Rachel Rosenthal shared a great idea that really got me thinking. At first glance, it’s a simple system for reducing clutter. But it makes me think of more– things like the value of recycling and even the challenge of teaching our kids discipline and delayed gratification. Before I complicate things and wax a bit philosophical, here’s her terrific idea:

Whenever I buy something new, I always imagine it as a replacement for something that I already have and I get rid of the older item. For example, each time a new issue of a magazine arrives, I toss an older issue into the recycling. This system helps keep multiples of the same kind of thing from cluttering your space.
- Rachel Rosenthal, ROSEY’S, www.roseysurbanstyle.com

Now on to some related thoughts. I’ve got a lot to say about this one (and I’ll probably post separately about these topics in the future - look for the “Dish Green” category when I do).

I wouldn’t call myself a huge Greenie, but I am quite mindful of the environment. And I try to do my best to make good choices– for myself and also to model good behavior and decision making for my daughters. I’ve tried to engage my daughters in the effort even though their young ages (4 and 5 1/2) can make that a challenge. I try to use the old Reduce/Reuse/Recycle adage as a framework. It works for recycling and environmental awareness but I think it works for some broader themes, especially for little kids.

“Reduce” is a theme I try to invoke much like Rachel suggests above. They are at the stage where they want a lot of stuff. They see stuff on TV and at school and in the store and they frequently– though pretty innocently– ask if they can have things. Sometimes it makes me very frustrated, and I simply tell them “No.” Other times, I try to take a breath and calmly ask them if they really need it. This is in the hope that I can actually get them to think about it. Surprisingly, they are often pretty reasonable and quickly conclude that they do not. My wife has also been very good at engaging them in the giving of old toys/clothes/etc to Salvation Army or children’s hospitals or the like so they have the general sense that a) giving is good and b) no one needs too much stuff. We try to talk about what you could possibly do with “all that stuff” anyway! We’ve been somewhat successful so far. Still, it gets harder as they get older, get more immersed in consumer culture, and (most importantly) see their friends with stuff.

Related to the theme of Reducing consumption, I believe, is the idea of delayed gratification. And I believe this is one of the most important challenges we parents face today. So much is available so instantly that kids take it for granted. Every parent I know seems to have a story about their kid telling them just to go “get money from that machine” so we can buy something. Cute to a point, sure, but also a bit scary.

There are tons of studies about delayed gratification out there. I recall one about very young kids who were able to resist eating a single M&M when promised that they’d get two M&Ms 5 minutes later. Some kids cave in. Others wait. Many of the ones who wait are seen through one way mirrors employing all sorts of techniques to help themselves resist– sitting on their hands, looking away, singing to themselves, talking to the M&M, things like that. The fascinating (and scary) thing is that they study traced the kids through young adulthood and the ones who waited, who had greater self control and ability to delay gratification, were measurably more successful in life along a whole manner of dimensions. I couldn’t seem to find this exact study online, but there are plenty of related ones and here’s one:

Self-Discipline May Beat Smarts as Key to Success
By Jay Matthews, Washington Post (1/17/06, p. A10)
So what to do about it? I wish I had the answers. As I said above, I try to discuss the issue with my daughters in very simple terms and to model good consumer behavior for them. I think every little bit helps. And using simple systems like Rachel’s gives them another model.

I am big fan of Jonathan Clements’s personal finance columns in the Wall Street Journal. He had a great piece recently about teaching your kids about money: “12 Ways to Make Your Kids Financially Savy” (12/17/07, p. R1). (Some Journal content is free and some is subscriber only, so here’s a blog that discusses it in case you have trouble with the original.) My favorite of his ideas is the Soda Game– when at restaurants, give your kids a choice. They can have either a soda/tea/juice/milk OR they can have a perfectly healthy (and free) glass of water AND get a dollar. My girls are still probably a year away from this game being effective, but I love the idea and plan to use it.

“Reuse” turns out to be somewhat easier in my house because of my kids’ fondness for art. Almost any piece of trash can be conjured into beautiful artwork by the creative mind of a 4-5 year old. (And my wife posted recently on some great strategies for organizing all their masterworks.) When we turn an old can into art or keep popsicle sticks for future projects, I try to casually mention to them how great it is that we are reusing something. I’m not sure how much it sinks in, but it has to be better than nothing. And they at least talk about it a bit, which is a start.

There is a lot you can reuse these days. In our family, we make sure to do the simple things. For example, we never just throw out old bread bags or old ziploc bags (of which we have a lot because we eat so much Let’s Dish! food!). All of those bags get saved and we use them to organize small items like beads (in the case of the clean ziplocs), for “pick up” when we walk our Cairn Terrier (in the case of the bread bags) or to simply hold wet swimsuits on the way back from the pool in the summer. All of this is good behavior and the girls now notice if I throw away a bag and they’ll ask me why I am not keeping it (answer is usually that we only throw away bags that have had raw meat in them or are torn). Other things we try to reuse: old butter containers, larger tin cans with plastic lids, boxes. And then, if you can’t reduce it or reuse it, more and more you can recycle it.

“Recycle” is something the girls already understand to some extent. Again, we try to talk about it in simple terms. “People can make this into new things instead of just throwing it into a big trash pile.” And we have a recycle bin prominent in the kitchen so the girls see it and can participate in throwing things into it. I try to tell them when I’m taking out the recycling every other week on Wednesdays.

Speaking of, kudos to Baltimore City for going to single stream recycling in which you can put all your recyclables together in one container. And also for simultaneously increasing the types of plastics that can be recycled. It used to be just #1 and #2 but now is #1 through #7. (Read more if you live in Baltimore like I do.) I read a cool study in business school about the public policy problem of littering. It turns out that most folks don’t really “want” to litter. But at the same time, they will only carry a piece of trash so far on average. So the trick to reducing litter is often just making more trash cans available. Sounds simple, right? And we can all debate what it says about folks’ discipline that they can’t/won’t carry the trash a bit longer (perhaps most of us aren’t good at resisting that first M&M!?). But the fact remains: if reducing litter is deemed to be a valuable outcome, you can do so by putting out more trash cans. This costs money, of course, as does Baltimore’s new recycling program. (Sadly, in many cases, it is still cheaper– at least in the short term and in a simple analysis– to throw things out than recycle them). In this case though, I believe the new program will make compliance easier and will therefore result in more recycling. I am, of course, paying for this in my taxes, but this is one place I’m happy to see my money go.

Back to recycling in the Corcoran household. I try to focus the girls on the easy things:
- recycling all paper, all cans,
- turning off lights when they leave a room (this one is tough and we’re still working on it!)
- turning off the water when they brush their teeth (they are getting better at this)
- encouraging them to look on the bottom of containers for the recycling symbol

They are pretty good at paying attention to the little things that can be recycled like empty toilet paper rolls, small boxes (like from bandaids or cold medicine), magazine inserts that fall on the floor. It’s tempting to just chuck those in the trash, but I’ve engaged the girls to help notice those things and remember that they can be recycled, too. Every little bit helps.

I recently came across a nice little summary of things you can do to live a more sustainable life. It was put together by Stanford University and is in the form of a card you can download - I think it’s worth passing on:

Sustainable Choices Card
Use it to make decisions at home, at work, and on the road.
Wow, that was longer than I intended it to be! I’m going to post in the future on some related topics including our ongoing efforts at Let’s Dish! to be as environmentally conscious as possible.