Simple Living

20 Ways to Slow Down Your Summer

It’s summer time and the living’s easy.

Or is it?

For many people, summer looks just like the rest of the year. Same schedule. Same commute. Same cubicle. Even for entrepreneurs, summer can bring the same deadlines and to-do lists as any other season.

Remember those impossibly long summers as a child, when making mud pies, reading novels, and riding bikes up and down the street filled every afternoon? Even with a job and mortgage, you can bring a little slow living back into your life. Here’s your ultimate lazy summer living checklist.

Exit the Fast Lane

Pencil in down time this summer for these leisurely activities:

1. Walk barefoot

Wake your feet up this summer by stripping off your shoes and socks and walking barefoot as much as possible. Walking barefoot not only feels great; it improves your balance and posture and may prevent shin splints, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, and other injuries. Each of your feet contains 20,000 nerve endings, and grass, sand, stones, and water are all sensory delights for your feet. (Learn more about the benefits of going barefoot and discover how to turn your yard into a barefoot garden here.)

2. Go on a picnic

Parenting pro tip: “Let’s go on a picnic!” is sure to garner more excitement from toddlers and preschoolers than “Let’s go for a walk!” That’s how I ended up turning nearly every lunch into a picnic for several years in my quest to get my boys to walk with me. Grab a blanket, pack some sandwiches or Mason-jar meals, and head to a scenic spot or nearby park. Pinterest-worthy picnic food not required.

3. Take a nap

How can you enjoy cool early summer mornings and late evenings, skip the sweltering afternoon heat, and get enough sleep in the process? Meet the summer nap a.k.a siesta. Aim to enjoy at least a few of these summer delights, especially on days you know you’ll be staying up later than usual. A nap can interfere with nighttime sleep if you take it too late in the day. But it can also boost alertness and improve work performance. I say, indulge every once in a while!

4. Sleep with the windows open

If you live in a safe, quiet neighborhood, nothing beats sleeping with a soft breeze and the sound of crickets outside. And as a bonus, you may sleep better.

5. Watch a meteor shower

Mark your calendars, the Perseid meteor shower peaks from August 11 to August 13. Depending on where you live and how dark it is, you’ll see a falling star every minute. Don’t forget to make some wishes!

6. Go camping

Spending time away from man-made lights resets the body’s circadian rhythm and improves quality of sleep, according to recent research. That may partly explain why camping can feel so restorative. Find a beautiful spot and leave the demands of your busy life for a few days.

7. Read a summer novel

If your nightstand’s stacked with business or personal development tomes, put them aside for a few weeks and indulge in some fun summer reading. Yes, reading can be an avenue to learning and growth. And it can also help you bring magic, imagination, and leisure back into your life. Looking for some indulgent summer reads? Check out this list.

8. Play a yard game

Nothing says summer like a rousing game of horseshoes, croquet, bocce ball, ladder toss, cornhole, badminton, or lawn bowling. Frisbee, softball, or kickball are also sure crowd-pleasers.

9. Make iced tea or coffee

Icy beverages are some of the true delights of the hottest months. But when you add ice to a hot beverage, you end up with a watered-down, weak drink. Up your iced tea and coffee game this summer by making cold-water extract. To make cold-water iced tea, add 3 to 4 tea bags per quart of cold water. Leave at room temperature for an hour and then refrigerate overnight. To make cold-water coffee, combine one cup of finely ground coffee beans with 4 cups of water, and refrigerate overnight. Serve over ice and enjoy.

10. Swim in a waterhole

Want to take a dip in a natural paradise? No matter where you live, chances are there’s a beautiful, secluded, natural swimming area nearby. Go to swimminghole.org to find one, and follow the common-sense precautions on the website to stay safe and healthy while you swim.

11. Play a board game

When’s the last time you wiled away an afternoon over a game of Scrabble or checkers? If you can’t remember, bring on the lemonade and board games. Our 10-year-old loves board games, so we play a lot of them. Some of our current favorites include the Ticket to Ride games, Battleship, and Clue. If you’re children fight when board games come out, try a cooperative board game, where everyone works together and everyone wins. My kids love Wildcraft: An Herbal Adventure Game, and they’ve learned a lot about plants while playing it. Go here for a list of other cooperative board games.

12. Go to a movie

Whether you’re watching a summer blockbuster or an art film, the movie theater is the perfect place to spend a sweltering summer afternoon.

13. Make a bouquet of summer flowers

Bring the color of summer indoors by gathering sunflowers, daisies, coneflowers, dahlias, zinnias, or whatever blooms are growing near you..

14. Go to a farmer’s market

Stock up on summer’s bounty and support local farmers, then whip together a fresh, flavorful (and preferably simple) summer feast.

15. Lie in a hammock

Forget your to-do list and kick back in your backyard hammock. Want to combine a nap and hammock session? Follow these tips for ultimate comfort: Make sure the hammock isn’t hung too tightly, position yourself diagonally, and arrange a pillow under your head.

16. Go out for ice cream

It’s summer. What better excuse to try one of the season’s new ice cream flavors, such as banana peanut butter chip, blackberry hibiscus, or brown butter bourbon truffle? Or go with classic vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.

17. Eat watermelon

Watermelon is a summer superstar. It not only tastes delicious. It’s full of antioxidants and other nutrients and it’s one of the most hydrating summer fruits. Plus, you could always hold a seed-spitting competition to wile away some boredom.

18. Pick berries

Whether you find them on the side of a mountain trail or growing in your backyard, enjoy summer’s berries while you can. Come January, you’ll miss nature’s sweet treats … unless you head to a you-pick farm and pick enough to store in your freezer. Find a farm at pickyourown.org.

19. Roast marshmallows

Remember perfectly toasted, caramelized marshmallows from childhood camping trips? Me neither. Mine usually turned out to be deflated, charred, and shriveled messes. But now that we’re adults with real culinary skills, we can almost certainly do better — or at least have fun trying. Don’t forget to pack graham crackers and chocolate bars.

20. Host a barbecue

Fire up the barbecue and move the party outside. Remember, the point here is leisure. You have my permission to skip the Martha Stewart-worthy menu and table decor and aim for a relaxed grill-and-chill.

Mission: Enjoy Summer

You may never experience summer the way you did as a child. Mud pies and lemonade stands probably don’t hold the same appeal these days. But that doesn’t mean summer can’t bring a little magic. Before the season slips away, take back your time for some good old-fashioned summer leisure.

[Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a post originally published on July 30, 2018]

12 Simple (and Free) Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Summer

By Abby Quillen

Summer solstice, or Midsummer’s Day, is June 21. It’s the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere when we enjoy the most sunlight and the shortest night.

The sun rises to its maximum height, bathing the Arctic Circle – including parts of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and all of Iceland – in twenty-four hours of daylight. Ancient monuments – including Stonehenge, England; Callanish, Scotland; Macchu Picchu, Peru; Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; and Monk’s Mound in southern Illinois – align with the sun. And people around the world celebrate.

How did people historically celebrate the solstice?

Bonfires. In several countries, including Germany, bonfires were offered to the sun to promote fertility and bring bountiful harvests. Men would leap the flames and run across the embers when the fire died down.

Staying awake. People in Japan, Britain, and Norway stayed awake until midnight or throughout the shortest night of the year to welcome the longest day at dawn. According to a British folk tale, spirits of those who would die the next year roamed on this night. Thus, people stayed awake to keep their spirits from wandering.

Sun Dances. The Native American plains tribes, including the Arapahoe, Sioux, Ute, and Blackfoot tribes, threw elaborate religious ceremonies around the time of the solstice. The celebrations lasted from four to eight days. Many honored the buffalo and included singing, drumming, and dancing, and often fasting, prayer, visions, and acts of self-torture.

Gathering plants. In Denmark, women gathered herbs on the solstice, including St. John’s Wort, which got its name because it flowers around the time of St. John’s Day (June 24). If St. John’s Wort was picked and dried at Midsummer, it was said to chase away the winter blues when ingested later in the year.

St. John’s Eve festivals. Many countries, including Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Finland, and Sweden have traditionally celebrated Midsummer two days after the solstice on St. John’s Eve. Near Helsinki, Finland, modern people gather on this day to watch Finnish folk dances, listen to traditional songs, light bonfires, and participate in rowing races.

What are the benefits of celebrating the first day of each season?

Seasonal celebrations give you and your family the opportunity to:

Note the cyclical changes in the soil, sky, trees, plants, and wildlife.
Reflect on the uniqueness of each season.
Reflect on the lessons each season imparts. The bounties of summer are endless – light, warmth, and lush crops. Nature is at her peak, but the solstice also brings the returning darkness.
Read about different celebrations around the world.
Celebrate! Seasonal celebrations are affordable, nature-based, and as easy or elaborate as you want them to be.

Create some summer traditions this year!

The first day of summer is a great time to start some new family traditions. Pick activities that you’ll want to do year after year, and ones that will make the day relaxing and special for you and your family. Here are a few ideas:

1. Establish a table-top, shelf, or mantel to display seasonal items. On the first day of summer, replace the spring decorations with seashells, sand dollars, flowers, a baseball, photographs from summer trips, or whatever symbolizes summer in your family.

2. Collect books about the seasons. Choose a special basket or shelf for them, and change them out on the first day of each season. Some classic picture books about summer include:

- Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure
- Boris Goes Camping by Carrie Weston
- The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
- Before the Storm by Jan Yolen
- Summertime Waltz by Nina Payne
- Canoe Days by Gary Paulsen
- Sun Dance Water Dance by Jonathan London
- Summer is Summer by Phillis and David Gershator
- Under Alaska’s Midnight Sun by Deb Venasse.

Adults, check out this list for some of the season’s most anticipated summer reads.

3. Place a bouquet of roses, lilies, or daisies in your family members’ bedrooms while they sleep, so they wake up to fresh summer flowers.

4. Find a special place outside to observe the sunrise and sunset. You can find out what time the sun will rise and set where you live here.

5. Eat breakfast outside after the sun rises.

6. Go on a nature hike. Bring along guidebooks to help you identify birds, butterflies, mushrooms, or wildflowers.

7. Gather plants. Traditionally Europeans harvested Saint John’s Wort on the first day of summer, dried it, and made it into tea on the first day of winter. The tea is a traditional remedy for seasonal depression, and it’s said to bring the summer sunshine into the dark winter days. It’s a weedy plant and you can probably find some growing in a sunny open area near you. Find out more here.

8. Visit a U-pick farm to harvest strawberries, snap peas, or whatever’s in season where you live. Find a nearby “pick your own” farm here.

9. Make a summer feast. Eat exclusively from your garden or the farmer’s market to celebrate the bounties of summer in your area.

10. Host a “locavore” potluck.

11. Turn off all the indoor lights, light candles, and eat dinner outside.

12. Play outside, watercolor, or decorate the sidewalks with chalk until the sun sets.

Or create your own traditions to welcome summer this June 21. Hopefully you’ll be celebrating for years to come.

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

Do you celebrate the summer solstice? I’d love to hear how your family celebrates!

[Editor’s note: This is a refreshed and revamped version of a post originally published on June 15, 2009.]

5 Fun Ideas to Keep Your Kids Busy This Summer

By Abby Quillen

It’s summertime and the living’s easy, unless you have kids at home sneaking screen time and moaning about being bored. If your kids need some motivation to get off the couch and have some fun, here are 5 fun summer activities for kids.

1. Have a Cooking or Baking Competition

Full confession: my family loves watching people cook as much as we like to cook. My kids have watched all the Great British Baking Show episodes and they love to throw around words like fondant and marzipan, even though they’ve never eaten either.

If your family has binged on the Great British Baking Show, Nailed It, The Final Table, or another cooking show, your kids may be thrilled to recreate one of these popular shows.

Depending on the age and abilities of your kids, they may need you on hand as an assistant chef. But if your kids are older, hand over your kitchen and serve as a judge. (It’s not a bad job, if you can get it.) Pro tip: Make cleaning up part of the contest.

2. Create a lemonade stand

Nothing excites kids like drinking lemonade and making spare money, so setting up a lemonade stand could become a favorite past time. Here are the simple steps for your budding entrepreneurs to get their business off the ground.

Supplies needed:

Outdoor table and chairs
Poster board
Markers
Lemons
Honey
Ice
Paper cups

Instructions:

Set up the table and chairs in the front yard.
Make a sign.
Whip together lemonade. For a healthy recipe, combine 4 cups water, juice from 5 lemons, and 1/3 cup of honey (or more for desired sweetness).
Pour it into paper cups, and add ice and lemon wedges
Sell your lemonade for $.75 or $1 a cup.

Your kids will get to know some of the neighbors and wile away a hot afternoon. Plus, they may just make a little arcade money.

3. Send them on a treasure hunt

My friend Marianne shared a brilliant idea that she’s used to curb her kids’ boredom. It will take a little crafting on your behalf, but it will delight your kids and buy you an afternoon without hearing the words “I’m bored.” Plus, you may just get some homemade cookies for your efforts.

First, decide where to hide your clues. And remember, the goal here is to keep your kids busy. Try these wonderful ideas, from Marianne:

Hide a clue in a book they have to read to find it.
Hide a clue in a garden they have to explore.
Hide a clue among instruments they have to play.
Hide a clue in a card game they have to play before turning the card over.
Hide a clue in a tree they have to climb.
Make the final clue a bag of chocolate chips and a recipe.

Next, write the clues. Rhyming clues set a fun tone, and don’t worry, you don’t need to be a poet laureate. These examples may get your creative juices flowing.

To figure out your next plan, read chapter one of a book about a dragon clan.
To see what you need to see, climb to the top of the cherry tree.
While playing a game of Speed, search for the loving queen.
Your next clue is not inside a toy. To find it, you must play Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

You get the idea! When you’re done, hide your clues, sit back, and watch the fun ensue.

4. Create duct-tape crafts

If you have a pair of scissors and a few rolls of duct tape around the house, you have all the tools you need to keep your kids busy for hours. Meanwhile, you may encourage a love of crafting.

Here are a few of the fun crafts your kids can make with duct tape:

5. Film movies

Lights! Camera! Action! Inspire your kids to become mini writers, directors, and actors. All they need is a smartphone, and a tripod will improve the end result if you have one. Apps like iMotion, the Lego Movie Maker, iMovie, Magisto, and Telestory can help your kids create and edit their video stories.

If your kids aren’t sure where to start, here are some ideas to inspire them.

Recreate a favorite movie scene with toys or Legos.
Make a music video by playing a favorite song and lip-syncing and dancing.
Film a sports video with commentary and slow-motion replays.
Recreate a journalistic interview show.
Do a stand-up comedy skit.

More Ideas

If those ideas don’t sound fun, there’s plenty more to keep your kids busy this summer. When you hear, “I’m bored,” be ready with these ideas:

Create a sidewalk chalk mural
Paint rocks
Run in the sprinkler
Make popsicles
Have a paper airplane contest
Invent your own board games
Build bird feeders
Learn a musical instrument
Learn to sew
Go geocacheing
Go letterboxing
Fly a kite

Buck Boredom This Summer!

It’s amazing how quickly kids go from celebrating summer to complaining about being bored. Use these fun ideas to help your kids get creative and enjoy some screen-free summertime fun.

[Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a post, originally published July 2, 2019]

Make Your Own Reusable Food Wrap

By Abby Quillen

Want to downsize your plastic use, but not sure where to begin? Plastic wrap (also called cling wrap, clingfilm, or plastic film depending where you live) is a great place to start. Keep reading to learn why and how to say goodbye to plastic wrap by making a simple, eco-friendly alternative.

Plastic Wrap May Contain Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals

Plastic wrap is a cheap, easy, and convenient single-use plastic, and millions of Americans use it regularly. Have you noticed plastic wrap isn’t as clingy as it used to be? That’s not your imagination. More than a decade ago, manufacturers switched from using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to low density polyethylene (LDPE) for household plastic wrap products because it’s considered safer.

The old plastic wrap made with PVC contained compounds called pthalates. When food was covered by plastic wrap for long periods or microwaved in it, pthalates leeched into food. That’s a problem because pthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals that are linked with genital abnormalities in fetuses and neurodevelopmental problems in children. Moreover, in animal studies, they’ve been linked with early onset of puberty, low testosterone levels and sperm counts in males, and other hormonal and reproductive problems.

Breathing a sigh of relief that plastic wrap is no longer made out of PVC? Not so fast. Preliminary studies suggest LDPE may also leach a number of chemicals. More studies are needed. Moreover, the plastic wrap used in your grocery store deli and meat section isn’t the same plastic wrap you buy for home use. It’s called “food service film,” and it’s still made out of PVC. You’ll notice it’s clingier than the home product, which is a sign it contains a plasticizer.

While pthalates have been removed, some plastic wraps may contain a endocrine-disrupting chemical called diethylhexyl adipate (DEHA). DEHA is known to leech into foods, especially high-fat foods such as cheese and meats. DEHA has not been tested for its effects on humans, and it’s been linked to liver tumors in rats.

Plastic Wrap is Polluting the Oceans

When it comes to plastic wrap, the health of all ecosystems are at stake because single-use plastics are contributing to a what the Director for Ocean at UN Environment has deemed “a planetary crisis.”

About half of the 350 million tons of plastic produced globally every year are single-use plastics. Single-use plastics are:

Designed to be used once
Non-renewable
Non-recyclable
Non-biodegradable
Made of potentially toxic materials

When single-use plastics sit in landfills, they leak toxic chemicals into the groundwater. Worse, 32 percent of plastic packaging never makes it to a landfill or recycling plant. Instead, it flows into the oceans, where it causes devastating effects to ocean life.

We’ve gotten used to the convenience of single-use plastic, but in most cases, there are effective alternatives. For instance, you can say goodbye to plastic wrap forever by making reusable food wrap. Bonus: the process is simple and requires only a few supplies.

How to Make Your Reusable Food Wrap

Let’s get started!

Gather these supplies:

100% cotton cloth
Pinking sheers (scissors that cut a zigzag edge to prevent fabric from fraying)
Beeswax beads (buy at a local craft store or online)
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Kitchen tongs
Clothes hanger

Follow these simple steps:

Wash, dry, and iron the fabric.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Use the pinking sheers to cut the fabric into a few different sizes of squares and rectangles. Make sure each piece fits on the baking sheet.
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place a piece of fabric on the center of the baking sheet and sprinkle it evenly with beeswax beads.

Bake in the oven until the beeswax is melted, usually about five minutes.
Inspect the fabric. If any parts aren’t coated with wax, add more beads to that section and bake for a few more minutes.
Remove the fabric from the oven using tongs.
Hang the fabric on a clothes hanger for several minutes until the wax is dry.
If any melted wax pooled on the baking sheet, place another piece of fabric on it to absorb it, and start the process again.
Repeat until you’ve coated all of the fabric pieces in beeswax.

Congratulations!

You’ve made a durable, reusable alternative to plastic wrap. It should be stiff put bendable. Use it to cover bowls or containers, to wrap cheese in, or fold it up to use as a snack pouch. Wash it with gentle soap and cool water when needed. It should last several months. And at that point, you can repeat the process to re-wax it if desired. Celebrate! You’re keeping the questionable chemicals in plastic wrap away from your food and out of the waste stream.

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

12 Easy Ways To Use Less Plastic

By Abby Quillen

We live in a plastic world. It’s hard to believe the substance only came on the scene about 155 years ago when Alexander Parkes, an Englishman, mixed collodion, camphor, and ethanol together in 1862. Then in 1907 Leo Baekeland created an entirely synthetic plastic from phenol and formaldahyde and coined it Bakelite. Its chemical name is harder to pronounce: polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride.

Imagine how novel this cheap, light, colorful material was to people accustomed to glass, clay, and cast iron, and it’s easy to appreciate the zeal for plastic in the last century. Think of sixties housewives furnishing their homes with fiberglass tables and chairs, donning polyester dresses, and hosting Tupperware parties on the weekends. Plastic wasn’t just for adornment either. It brought real progress – film, vinyl records, cassette tapes, compact discs, computers, artificial heart valves, prosthetic body parts, contact lenses, and more.

Recently, however, the fervor for plastic has given way to anxiety. Why?

Health concerns

People began questioning what’s in the long chains of unpronounceable chemicals filling our homes. What are our babies sucking on when we hand them a pacifier, bottle, or teething ring?

Bisphenol A, a chemical used in polycarbonate plastics – including pipes, dental fillings, water bottles, canned food, and many food wrappers – has come under fire. Bisphenol A is a “xenoestrogen” – a known endocrine disruptor. Numerous animal studies have found effects on fetuses and newborns exposed to it. Nearly everyone in the U.S. is exposed to it because polycarbonate plastic breaks down over time and leaches BPA into our bodies. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) found detectable levels of BPA in the urine of 93% of people they tested.

In 2007, 38 experts agreed that the average levels of BPA in people are above those known to cause harm to animals. A panel convened by the U.S. National Institutes of Health stated there’s “some concern” about BPA’s effects on fetal and infant brain development.

Manufacturers rushed to take BPA out of water and baby bottles. But in 2013, scientists discovered Bisphenol S (BPS) and Bisphenol F (BPF), the substances manufacturers used to replace BPA in products, also break down, leach into the body, and may damage human cells. BPS was found in 81 percent of random urine samples.

And those aren’t the only chemicals known to be toxic. In 1999, the European Union banned all pthalates, chemicals used to soften plastic, in childrens’ toys because they can leach out of plastic when chewed or sucked and may cause cancer, mutations, and reproductive damage. The U.S. didn’t follow the EU’s lead in banning pthalates in children’s toys until 2017, so pacifiers and teething rings manufactured before then may contain them.

Even if we stop eating off or chewing on plastic, the plastic manufacturing process has health implications. When Formosa Plastics Corp. built a factory in southeast Texas, ranchers noticed their steers losing weight, cows miscarrying more frequently, and calves being born with birth defects or stillborn. Texas A & M researchers discovered DNA damage in the cows living near the factory. The cattle downwind had the most damage.

Planetary Waste Crisis

Every time someone eats a tub of salsa, drinks a Styrofoam cup of coffee, sips on a bottle of Aquafina, or says yes to a plastic bag at the supermarket, a plastic container gets dumped. Plastic recycling rates have been dismal and stand to get much worse. Until 2017, only about nine percent of the plastic consumed in the U.S. was recycled, including about 23 percent of all plastic bottles, 12 percent of bottled water containers, and 1 to 3 percent of plastic bags.

To make things worse, in 2017, China announced it would no longer accept most of the U.S.’s recycled plastic because of public health concerns. The U.S. was exporting a third of its recycled plastics to other countries for processing, and half of that was shipped to China. China’s announcement led many U.S. municipalities to halt plastics recycling, forcing consumers to throw plastic waste in the garbage.

Scientists estimate it will take between 400 and a million years for most plastic products to biodegrade. Plastic is littering our roadways, filling our landfills, mucking up our waterways, and killing marine life.

A huge soup of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean is estimated to be somewhere between the size of Texas to twice the size of the continental United States. According to one estimate, over a million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals die every year from ingesting plastic debris.

A non-renewable resource

Plastic is a petroleum by-product, and more Americans are looking critically at our reliance on petroleum products. We had a devastating look at the downsides of petroleum extraction and distribution when thousands of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in 2009.

And it’s not just massive oil spills that pollute our environment. Minor petroleum leaks and spills contaminate soils or wash into storm drains and pollute waterways.

Petroleum extraction is also responsible for a myriad of social and political troubles around the world.

Is it time to part with polymers?

Americans throw away 60 million plastic bottles every day according to the Clean Air Council, and many of us are looking for ways to generate less waste.

Here are 12 easy ways to use less plastic:

Carry a stainless steel coffee mug or water bottle.
Factor packaging into your decision-making. If you can afford to buy the glass jar of tomato sauce instead of a can or plastic bottle, consider whether it’s worth a little extra cash to you. (Cans are lined with plastic, and 40 percent still contain BPA.)
Bring reusable bags to the store. Keep some in your car or bike basket so you don’t forget them. Transport produce in reusable bags or a basket.
Just say no to straws. Americans throw away 500 million straws per day.
Buy food from the bulk section when possible. Refill glass jars with syrup, cooking oil, nut butters, shampoo, etc at a local health food store. Ask the checkout person to weigh your jars before you fill them and write the tare weight on the lid.
Store food in jars or cloth bags. You can freeze leftovers, breast milk, or baby food in jars if you leave a little room at the top and thaw them slowly.
Cook from scratch. Processed food, take-out containers, and to-go beverages are usually packaged in plastic, styrofoam, or plastic-lined materials.
Use cloth diapers and/or reusable menstrual products.
Use a Bento lunchbox.
Make your own detergents, cleaners, and toiletries, such as deodorant, bath salts, and shampoo and conditioner.
Buy products in larger quantities to reduce packaging waste. For instance, get the largest sizes of detergent and bath tissue.
Avoid buying flimsy plastic toys and trinkets that you’ll throw away quickly. Keep plastic away from babies or toddlers who will chew on it.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Depressed about throwing plastic in the garbage? Check out these 12 Easy Ways to Use Less Plastic. #plasticfree” quote=”Depressed about throwing plastic in the garbage? Check out these 12 Easy Ways to Use Less Plastic.” theme=”style1″]

Reduce and Reuse

Scientists, governments, and consumers are just beginning to reckon with the planetary crisis of plastics pollution. We need large-scale solutions to address the problem. However, in the meantime, it’s up to all of us to use less plastic.

[Editor’s note: This is an updated and revamped version of a blog post originally published on June 19, 2009.]

Are you finding ways to use less plastic? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!

If you liked this post, you may like these related posts:

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Want Healthy, Happy Kids? Walk With Them.

By Abby Quillen

Walking has always been my favorite mode of transportation. Yes, it’s usually the slowest way to get somewhere, averaging fifteen minutes per mile. But it makes me feel clear-headed and invigorated when I get to my destination. Thus, I’ve long preferred striding, strolling, or sauntering to driving, riding, and even biking. That’s why I’ve commuted by foot to school and work most of my life, even when I was nine months pregnant.

My kids don’t exactly share my zeal for bipedal locomotion.

“You know, the car is faster,” four-year-old Ira patiently explains as we amble toward his preschool.

“One block, Mom. One block. Then we’ll turn around,” seven-year-old Ezra declares as we maneuver our puppy out the door for an after-school jaunt around the neighborhood.

I’ve never seen research on the topic, but the mental health benefits of walking seem to diminish rapidly when a child is trudging beside you complaining. So I’ve allowed and even encouraged the boys to grab their bikes on walks in the past. Wheels tend to help them move along at a nice pace, and their complaining wanes.

However, this year I’m on a mission to get my kids walking more. I love bikes, but I’m convinced walking, the upright movement that distinguishes us as human, is an under-appreciated key to good health. Moreover, not walking — 35 percent fewer kids walk and bike to school than they did in 1969 — may be causing a lot of problems for our kids (and the rest of us).

Walking is Anti-Sitting

Walking is not as vigorous as running or playing. But it may actually be the moderate intensity of walking that makes it so good for us. Why? It doesn’t tire us out, so we continue to move around for the rest of the day. However, those vigorous bouts of high-intensity movement we usually call “exercise” often encourage us to sit more. In one study, exercisers were 30 percent less active on the days they hit the gym. That’s a problem because varied all-day movement seems to be the ticket to optimal health.

You’ve probably seen the headlines that sitting too much increases cardiovascular issues, even when people exercise vigorously several times a week. Excessive sitting is bad for kids too. Just three hours of uninterrupted sitting caused the blood vessels of girls, aged nine to 12, to restrict in a study. Unfortunately most kids sit a lot. Worldwide, children sit for about 8.5 hours a day.

[clickToTweet tweet=”On average, kids sit for 8.5 hours a day. The antidote? Walking. #walking #kidshealth” quote=”On average, kids sit for 8.5 hours a day. The antidote? Walking.” theme=”style1″]

What’s the antidote to sitting? Lots of walking. Walking is not only good for our hearts and organs, it’s good for the entire body. Riding a bike gets the blood flowing, however, the hips stay flexed, our shoulders hunch forward, and our tails tuck. However, walking, when done in proper alignment, is the opposite of sitting. The movement elongates the spine and tones the pelvic floor. Biomechanist Katy Bowman calls it a “biological imperative,” because we must do a lot of it to maintain a healthy body, especially a healthy skeleton.

Walking Builds Healthy Bones

Experts say childhood is the best time to invest in healthy bones. According to the National Institute of Health, bone mineral density peaks around age 20 for boys and 18 for girls. Healthy bone mineral density both makes kids less at risk for childhood fractures and less likely to experience osteoporosis and fractures later in life. Alarmingly, more kids may have low bone mineral density than in previous eras, according to Orthopedic Surgeon Shevaun Mackie Doyle, perhaps because they get less activity and exposure to sunshine.

Biking gets kids outside, offers cardiovascular benefits, and is great for the environment when it replaces car trips. But it’s not so great for bone health, according to a number of studies. In studies, cyclists, especially those who ride on smooth terrain, have the same or even lower bone density than sedentary control groups. (Swimmers also have similar bone density to sedentary people, likely because both groups don’t bear their own weight while they’re moving.)

Walking not only builds healthy bones, it encourages kids to run, jump, skip, gallop, tromp, and tree-climb, all of which are superb bone builders.

Walking Improves Quality of Life

Walking isn’t just important for our bodies. It boosts mental health. It helps people attune to the environment, rather than their worries, and has been shown to increase the size of the hippocampus and improve memory. Walking to school helps kids focus for the rest of the day and has been shown to reduce the need for kids to take ADHD medication, according to a British study.

Daily walks also boost immunity, decreasing people’s chance of getting a cold by as much as 30 percent. That may be especially alluring to parents as we enter another cold and flu season.

Maybe you’re already convinced about walking’s superhero qualities? Warning: your kids may not be. Mine complain walking is boring and say it makes their legs tired. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to make it more palatable.

How to Help Kids Love Walking

“You know, Mom, that was sort of fun,” Ezra remarked the other day after a one-and-a-half-mile walk to a school-related meeting. This walk is straight uphill, and a few months ago, he would have balked at the idea of it. So it was an exciting moment for me. However, getting him to this point required some effort on my part. The following tactics have made walking more fun for my kids and may help your kids enjoy walking more too.

Go Somewhere Fun

Whether it’s a playground or a birthday party, having a destination gets kids moving. One popular hike in our area is a winding uphill trek, but every kid I know hustles to the top. Why? There’s a swing up there.

Walk to School or on Errands

Walking is best when it’s used as a mode of transportation. That way, it becomes a seamless part of life, and kids and adults alike are less likely to think of it as optional “exercise.” Let’s face it, exercise is too often an activity we don’t enjoy that encourages more sedentary behavior for the rest of the day. It’s better to make walking routine.

Bring a Friend

Nothing seems to gets a kid moving like another kid. The instant a friend joins us, complaining vanishes as the kids race each other to the end of the block and scramble up trees.

Play games

A game of Red Light, Green Light or Follow the Leader is a sure way to get kids excited about a walk. We’ve invented our own walking game called Force Fields. Basically, there are imaginary “force fields” we can fall into in as we walk, and someone has to rescue us with an imaginary rope or magic dust. The game relieves my kids’ fatigue and boredom quickly, and they have a great time thinking up variations, such as “whirlwind force fields” and “quicksand force fields.”

Expect to Carry Little Ones Sometimes

Little legs tire faster than ours, so our littlest kiddos will probably need to be carried sometimes. It may be tempting to bring along a stroller or backpack, and I do when we’re going a long way, but these tools can encourage more sitting than walking. So on shorter walks I leave them at home and expect to carry my four-year-old occasionally. Here’s what I’ve learned. When I resist carrying him, everyone is miserable. When I happily let him climb up on my back, he’s usually back on his feet and running around within a block or two. And the good news is, carrying little ones is something we’re built to do, and it makes our bones and bodies strong. Think of it as strength training with built in hugs.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Walking builds healthy bodies and brains. With a little creativity, kids can love it. #kidshealth” quote=”Walking builds healthy bodies and brains. With a little creativity, kids can love it.” theme=”style1″]

Conclusion

Many adults are looking for ways to feel better, relieve musculoskeletal pain, and connect with our kids. At the same time, we’re worried that our kids get sick too much, spend too much time on the couch with electronics, or have trouble focusing at school. The solution to all of those problems and many more is free and accessible to nearly everyone. Walk!

If you liked this post, you may enjoy these related posts:

Do you walk with your kids? Have you found ways to make it enjoyable for them? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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