Reducing waste and our personal environmental footprint is a goal many of us aspire toward. However, sometimes it can feel overwhelming, difficult and even expensive, to make meaningful change. This is especially true when coupled with the daily chaos of being a parent.
To help combat the cost and environmental impact of parenting two mothers, Hayley Marshall and Tess Fabian, have launched a new online community where parents can lend, buy, sell and give away baby gear and accessories. “By borrowing baby items or buying secondhand you are not just saving yourself money but helping the environment by extending and better utilising the life of an item,” Hayley says.
Tess and Hayley are both passionate about the environment and regularly borrowed baby items from each other. The idea for Live Love Lend was born when they realised that their baby items could be put to much better use. We had a lot of items like bassinets, play gyms and bouncers that can be expensive and are often only used for a short time. “I was just storing items away for our next child or until someone I knew needed them, it just made sense to me that if someone else could benefit from them then I’d be happy to share them,” Hayley says.
“Our hope is that Live Love Lend will help create a community of sharers giving parents more affordable and environmentally friendly options,” she says. Their lifestyle blog also inspires eco-friendly living by providing easy tips and ways to reduce your impact on the environment.
While renting items is not a new concept they found that many sites only catered for travellers or were very expensive which meant that sometimes it would be cheaper to buy an item rather than rent. The key difference with Live Love Lend is that members rent out their own items and can set prices as they wish, which are usually significantly lower than other sites. Many of the items on the site, such as cots, baby carriers and play gyms, are priced between $1-3 per week, making them very reasonable.
To join the Live Love Lend community of families making big inroads into parenting sustainability visit the site today
Toys for hire
Providing children with toys, while being mindful of waste and cost, can be a struggle.
And with children’s interests and development continually changing it’s easy to accumulate a lot of toys, much of which can’t be recycled.
By joining a Toy Library you’re giving your children the opportunity to explore new interests and develop new skills at each stage of development from birth to school age (5-8 years old).
Their toys are high quality, durable and whenever possible made from natural products.
Through hiring, rather than buying, we can reduce the amount of unwanted toys that end up in landfill.
We recommend you visit Christchurch South Toy Library, Pegasus Toy Library Parklands, Waimairi Toy Library, Papanui Community Toy Library, Seaside Community Toy Library, and Opawa St Martins Plunket Toy Library.
Re-loved marketplace
New Zealand re-loved online marketplace, Little Outfitters, launches 1 July to provide parents with a one-shop platform to cycle their children’s designer clothing and accessories, saving and making money in the process. The platform encourages parents to sell their pre-loved children’s clothing and, in so doing, enables other parents a lower-cost, more environmentally friendly alternative to buying new.
Fifty-five per cent of NZ retailers failed to meet targets this quarter due to the growing belief in more conscious consumption and sustainable practices. Secondhand shopping, renting and sharing is becoming more popular and Little Outfitters is attempting to reshape this cycle of consumption, for children. “We’re not adding more materials to the world. We’re consciously cycling better ones,” says founder Lucy Kirkwood, who saw a gap in the market for cycled designer children’s clothing.
From Kenzo to Nature Baby, designer children’s brands for 0-10 years will be bought, sold, and re-loved from July this year. This makes coveted labels and higher-quality micro-fashion accessible.
