Brio - Everyone can get in on the act!

Our collection of brio must be one of the longest lasting toys in this house (although that's quickly followed by Jaiden's clicky things aka zoob)

I have happy memories of playing with brio when I was a child, and it's one of the toys that has stood the test of time at my parent's house too - now being played with my grandkids. I remember the little boy my mum used to childmind, playing and making loops, and then after he went home, my dad would work on the track, developing and extending it to be even bigger and better! I also remember we used to buy Daddy bits of brio from the Early Learning shop for his birthday.

Our collection mostly came from hand-me-downs, charity shops, and from a lady I connected with through a wonderful facebook group called Enfield free for families - which is based in Enfield, Middlesex and the surrounding area, which my lovely friend established, and I've been a part of since the very beginning.

I know I go on and on about charity shops, but I LOVE them.  They are so good for so many reasons.
Money! The environment! One of a kind items! And much more.
If I could only shop in charity shops from now on, I would probably take that challenge on. I can probably count on my fingers how many times I've bought brand new clothes/toys/etc in the last few months.

These memories surfaced in my brain thanks to watching children at my work playing and loving brio, and reminded me how great it is for some many age groups and people. Plus I was looking at old pics on my computer and just couldn't resist this one of my favourite people.

Thinkings from my brain part one

I've been reading a lot lately about reducing plastic use. I'm definitely not an expert in this, just sitting here, I'm looking around my room and I can see all sorts of plastic around me. But I definitely think it's something that every one needs to think about seriously. Recycling is not enough (although it's definitely the right thing to do with any plastic you have already that can be recycled) but we need to ultimately cut down on using plastic altogether.
Things I've tried to do so far -
* Reusable containers in the lunch boxes. I take a lunch to work every day. The kids have one maybe once a week, when they really don't like the school lunch options that are available.
I have a bunch of plastic (yes, still plastic) reusable pots which we use for sandwiches and fruit like grapes or raisins, rather than using plastic bags that will be thrown away after one use.
- more things I could change - working on sending homemade things like flapjack/cookies rather than sending things like cereal bars that we sometimes buy and send.

*Similar to the last one - reusable drinks bottles. Sophia has a metal one that she got for a birthday, from a company called One Green Bottle, I believe.  My sisters are both further ahead on this with me. We also have some plastic bottles which get washed and refilled many times before they are thrown out. (Some are systema, bought ones, a couple are purchased drinks that are reused). Again, not the best solution, but better than throwing a plastic bottle in the bin every day.

* Plastic containers/glass/plate on top options for saving leftovers. I could pretend that's because I've stopped using cling film, but actually, I've always hated the stuff and avoided it like the plague. So really I was just ahead of the pack on this one, right?!

* Shopping bags. I've got a lot of reusable bags. Some are plastic, some are better fabrics like cotton. ideally they'd all be organic fair trade cotton or something, but I settle for reusing what I have now, and making better choices if I do have to buy any more.

I'm sure there are others, but there are also people doing this far better than I, so get googling, and if I find any good resources I'll try to share.