Not as a business idea. As a personal question that kept coming back.
It started with a coat. A very good coat, purchased after a long time of deliberation, worn twice, and then left hanging near the door for three years.
Not because the coat was wrong. It was exactly what had been wanted. But somewhere between wanting it and owning it, the reason for wanting it had quietly disappeared.
That observation sat around for a while. Then it started appearing in other places. A kitchen gadget used once. A book bought because of how it looked on the shelf. A gym membership that represented an intention rather than a habit.
The question that emerged was not "how do I own less?" It was something more interesting: "why do I keep acquiring things that don't serve me?"
That question led to reading. To conversations. To a year of keeping a simple log of every purchase and what happened to it afterward. The patterns that emerged were not flattering, but they were genuinely illuminating.
Consumption, it turned out, is rarely about the thing being purchased. It is almost always about something else. Status, anxiety, boredom, hope, the desire to become a slightly different version of yourself. Understanding that changes everything.
The first version of what became Doyuzu was not a course at all. It was a document. A set of questions and exercises shared with a small group of friends who had expressed similar frustrations.
Their responses were interesting. Not because the exercises were clever, but because the act of slowing down and looking honestly at their own patterns turned out to be genuinely useful. Several of them reported changes not just in what they bought, but in how they felt about what they already owned.
That document went through several iterations. It became longer, then shorter, then more structured. Eventually it became a course.
Łódź has its own relationship with accumulation and its aftermath. A city built on textile industry, on production and trade, it carries that history visibly. There is something fitting about developing a course on conscious consumption here.
The city also has a strong culture of thoughtful, independent creative work. That environment shaped how Doyuzu was built: carefully, without rushing, with attention to what is actually needed rather than what looks impressive.
The course is now available online and in person. It is still built around the same core insight from that first document: you cannot change your relationship with things until you understand what that relationship actually is.