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When you are a family of four with two children under the age of two! (OK, my eldest is almost 2.5, but was just potty-trained recently (if you’re interested in those sordid details you can click here for the previous posts on that!).

My husband and I (OK, particularly my husband, but I am learning daily) have always been pretty environmentally conscious. We reduce, reuse, and recycle regularly, we compost, we rinse out Ziploc bags, use reusable canvas bags at the grocery store, don’t shop very much or “consume” many products, use public transportation, etc. I’m sure there is always more we can do (and please feel free to make some suggestions — we’re always looking for better ways to do things!) but for the most part we really try hard to be as “green” as possible.

However, sometime over the past three years we have stumbled GREATLY. Suddenly I am driving everywhere, in a “big gas-guzzling SUV” that was the only thing we could find that we thought would hold three carseats (and now that we have two carseats in there already, that third one is going to be a mighty tight fit!). It is nearly impossible to take MUNI with two young children and a stroller (see here for more on that…), and I’m using more Ziploc bags for sandwiches and carrots and other lunch goodies than I ever thought was possible!

And don’t even let me get started on our “digital clutter”….we have thousands of digital pictures and videos stored on hard drives that are destined to become obsolete and buried in the “Electronic Hazardous Waste” graveyard in just a few years, not to mention cellphones that are quickly becoming outdated, PC’s, digital cameras, and more.

We buy stuff now, too. Lots of stuff. TONS of stuff. For “non-stuff-oriented” people, “stuff” has basically exploded all over our house! We have baby gates and high chairs and bouncy seats and a Gymini and teethers and stuffed animals and hundreds of plastic toys (probably all made in China) and cribs and baby clothes and baby silverware and baby plates and baby wipes and diapers and…. well, you get the idea. We are swimming in a huge pool of STUFF and it’s truly insane and drives us crazy, and yet, we somehow still seem to accumulate MORE instead of “cutting back” and living with less!

There was a study released just yesterday in the UK on how children are more likely to remember a day at the beach with their parents than the latest new gadget or toy. I fully believe this is true, as when I look back at my own childhood I definitely remember the experiences that I had far more than the toys that I played with (well, except maybe for Star Wars — the Millenium Falcon was really cool!). But despite this fact, we still seem to accumulate so much STUFF for our girls! Yes, a lot of it is gifts, and some are generous hand-me-downs, but the end result is the same — we are drowning in stuff.

And the amazing thing is, except for a very few toys, both Keilani and Malia are pretty much non-interested in this stuff! The most fascinating object for Keilani is whatever Mommy or Daddy is using at the time, whether it be our real cellphones (not the cute pink plastic one that is “hers”), our keys, a wooden spoon (still interesting even after 2 years), etc. And Malia at this point is pretty much fascinated by everything — a plastic bag, a cardboard box, watching leaves sway on a tree (actually I like watching that, too!).

We tell ourselves that we are holding on to these things until Baby #3 arrives, should we decide to have him/her in the future, but I somehow doubt that Baby #3 will be any more interested than Keilani and Malia are!

So what is a family of four to do? Boycott all toys? Go down to a 5-toy-per-child limit? Move someplace where we can walk everywhere? There are definitely steps that we can take and as we become more aware of our environmental impact I look forward to seeing how we can do things better. Much better!

Got any ideas? We’ve a long way to go and would love to hear them!

Tags: green, green living, Keilani, malia