((Soo, this post is long overdue, and I had written the draft MONTHS ago. 😅😅 But, I have been promising it for all of those MONTHS and finally, here it is! 🎉🎉))
In just his first six months of life, my child has grown over half of a foot. That’s at least one inch per month. At all of his checkups, he has measured in roughly the 97th percentile for height. 😱
Needless to say, all of this growth needs to be fueled by something.
As I’ve mentioned before, and will cover in more detail in a future post, I stopped being able to exclusively breastfeed when my son was only 2 weeks old. By the time he was 2 months old, I had to make the personally heartbreaking decision to exclusively formula feed.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell some of you Momz’s that formula feeding is expensive.💸 Not only that, but it results in a lot of tins and plastic scoops that end up needing to be discarded. And once they’re in the trash, there’s really only one place they can go…
…The Landfill. 😬😬😬
I try to do my part to reduce my carbon footprint, if only by a pinky toe, and admittedly, I’ve spent some nights tossing and turning thinking of all the cans and scoops just sitting in a landfill somewhere from the result of just my spawn’s insatiable feeding. 😓
Like a lot of Moms, I’m addicted to Pinterest. 📌📍😍 I could literally spend hours idly scrolling through recipes, DIY’s, and adorable crafts. Through my hours of pinning recipes I will definitely someday try for real, I’ve also fallen in love with upcycling. 🥰♻
I’ve always been an advocate for recycling. However, the small city in which my family lives makes it hard to recycle, as I’d have to go out of my way to bring recyclables to the center, and with a toddler in tow, the fewer errands the better, am I right?
If you’re like me, you’ve got similar problems. And I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems, and my own personal mini landfill of forumla tins is one. 💯
But don’t worry! If like me you fret about the amount of waste your child’s feeding produces, I’ve come up with a list of suggestions of what you can do with all that would-be garbage! 😁😁🙌
🍼Free coffee, sugar, etc serving spoons♻
According to my research (✨🏫🚌🤣), one formula scoop equals about 1 tablespoon. In an effort to reduce waste, I’ve started saving all of my scoops and keeping them in every scoopable substance in my home, so that I always have a scooping implement handy (If you’re not solely responsible for the kid(s) and nonpregnant at the moment, go back and read that sentence and take a shot every time you read the word ‘scoop’ 🥃🤣).
All of the ones I’ve used have a small hole in the bottom, so to prevent leakage, you could plug the hole with a bead of hot glue and clean the scoop off with some soap and water once the glue is dried.
🍼Leftovers!♻
I have not purchased tupperware for a while, as I’ve been re-purposing the plastic tubs we get with cold cuts, takeaway, etc for leftover storage. I’ve taken to using formula cans for a similar purpose.
I’ve put “wet” leftovers in them before, however, upon further observation, I’ve noticed the “tin” seems to rust if not dried out thoroughly, 😬 so I would opt to store “dry” leftovers like cream of wheat, oatmeal, etc in formula cans.
The cans (in theory) should also deter pantry moths, as the crafty bastards always seem to find a way into resealable bags. 🤢🙅
Be sure to write down the original expiration date as well as the date you transferred the dry goods into the tin to ensure they are used within optimal freshness! ✅
🍼Freezer Compost/Container Gardening♻
Now that we have a porch for it, I eventually plan on container gardening. I have a stash of formula tins saved for this very purpose. 😊😊
This is fairly straight forward, I think, just put some soil and fertilizer in the tin and try not to kill your plants! 🌱💕
Since these containers aren’t the biggest, I would probably plant something small like herbs to season those Pinterest meals 🥘😋 or flowers to attract pollinators 🐝🦋 to your little garden.
If you’re a little more ambitious like me, and want to try planting actual produce in them, I’ve been told to plant crops that grow upward such as tomatoes, 🍅 to keep from having cumbersome overgrowth or having to re-pot right away (crops that grow upward are more feasible for container gardening for this reason). So by that logic, formula tins should be a good place to start for such an endeavor. But don’t take my word for it! That’s just a theory…a CONTAINER GARDENING THEORY! (Anyone else spend wayy too much free time on Youtube sometimes?)
Now, as for composting…for a while I had been storing compost material in a formula tin in the freezer. Much like these formula tins and scoops, I’ve had mini anxiety attacks over the thought of how much food waste I’ve been contributing to the landfills, but until recently I’ve not had an opportunity to actually put this food waste to any use. 🤷♀️
If you try this, I will let you know that between banana peels, avocado pits and shells, paper towels, the list goes on…one 23.2 oz tin fills up rather quickly. I’m currently looking into getting a compost spinner to transport this waste into so that all this effort doesn’t go to waste. 🚯😁 I’ll keep you (com)posted! 😂🤣
🍼Spare Change
Container♻
My car is a dump on wheels. 🗑🚙 And a part of what contributes to this dump is me absent-mindedly tossing spare change from various Dunkins and Starbucks runs into every compartment within arms reach of the driver’s seat. And when I drive without my son, I like to bump “Gin and Juice” at top volume🎚🔊, which causes the varying sized coins to rattle together causing a cacophony of irritating sound trying to harmonize with my gangsta rap. 🎵🎶😖
Once I actually get around to cleaning out my car, I intend to make a “swear jar” out of one or two of my tin collection and put all of my car/purse/diaper bag change into them, and cash them out once they are full and use a portion for my son’s education, a portion for family fun, and a portion for charity.
🍼Formula To-Go♻
We don’t get Chinese food as often as we used to. 🥡🍚🥠😋😢 Not that we got it all that often, anyway. But when we did, we seemed to get an excess of sauces which come in plastic containers of various sizes. I had always hated throwing them away, sauce and all, as we never end up using any, and I always forget to tell them not to include it with our orders. 😓😓😓
It dawned on me one day (unless this is a highly case of parallel thinking) to rinse out one of these sauce containers, fill it with a few servings of formula, and place an extra scoop inside it to keep in my diaper bag for backup for our little adventures. That way when I inevitably forget my one thing each trip, at the very least I will be equipped with the ever-important food source.
🍼Lil Drummer Bois and Grrls♻
I saw this idea on Pinterest, actually. It’s quite simply taking a formula (or oatmeal, etc) tin, and attaching some kind of fabric, etc over the opening and creating a drum from it. Or, you can fill it with beads or rice and glue the top to it and create rain sticks, or even securely attach strings to the opening for a guitar of sorts. Let your imagination run wild so that your child’s can run even wilder. 🥁🎶💭
Parents who don’t mind some extra noise on top of the everyday squealing and mess-making that comes with small children can go ahead and try this one out and let me know how it goes. 👌🤣
🍼Toy/Chatchki/Craft Supply Storage/Swear Jar♻
Pretty much as described, store various small objects in the formula tin as you see fit. 🙂
So these are just a few ideas of ways you can reuse formula tins and scoops and do your part to reduce the carbon (big)footprint! 👣 If we all do one small thing to help our environment, together we can make some kind of headway in trying to make the Earth a little healthier for our sons and daughters. 🌎🌍🌏♻🌱🌳💗
Did I miss something? Or was this all old news? What are other ways to reuse this stuff? Lemme know in the comments! 😙😙
Thanks for reading, my gals! 😘🥰 Tune in next time for a very special announcement!💓💓💓
scrunchymomz 