Alissa Williams is the director of a small public library in central Illinois, and she came into our conversation with a clear picture of everything in her stash: where it lives, what it is, and when she is done with it. In our conversation Alissa maps how products come into her creative life, how she decides what to keep working with, and why the friction of online shopping has quietly done more for her stash-busting goals than any deliberate plan. She made zero new purchases in 2026 before ...