Well, hello there and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian and you are listening to

episode 216 of the Sustainable Minimalist Podcast, a twice weekly show about intentional and eco-minimalist living.

On today's show we are discussing all things sustainable arts and crafts and more

specifically I should say we're talking about eco-friendliness as it relates to our

children's arts and crafts. I received an email from Jackie. I'm going to go ahead and read her email and then I'm going to do my absolute best to answer her question.

So here's Jackie's email.

Stephanie, do you have any tips for making kids arts and crafts more sustainable. I have a craft shelf that the kids love.

I keep it stocked with construction paper, pipe cleaners, beads, pom poms, etc.

and love to encourage their creativity, but it feels so wasteful.

I try to teach them to use the whole piece of paper or don't get a new one out and draw one

little thing in the middle and then start over on a new piece of paper if you made a mistake,

but it all feels so wasteful. I should also add that I have three kids six and under so I would love

ideas that are not too time-consuming. I do not

have time to melt crayons stubs into new ones for example. Any tips? Thank you, Jackie.

All right, Jackie, I have a bunch of ideas for you.

I should say right off the bat that I attack arts and crafts differently than you. It sounds like creative expression

is really important to you. You mentioned that you have a craft shelf and you

keep it stocked and I think that's wonderful. However I do need to say at the outset that I

despise I despise arts and crafts I the mess, the minimalist in me just isn't a fan, the

environmentalist in me is definitely not a fan. And so I have some tips for you I will say I get emails about arts and

crafts an awful lot and a lot of times people are not so thrilled with my

answers because they think my answers are lacking.

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