Reduce waste and create easy habits of reusing for the whole family!

Recently I took a field trip to a local garbage dump with my son's TK class, and apart from the smell and sheer size of the garbage piles, I found it rather inspiring. There were a lot of teachable moments for the kids as well.

So you may now be wondering what could I possibly have found inspiring about a pile of garbage and recycling? My mind instantly was on the children I was watching, who were getting a bit emotional over the things they saw in the garbage pile.

We saw photo albums, kids books, clothes, cute pillows and toys, furniture, potted plants, paintings, shoes, and all sorts of useful things.

Even though it was a group of 4-5 year olds they were all shocked at the things people consider garbage.

So it got me wondering - what are ways we can reduce waste and create easy habits of reusing for the whole family?

It is said on average a single person generates 5 pounds of trash a day - across the globe you can imagine how quickly this adds up, and what a drain on resources our constant consumption and sequential throwing out has on Earth. Everything we buy ends up somewhere at some point, and having kids usually makes that consumption skyrocket.

If you really stop to think about it, everything we need already exists! However, our economy is built on new and novel items. Companies are always reinventing things to keep people coming back to their products, and buying or wanting new things isn't inherently bad. But striking a balance between what we already have and what we want or need is something we can all be improving and passing down to our kids.

I thought of working up a quick guide for ways to keep kids engaged in the conversation, and teaching them around the home how to reuse and love what we already have. If you are anything like me, I have a 4 year old whose passions shift with the wind, and he is constantly wanting new outfits and toys to match those passions, so it is a lesson we relearn daily.

Ten easy ways to get into you and the family into the habit of reusing:

1. Thrift - We started the year with a pledge that 90% of the clothes we buy will be thrifted in 2026. Where I live in Santa Cruz there are a few kids thrift stores, but Goodwill always has large children's sections too. Especially now that so many of our clothing items are made from different types of plastics, and not cotton or compostable material, thrifting clothes is a great option - especially with growing children!

But buying clothes for kids is also really fun - so I like to balance it with mostly thrifted things and then a few special outfits that I picked out new.

2. Reuse - Crafting with items around the house - a quick google search will bring up hundreds of websites that have amazing crafting ideas with things you can probably find in your house. This site has 101+ amazing crafting ideas. Or if you want to really go organic there are books like "Make it Wild!" and "The Organic Artist for Kids" that guides you on crafting with things you find outside.

3. Thrift again! - Thrift holiday decorations! Just before and just after any holiday thrift stores usually have sections dedicated to decor.

4. Clean up days - Make a tradition of family beach or park clean up days - reward with ice cream after.

5. Donate - Create a habit of donating before a holiday or birthday - but get the kids involved. Go through the house and pick out enough things to fill a box of toys they are happy to give up. It is a hard lesson for them, but I usually frame it as making room for the new gifts while also gifting toys to other kids who will love them.

6. Rotate - If you have a kid that loves new things you can also rotate out toys - I have noticed that even toys my child hasn't seen in a while seem new and fresh to them.

7. Seriously - keep cardboard boxes around - Don't throw out cardboard boxes!!!!!! My son spent an hour this morning flying to different planets in a large box he decorated himself. Much like pets, they often like the box better than the box's contents. We have also built robot suits out of smaller boxes which is always a bit hit.

8. Field trip to dump - Take them to the local dump. Visualizing large piles of trash really impacts the way kids see waste.

9. Foster hope - Don't shame or create a feeling of hopelessness around it. We know that human's impact on Earth and our resources is pretty damning these days, but there are always people trying to improve things. Look for those people and point them out to your kids. As bad as landfills are we have actually taken great strides in composting and recycling - it works!

10. Empower -

    Let them help you with sorting trash, recycling, and compost. Young kids especially love to be involved and included and feeling like they are in charge - if you give them the responsibility of trash sorting it empowers them and gives them confidence going forward.

Many small changes can create healthy habits and big differences. All our small efforts matter!