Kelly's Healthy Home

The holidays bring so much joy, laughter, memories and STUFF! OMG, the trash and ‘stuff’ can be frightening. Just think about the shipping boxes, the extra wrapping from online shopping, wrapped gifts, gifts in boxes, take out meals, holiday cards, and so on. There are ways to reduce these by simply being more conscious, planning and a little creativity. In no particular order, I’ve written down some things that we practice in our family or are actively working on being better at practicing.

Shop local as much as possible. Trust me, I know it’s easy to click a button over going out to a store, and honestly it may be a dollar or two cheaper. But small, local businesses are the strength of the community. They also don’t involve shipping materials and extra emissions for the transport. All around, a much better way to be a mindful consumer.

Make more from scratch. And by this I mean more food, gifts and even decor. One of my staples is having my kids make cards instead of buying cards. I also think gifting homemade bread, soups and other goodies should be more acceptable. Get crafty and have fun with it!

Stop buying wrapping paper. Use bags, reusable bags, cloth, color newspaper. In our house, Santa gives 1 gift and it’s not wrapped. Be creative and resourceful. An added bonus is you aren’t spending hours wrapping gifts!

Don’t buy more than you need. I’m pretty confident I talk about buying less things in every other post I write. But it’s truly the root of creating less waste. Stop being a victim of consumerism. Take a moment to consider the item in question before buying.

Prioritize experiences over things when gifting to others. For one that loves to give, sometimes this can be hard. But if you really stop to think about whether this item you are buying is really going to be used, enjoyed and cherished, you may decide on not buying it. Some ideas:

• Museum Membership
• National Parks Annual Pass
• Movie Tickets
• Giving to a charitable or social cause in honor of someone
• Concert or amusement park tickets

If you choose to do just 1 or 2 of the above ideas, I’m confident you’ll reduce your waste and it will start to become more of a habit. Encourage those you love to do the same. One small change will lead to big changes.