with the green label. They also pass from the empty space left in the house, from one less object bought out of inertia, from a repair chosen before the dumpster, from an experience that does not become a useless souvenir, from a sharing that really works. Less accumulation, more sensible use. Less automatic possession, more real value. The revolution, for once, makes no noise. It’s in a closet that finally closes.
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