Going without Shopping Bags

A month ago, on my birthday, I felt blah. I just had this overwhelming feeling that so much of my time in the past few years hadn’t been spent in meaningful ways that worked to support my long-term goals or positively affect the world around me. As someone who performs well under peer-pressure, I decided to make a plan to have a public goal every 30 days. Should I fall short of my goal I must give back – either to someone cheering on my efforts or some other noble cause.

Last month I posted on Facebook my first #BeBetterGoal:

My #BeBetterGoal from Nov22-Dec22 was to: Avoid using ALL external packaging when shopping. This means all paper or plastic bags or boxes that accompany items bought either in person or online. Geez you say? Easy Peasy you say? Hey, the great thing about the #BeBetterGoal is that as long as it’s a goal that’s important TO YOU and makes you feel even a teeny bit better by it meets the criteria!

I made the promise to donate to a charity $10 for EVERY bag/box utilized in any of my purchases. Though I only selected one recipient for this particular challenge, I plan on writing a separate post on all the awesome causes you guys suggested. I will likely use these in future challenges so stay tuned!

Why Shopping Bags?

To some this may have seemed like an obscure challenge. I mean big deal… just BYOB (bring your own bag)… not much of a challenge, right? There are some people, Like Lauren Singer, who actually live a “Zero Waste” lifestyle which seems to put my modest goal to shame. But to me it would mean progress.

I started buying Amazon stock before most of my peers placed their first Amazon.com order. Sadly I sold it ages ago but luckily it’s still cushioning the stock portfolios of those who heeded my advice. Having a mild case of shopping-specific claustrophobia I marveled at the ease of ordering everything from toothpaste to plants to disco balls. I knew it was a matter of time before people recognized the time & stress savings of online shopping.

For nearly 15 years I’d been receiving packages several times a week. Living in Manhattan, NY made this easy. Everything from sushi to clothes to groceries could be delivered there far before this became the norm nationwide. Going downstairs to my valet was like a little mini Christmas Day. My forgetfulness would allow me to look at new packages as if Santa himself picked them out. I would take them upstairs and open each one with glee. “Santa you got me those LuluLemon yoga pants? You shouldn’t have!” I’d unpack all the boxes and skip down the hall to the room dedicated to trash & recyclables and just leave all my boxes and packing stuff there.

A few years ago I transitioned to living in Florida. Hey, I’m an old soul & I’ve always been partial to sunshine. The sheer number of boxes I got weekly started to give me pause. Coming home from the grocery store after a big haul gave me pause. There was SO much stuff. So many bags, so many boxes, so much plastic and peanuts and styrofoam! Not just being able to instantly shove it all in a detached area opened my eyes to the sheer gluttony of it all. Who did I think I was to single-handedly be responsible for this much stuff being produced, sent to me and ending up who knows where? I felt like I was being immensely disrespectful to the earth God gave me. I knew I could #bebetter.

So What Happened?

In the first couple days of my #BeBetterGoal challenge to myself I failed. Earlier that day I had stuffed a few plastic bags in the back of the car seat along with a Trader Joe’s cooler bag. Having no recollection of this (or apparently the challenge) I went into the dollar store and proceeded to buy 9 items. The cashier dutifully bagged them and I came home not realizing my mistake until pulling up to the driveway. ZING – I already owed $10 to the challenge for my $9 dollar store haul. Guess in my case it was the $2 store!

After that mix up I was on a mission to be more mindful. I loaded the car with a variety of bags so it would be easy to shop without forgetting. Each time I successfully used my own bag in a store I felt a little ping of pride in my decision. I’d typically tell the cashier “I brought my own bag” or “I don’t need a bag” followed by “Trying to save the planet”. More often than not the cashier appreciated my efforts or chimed in positively about reducing waste. Often times the bags I brought with me were more convenient and easier to carry. I now put my groceries in cooler bags which kept them cold longer.

My next fumble was while throwing my boyfriend a surprise party. I had a two hour window to get a bunch of stuff which wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a well-timed Shipt delivery. So I incurred three bags. It was still early in the challenge and I started to wonder if David’s concerns were legit:

Being December with Christmas around the corner, it was so hard not to simply order things online or via Shipt. I made myself go to stores, armed with my variety of bags. I think this actually helped me save money and see things I wouldn’t have thought to add to my shopping cart. There were a few times where I wanted to buy something online and David suggested I just send it to him to buy so we could circumvent the system. I really wanted to do this right and not “cheat” so I stuck to my guns and insisted on not buying anything unnecessary online. A week later I broke down after my longest Amazon haitus in years and ordered a couple things. Two packages would bring my total to 6 bags used.

I started to think outside the box about how to get my trusty Shipt deliveries as I cook daily it’s actually been cold outside here lately. A couple times I placed an order but instructed the shopper to utilize bags or containers that I had purchased as part of my order. They were happy to oblige and I felt clever for my work-around.

Yesterday, when thinking about drafting this blog post I threw a shipt order together with a couple bottles of wine and a couple storage containers. It was my intention to tell the shopper to just put the wine in the container but DOH I forgot and ended up receiving another bag, running my tally up to $70.

So, as promised, $70 is going to charity. The charity I selected, as suggested by Tony Burns, is ASFP.org: The American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. During these times when a lot more people are isolated than usual, this organization does a great job of fostering connection and providing much needed mental health resources to people and communities.

This challenge got me excited. I look forward to future challenges and liked the idea so much I bought the website: BeBetterGoal.com and hope to get the #BeBetterGoal hashtag trending. It’s a work in progress but stay tuned to follow my 30-day goals or share with us what #BeBetterGoal you’re working on this month!

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