Need book recs for your teens? I’ve got a girl. Want a new and susty lip balm? I’ve got a girl. Want to host an itty bitty sports gear swap for your community? I’ve got a girl (but I don’t think she shares her service, so you’ve got this one). I believe in you! And Happy Gilmore, because we’re talking about golf.
Today is…
Celebrate Teen Literature Day.
So I need to tell you about Britt the EJ Educator. She’s a smart, strong, and dedicated climate justice educator and classroom teacher who knows a thing or two (or lots) about book recs for teens. You can check her out on Instagram and become a Patron if you love her work and want to invest in her mission.
Given how much time she spends with students, she knows smartphones, screens, and social media are taking away from teens’ interest in reading (and causing other problems too). She and I agree about a future of phone-free schools. And she creates an envious classroom library full of amazing books to engage her students and remind them about the magic of stories and literature.
Go check her out. Give her a follow! You won’t regret it.
sustainable spotlight
When your friends start asking you to sell your DIY lip balm because it’s that good, you listen. That’s what Tricia of loveBB did! Do you blame her?
I met Tricia at a conference for artists and creators hosted by
. It was there that Tricia passed me a tube of The Lip Balm (in a compostable container… so I’m already melting about it faster than the lip balm melts in my car in August). It’s good stuff!Her most popular product is the tinted lip balm trio, but I’m more of a clear lip balm girl so I asked for the untinted lip balm. I’m sold. Ya know how most natural, sustainable lip balms come in tins and containers that require you to use your fingers to apply them? I don’t love that. So I’m all in on a tube that’s not plastic and keeps my fingers clean. Thanks for that little upgrade that’s a big deal to me.
I’ll share more about loveBB in the coming weeks, but here’s your first introduction. I hope you check it out. And if you’re already familiar with the brand, let me know what you think!
I’m buried in old hockey jerseys…
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like my kids need new sports gear all the friggin’ time. Old gear (like the 1,354 hockey jerseys they got for each special practice, tryout, and all-star game) piles up. I’m always buying something new. And this stuff isn’t cheap! It feels wasteful to toss expensive equipment in decent condition when they outgrow it. So what to do with it other than let it collect dust in my basement, which is its current fate…
There are some tried and true solutions to this conundrum… like passing equipment along to younger siblings or cousins and friends. Our boys are the same size, so there’s no real pathway from the older sibling to the younger one for us. We give away sports gear to friends and teammates’ siblings from time to time, but we’re still left with mountains of hockey gear, baseball bats, cleats, and more. I can’t bring myself to throw it away.
Last season, a fellow eco-minded friend and parent of athletes reached out to ask if I wanted to coordinate a baseball gear swap with her for our boys’ baseball league. I loved the idea. But I felt a little overwhelmed about one more thing to manage (not to mention, I’m pretty mediocre at event planning). I’m sure she held a similar sentiment about another task on her calendar. So the idea lingered without much action.
Winter passed and spring season crept up on us, and we finally got our act together. She and her husband deserve most of the credit, but we (and by we, I mean mostly they) pulled together a great sports gear sale and swap that helped prevent a bunch of stuff from going into the landfill and raised several hundred dollars for the boys’ travel baseball team. She also made some changes around uniforms for the baseball league to limit how much stuff the kids get that they don’t give a crap about.
The gear swap and the uniform changes are small things. We aren’t solving climate change over here on our own. But they’re actionable steps we can take in our communities that make a difference. They matter when they add up. And exactly zero people are complaining about raising a bit of money for fundraising or reducing uniform costs for parents. Maybe you can replicate some of this in your town?
Uniform Consistency
She started by volunteering to manage the uniform selection and ordering process for the baseball league, fully disclosing her intent to make a few changes with buy-in from the commissioners, to help make it easier for families to reuse certain items from prior years and pass them down to siblings or friends.
In the past, every team received a unique uniform shirt and hat. Almost nobody touched those items after the season, and they included sponsor names and numbers so it was difficult to reuse them in future years. While she kept team-specific jerseys, she ordered one hat style that reflected the whole community league instead of unique hats for each team.
Now everyone has an adjustable hat with our local high school colors, is suitable for future seasons, can be passed to siblings, and is great for supporting all sorts of high school and community teams in our area. We see so many kids wearing these hats outside of baseball games now (which never used to happen).
All players received hats this year, but parents will have an option next year to skip getting a new hat, maybe in exchange for a discount on their registration fee. It might seem like a small change, but so many kids love their hats more and we will have far fewer hats languishing in landfills and unwanted donation boxes at the end of the season. It just makes sense!
Fundraising Gear Swap
In addition to the small uniform modifications, we wanted to create a marketplace for parents within the league to buy, sell, and swap gear like bats, helmets, cleats, and baseball pants. We thought about hosting a Facebook group, but that felt like one more community group to manage among a plethora of local buy-and-sell groups and community gifting groups already operating. Hard pass.
We settled on a gear swap event to raise money for the oldest group of players who travel to Cooperstown, New York, each summer for a big baseball tournament. At a handful of league events over the season, like evaluation day, opening day, and some busy Saturday game days, we set up a collection table to receive donated gear and simultaneously sell those items to other families in the league.
On the blog, I shared more details about logistics, payment collection, what we accepted, and a link to a free Canva template we created as a promotional flyer for the event. The project took a bit of coordination but was easier than I expected.
With four parents helping to coordinate and several of the boys on the team volunteering to oversee the table during event days, we made a few hundred dollars to support the team. And we helped people in the community get their old gear to the right kids who could use it. We collectively threw fewer items in the trash, helped some families save money, and built community connections to support the kids and the adventure to Cooperstown. I mean - that’s a lot of wins, right?
Other ways to sell, swap, and buy used sports gear
There are many ways to sell, swap, and buy used sports gear for kids. I feel like they all have a bit of friction, and each has its pros and cons. Different people have different skills too, so a variety of marketplaces and financially diverse options to acquire and offload secondhand sports gear make sense. Check out this more comprehensive list of places to swap, sell, and buy used sports gear for kids and adults.
Last, but certainly not least, don't forget to clean that stinky gear before you pass it along. It might depend on the sport, but I'm certain no one wants my boys’ smelly hockey shorts or sweaty elbow pads, even if they're free. 🤮 Do your fellow fans a favor, and keep it clean.
What do you do with all that old sports gear? Do your kids grow out of it faster than it gets worn out? Am I the only one with a mountain of sports stuff piling up in my garage and basement?
a few other eco things
I LOVE this idea. I call it golf course gold.
I read this essay on The High Cost of Going Green from
of and thought “yep. yep. yep. yep.” the whole time. I wanted to pick a favorite line or two that resonated, but then I would have copied and pasted the whole thing. So just read it. You’ll feel validated.Last week I linked to Week 1 of the Reset Your Space Challenge.
has some great ideas, so here is Week 2. I love how she suggests “cooking down your pantry” instead of “cleaning out your pantry” if it’s feeling cluttered. It’s such an obvious shift once she says it, but the goal is much more sustainable and sensible.I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it 1,756,897 more times. So I‘ll let Erin say it this time. Sustainability is a mindset shift.
Want to learn about sustainable side hustles? I was interviewed for this event to discuss just that idea. Did you know I had a little sustainable side hustle? Ask me about it if you’re curious. 😊
I wonder how much people care about clean water. Enough to realize that the EPA is pretty helpful and not worth demonizing?
I have many friends and family who live on coasts and near wetlands. What will come of those places as sea level rises? This lives rent-free in the back of my mind…
just because
OMG. Yes! I have this awkward corner. 🙌🏻
This is 100% true. Prove me wrong.
"When in doubt, go to the library." - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
This makes me sad and angry. We can do better…
weekly mini eco challenge
Dig out of your mountain of kids’ gear and take one step toward finding a better place for it than Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Declutter and sort through the closet. Sign up for a Buy Nothing group. Find a Style Scout on Kidizen to help you sell your stuff. Maybe you are ambitious enough to host an itty bitty gear swap like we did. I’m rooting for you!
Until next time, I hope you’re having the best week available to you. Don’t hesitate to comment or leave questions. I love hearing from you all.
Your eco nerd friend,
Jen
💛 DID YOU KNOW that if you hit the HEART at the top or bottom of this newsletter, it makes it easier for people to find Stepping Stones (and totally makes my day)? TIA 💛
Jen Panaro is a self-proclaimed composting nerd and advocate for sustainable living for modern families. Through her writing, workshops, and podcast guesting, she helps others find ways to incorporate sustainability into their everyday lives more easily while appreciating the joy along the journey.
When she’s not writing and creating, she’s a serial library book borrower, a messy gardener, a composting tinkerer. She’s a wife and mom of two boys and spends a lot of time in hockey rinks and other sporting venues watching her boys tear it up for their teams.
Thanks for including LIVING SMALL! Love the idea of a gear swap