Happy Earth Day!

Every year we’re reminded about the small things we can do to help protect our planet. There’s only so many resources on this planet and it seems like it’s still a constant conversation with people that habits need to start changing to protect them. In no way can anyone be perfect in going about these changes, but we can all do our part to make a positive impact on the world. Reducing and reusing will even help you save money in the long run as well by not needing to spend the extra.

As I was preparing for a second child, it became more apparent. Simply for all the stuff our society thinks we need. I was starting to get anxiety about all the baby stuff required again. Also moving house on top of all the prepping made my brain very anxious on the amount of things. There have certainly been some things we haven’t figure out how to reduce, but here are some ways that my family tries to be kind to the earth and what we’re trying to change our mindset on.

Reduce What You’re Buying

This is the one that my family and I are trying to work on. For so long, My husband and I were constantly just buying things. More clothes, more food, and more products. I was personally sucked into the height of the YouTube days of constantly wanting to try new makeup and never finishing the product before I purchased the next one. If there were items on sale, I’d buy them mainly since they were on sale. At one point I probably had 6 different shampoos and conditioners in my bathroom simply because I wanted to try another one. I’m still working through hair products and makeup simply not to waste products. It’s almost embarrassing.

One of my biggest ones is food related. We use to buy food and then it just gets thrown away because it went bad before we got to it. This still happens occasionally, however the best tip for this is to actually inventory your fridge, freezer, and pantry. Also in the food mindset, buy in season produce or try to purchase locally.

When you are purchasing, make sure your try to purchase quality. If you are putting money into good quality clothes or glass food storage, then you’ll be able to use those things longer. Again this will end up saving you money!

Reuse Items

When I was doing a baby registry for my daughter 3 years ago, I made sure bigger priced items were all gender neutral. That way we didn’t feel like we needed to get new items. My favorite thing so far has been reusing our cloth diapers for my son. It’s been a challenge to get family or even friends to adhere to not buying us extra stuff that we wont need, but it’s been important to me especially with the second child.

Give Items a Second Life

We’re currently working on planting our first garden and a lot of the plants needed to start inside before they get planted outside after the last frost. Instead of buying to pots and planters to start these seeds, I saved yogurt cups and aluminum cans to use. This gives them another life and once we transport the plants. I can even save them again for next year. Another thing to assist with gardening, is trying our hand at compost. It will hopefully help reduce the amount of food that gets thrown away. It’s still such a new thing for us and I know it’s not for everyone.

Look to Buy Used

Before you go buy something new, that took new and more resources to create, try looking for it secondhand. The resources were already used and you will end up saving some money. Also in this same mindset, try selling items you aren’t using to make extra money or see if friends and family need them before you donate or throw them away.

Recycle Items

As a last ditch effort, recycle or donate what you can. It’s not a saving grace by any means, but it still helps. There is a good reason this one is last for the 3 R’s is because while recycling and donating can bring the items to new life, some times facilities get too much or maybe the items they’re getting are dirty or garbage. If that happens, the items you thought you were doing good with, are just getting thrown into a landfill anyway. See if friends or family need what you planned on throwing away. Maybe even try to sell it. Someone else may have a need for it and you can make some extra cash!

Small things do help make a difference

If us, the consumers, start making changes in how we purchase and what we purchase, then we can start letting the big companies know what is important. Most of the changes needed needs to be done by companies that are causing the damage to our planet in the first place. I use to joke that I didn’t care since wouldn’t be around for that, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized how important it is to make sure the planet is sustainable for generations to come.