Real Life Inspiration: Waste reducing hacks for families with kids
“If my children cared about anything except their next meal and toys, they would want me to do this too.”
I wanted to share some of the hacks that made IMMEDIATE and IMPACTFUL changes on the waste in my home.
Let me preface this by stating that I have a baby, a toddler, a large dog, three cats and a husband that loves meat. I also have the luxury of time and being able to vote with my pocketbook - with this I believe I have a responsibility to care but caring is a luxury in our current society. No one should expect a family strapped for cash and time to ruminate over what toothpaste will have the least impact on the rainforest or landfill. That said, many of the companies that I am patronizing will save you gobs of money in the end.
I believe the marketplace has, for the four decades of my life, made being environmentally friendly increasingly impossible, inconvenient, confusing and expensive. Several large companies now just engage in blatant greenwashing because they know the average consumer doesn’t have time to dig deeper into their actual practices but will be comforted by some stamp or logo that looks pleasing. But there are so many smaller companies emerging that aren’t waiting for the giants to make a difference. It feel amazing to bring my own home back to those days where plastic and and possessions were treated as having value. I highly recommend it. So here are my top recmmendations.
The Little Loop
My first child, Max, triggered an outpouring of gifts from friends, family and of course, two new parents. When my girl arrived most of the clothes for my boy weren’t really appropriate for her. While she isn’t dressed in unicorn farts and tiaras, we have chosen to have her wardrobe either unisex or feminine. So I’m sitting on a pile of expensive clothes for boys age preemie to 2. I think I must have purchased every shirt featuring a fox from Jojo Maman Bebe and there is a baby’s Burberry coat that will haunt me for the rest of my life!
So I got on Gumtree and Nextdoor and gave away all of it – maybe half of it never worn or worn once. I hope those clothes have found a bit of new life but WHAT A WASTE.
When Max hit 2 I searched for a new solution and found that we could rent his clothes at The Little Loop. I have two subscriptions so I can cover his entire wardrobe – including coats. The clothing arrives in a reusable teal mailing pouch with a zip. The clothes are in there – clean and ready to roll. You can order brand new, lightly used or well loved and your credits go further if you get lightly used or well loved.
I just traded in his short sleeved shirts for longer shirts, dungarees and a raincoat. When he’s done, we’re done and those clothes are cleaned and passed on to another toddler and not stuck in my attic getting musty. I have done a few cycles now of trade-in clothes with them and the process was seamless. I logged into my account, chose the clothes that I wanted to return and I was emailed a Parcel2Go mailing label. I popped them in mailing pouch and sealed them with a little plastic lock tab that The Loop provides. There is a Parcel2Go locker at my petrol station, so when I fill up the car I’m able to post it. Couldn’t be easier.
I am saving a lot of money with this service and for me, having less choice and more quality clothing is key. Everything gets worn and I can actually see what he has. If someone wants to buy Max something – buy him a book, buy him shoes, buy him socks or PayPal me the money to cover 6 months of his rented clothes.
Bundlee and The Little Rental Company
For my daughter, Violet, I got in on the ground floor for renting. After the initial gifts that fit her for the first 3 months, I immediately turned to renting. She is growing fast and I’ve already done a few turnovers with her clothes. For Violet I rent from two places – Bundlee and The Little Rental Company Ltd. Both Bundlee and The Little Rental Company have been super easy and user friendly. One Bundlee didn’t arrive (even though it said it had been delivered) and they gave me no fuss – they just replaced it.
With Bundlee she gets her basics in beautiful colours and the softest quality cotton. When there are patterns they are very basic – dots and stars. They will give you literally everything your baby needs and you could absolutely just use Bundlee and have everything you needed and more for your baby. Bundlee recently added a subscription where you can pick your bundle with some brand names. I won’t be trying that, however, as the no muss, no fuss basics that don’t require thought from me are what drew me to the company.
The Little Rental Company sends you a pack of curated clothing that is simply fun and super stylish. I love these clothes but I also love that I’m not stuck with them. These are the pieces that she wears out of the house that I mix and match with the more basic Bundlee clothing which is softer on her skin. These are the pieces that I photograph her in and for which she receives complements. They are also the ones that I would sink a lot of money into but not get the mileage of wear to justify the cost if I actually owned them.
Whirli
Whirli is a toy subscription service and it is absolutely amazing. There are different subscriptions with different price points based on the amount of “tokens” you would like to receive for your child. We recently upgraded to the “toy chest” subscription so that we could get toys for both Max and Violet.
This is a GAME CHANGER. You buy a subscription, they send you the clean toys unpackaged and ready to play - no packaging, no assembly. They have all the toys you could possibly want and even fancy dress. I pay an extra fee for unlimited shipping and returns as well.
There can be so much guilt attached to old toys (Pixar has built a whole franchise on it). When your kid is going of to university, they don’t care if you’ve saved their Peppa Pig toys. When and if they have children of their own, they will want their own joy and experiences with toys. There is no point in owning your toys. And, if there is that certain snuggly toy that they can’t live without, Whirli lets you buy it a discount. Keep the snuggly for sentimental reasons; send back the other 99%.
Other Winners In My House
Milk &More My son and my husband drink a massive amount of milk. They deliver milk in glass pints twice a week (you can do it as often as you like) and you set out the empty glass bottles for the milkman. You can manage your regular orders online; couldn’t be easier. They also deliver all of our juices, butter, yogurt, washing up liquid, hand soap, laundry detergent and fabric softener in glass bottles that we return when empty. That has made a SIGNIFICANT impact on the waste in our home.
Cheeky Wipes This is a reuseable wipe company – baby wipes/ makeup wipes / menstrual products, etc. This is really a huge money saver and reduces a ton of waste. I continue to use disposable nappies and disposable wipes for nappies but use cheeky wipes in the kitchen. We have two containers on the counter – one is for clean wipes, one is for mucky wipes. When you’re out of clean wipes, you throw the contents of the mucky wipes in the washing machine. There is no reason not to do this unless you don’t have a washing machine in your home. It will save you a ton of money and is a lot less harsh on little faces. I end up wiping down the kitchen and high chairs with them too so it’s cutting down on kitchen paper too.
Habox Delivers bespoke dental kits every three months for your child’s age. The toothbrushes are bamboo and you can get them personalized. I am hoping that they come up with some more environmentally kind solutions to toothpaste and floss for children but this is an industry issue and not necessarily a Habox one.
In closing, I will say that there was an adjustment period to using these services. There was a period where my children’s closets had both owned and rented pieces; it took a while to free myself from disposable wipes in the kitchen and to get the family on board with the new wipes system; to estimate how much milk and detergents my family would need in a week; and to figure out what drop off postal locations worked best for each service.
But, it was a cleansing process and, like any cleanse, you feel amazing on the other end. If my children cared about anything except their next meal and toys, they would want me to do this too.