I am sure that small waste disposal is a major concern

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Being human is a good life hack. I love the part of Google’s description that refers to life hacking as a way to “reduce clutter,” because that’s exactly how I find myself writing about the mental benefits of keeping my home as clutter-free as possible.

That mental boost doesn’t just come from feeling good about helping the environment – being more natural at home is one of the habits that always helps me feel less stressed about life. Like many other adults, my mood, emotional state, and ability to sleep are closely related to the length of my to-do list. Living very low waste reduces the amount of household chores I need to worry about, making me feel a little more organized.

So, yes, while I find deep comfort in reducing my plastic and food waste for the sake of the planet, I also find comfort in less trash to put out, fewer bad smells, and less clutter overall. Those are all visible results of simple, environmentally friendly and stress-relieving changes to my daily routine. If the usual internet hacks for stress and anxiety haven’t worked for you, let me explain how creating less junk has helped me protect my peace.

The psychology of pure, empty space, but applied to garbage

I firmly believe that household waste generation and my anxiety level are positively correlated. The physical chaos of an overflowing bag, the tedious walk to the litter box, the waste of it all – it’s amazing. So I’ve implemented a few simple habit changes over the years that have limited my waste output by a long shot, and that control has done wonders to keep me sane on the go.

You’ve probably heard of the connection between physical clutter and mental clutter. Maybe you’ve read an article (or watched TikTok) about it or discovered that you’re actually more productive when your desk is tidy. While many references to this connection talk about your subconscious reaction to visible clutter, my mind counts hidden trash as clutter, even on top of the trash can that sits behind the closet door.

Just the thought of gallons of nasty, sticky, smelly garbage piling up in my kitchen sounds as disorganized and messy as the porcelain dishes stacked in the sink.

Imagine how rare it would be to take out the trash if you didn’t throw away food.

My Mill food recycling bin has put a huge dent in the amount of waste that happens in my apartment, and I can’t imagine living without it. It’s basically the size of a regular kitchen trash can, and has a presser foot.

Instead of putting plate scraps, food preparation scraps, or old scraps directly in the trash, almost any food can be thrown into the Mill instead. Every night, before any meat or milk or sour spinach starts to stink up the place, the Mill dehydrates and mixes the feed into a soil-like consistency, which I then send back to the Mill to be reused as chicken feed.

Mill’s large filter traps more odors than any expensive odor bag.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

That’s 246 pounds of food per year – think how many bags of trash we’ve saved.
Credit: Screenshot / Machine

Without eating in moderation, my family of three doesn’t fit into one garbage bag a week. Garbage work is so in demand that no one dreads it, mostly because it’s not that hard of a job, either – no food means no mysterious juice dripping from the bag into your sock.

Pre-Mill, I first heard of the concept of combining household food waste with Lomi. Most of those electric countertop composters don’t create actual “compost”, but rather dry and grind your food scraps to half their original size. The result is a small bucket of “dirt” that won’t swell if it sits in your trash for a few days, and won’t release much methane into the landfill. Any of these countertop gadgets are a game changer if you don’t have a garbage disposal.

Plastic waste has been another leading source of the constant pit in my stomach since 2018, when I learned that most plastics are not actually recyclable.

All the empty detergent bottles and laundry detergent jars that filled most of the space in my bin were basically set to rot for 500 years. Good! For many of us who don’t have curbside recycling, putting out recycling involves extra walking or driving. For me, it’s the dreaded elevator ride downstairs – so I always try to extend the life of my recycling bin before I go down there again. Switching from plastic to paper bags that can be folded or flattened creates more room to shove things.

A low-waste lifestyle requires less cluttered storage at home

Pretty much my entire cleaning routine has been low-waste, which plays as much of a role in organizing storage space as it does in reducing my trash. And organizing at home plays an important role in my daily stress level.

There aren’t a million plastic spray bottles littering the cabinet under my sink. Refills for the multi-surface cleaning spray come in the form of a small Blueland tablet dissolved in the same glass bottle. My dissolvable laundry detergent strips come in a thin cardboard envelope, which is easier to remove than a large, glassy washing machine jug. Dishwasher-safe silicone lids have completely replaced plastic wrap, and Swedish cloths (reusable paper towels that can go in the dishwasher) have freed my closet from an endless tower of paper towel rolls.

Laundry sheets, dishwashing pods, and a box of dish soap are easy to store in an apartment with limited space.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

Don’t let me catch you using a Ziploc bag like Tupperware after this.
Credit: Stasher

My parents have also had a positive experience with reducing their waste minimization journey. Dad didn’t even have to ride the factory bottled water case in the garage as they simply switched to a good faucet filter. My mom took my robot vacuum and mop advice and freed up precious shelf space that was home to boxes of Swiffer WetJet refill pads. Seriously, don’t underestimate the cushioning power of structure within your home storage setup.

I don’t think enough people realize that switching to low-waste habits can mean that they won’t have to keep a lot of household items around all the time. There’s serious freedom in cutting your reliance on disposables, and a shorter (and cheaper) grocery list.

Disposable paper towels or Ziploc bags are not permanent items on the grocery list as we have stopped relying on disposable versions of both. If you’re not burning through multiple garbage bags every week, you rarely feel the anger of realizing you’re out of new bags. Yes, some low-waste replacements cost a little up front, but their reusability pays for itself within a few months.

I’m a maximalist when it comes to decorating, but I’m a minimalist when it comes to holding onto junk

The mental weight of things you are real. Not “stuff” in the high-chic decorating sense, but “stuff” as in all the junkies living in your home and your unoccupied mind. You don’t know what to do with it, so you keep it (and feel its dark presence stirring every time you’re in that room). That extreme stress loop makes me unable to fully relax at home for long periods of time. But after being in mini-garbage mode in my kitchen for a few years, the household garbage disposal came into its own.

Suddenly, I was inspired to clean out the drawers, shelves, and bins under the beds that had accumulated worrying levels of trash – and then I sat down and researched how to get rid of that mess. Turns out there are ridiculously easy ways to recycle broken phone chargers, dried pens, dead batteries, old glasses, and a lot of other random stuff that I’ve been holding on to just because I’d feel bad about sending them to the landfill.

For unwanted items with more value, like clothes or old AirPods or decorations that are no longer my favorite, online resale apps have become the backbone of reducing my messy home restlessness. You’d be shocked at the range of things buyers are willing to take off your hands. If there was any level of empathic attachment, I can breathe a little easier knowing that the item is getting a second life instead of gathering dust on an overflowing Goodwill shelf.

I have found that keeping an empty space is not a challenge if you have clear ways of disposing of unwanted items. Now I have a strong idea of ​​what can be recycled out there, even the hard to recycle stuff, and what can be sold on eBay.

When I’m not sure, my reflex is now to research what to do with it instead of shoving it in the procrasti-clutter drawer. Likewise, I’ve been able to keep up with a weekly fridge cleaning routine because I can throw anything into my Mill bin. I no longer return expired items because they will smell like garbage, and old leftovers no longer pile up to the point where new groceries can’t go in.

Now that my brain has been rewired to take a throwaway approach in most situations, I’ve gotten pretty good at finding the little things in the first place. When I’m on the phone about a purchase, the first question I ask myself is, “Will this hurt a year from now?” Will I really be happy with this thing for longer than a few months? Is it high quality enough to last? Can I get it manually on Depop? While I can’t deny the importance of treating yourself to something sweet just because, shopping on purpose is such a cheap way to stop a spinning mind.