Coming face to face with an anxiety trigger

While I had family visiting this summer, I came face to face with a side of myself that I don’t much care for.

I saw clearly that food, and more specifically food waste, are some powerful triggers of anxiety for me. At one point I was shaming my niece for how much ketchup she put on her plate, knowing that if it wasn’t used, we’d have to dispose of it somehow…Yes. You heard me. Ketchup!

What was wonderful about this experience was that we all talked about it: me, my niece, my sister, my father, and my husband. I asked for their help in letting me know when I was showing signs of being triggered, then I would step back and reassess my reactions.

It was important for me to let my niece know that my aggressive reactions were a me problem and not a her problem; that she was simply the unfortunate receiver of my triggered reaction. At one point, I even got a “well done Tante Sam” from my niece for allowing 3-day old waffle leftovers to be thrown out instead of eaten.

I still don’t know where this trigger comes from, or why it’s got such a strong hold on me. I am thankful, however, that I am now aware of it and am getting better at catching it when it occurs so that I am not overwhelmed by it.

Start with one small piece at a time

Waste is indeed an important topic to me. I have been aiming to reduce as much of my personal waste as possible from what I buy to how I dispose of it. What I found to be incredibly important is to transition AT YOUR OWN PACE. As much as I want everyone to STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS NOW, I know very well how forcing a sudden change to deep rooted habits can cause intense anxiety and overwhelm.

So my suggestion is to start with one small piece of waste at a time and once you’ve got a new habit formed, then tackle another, and so on.

I started with ridding my life of plastic wrap, mostly because I never understood how to use it properly, so I was happy to see it disappear from my grocery bill. I first replaced it with containers, and now I’ve added beeswax wraps.

My most recent change has been to rid my home of the final plastic garbage bag, the kitchen garbage! dun-Dun-DUN!

Saying goodbye to plastic garbage bags

It’s been a long process to get to this point. I’ve had to first divert many items from the garbage with recycling and composting habits in order to remove all the liquidy, stinky, juicy items that would otherwise create a mess of a clean up in an un-bagged garbage can.

We had already stopped using bags in all our other garbage cans, including in the bathrooms. I found that there’s less chance of “moist” items ending up in those other cans, especially since I already don’t use pads or tampons, so they were easy transitions.

I want to point out that it’s been important for me to treat the changes as experiments and to get my spouse involved. I’ll try something for a while and then be honest about how it’s working. If it’s just not quite right, I’ll try another approach, or go back to the way it was and move on to something else.

Approach and expectation setting are critical.

So far, the no-bag kitchen garbage has worked well. I simply line the bottom with those pesky flyers we get every week in our mailbox to catch any potential wetness or teeny bits that fall to the bottom. Then, once a week, I take the garbage out to our larger no-bag garbage can in the garage.

Here’s a couple photos of my current garbage and recycling setup.

Do you have a system that works well? How do you manage your anxiety when trying to reduce your waste?