We always give a lot of stuff away. A lot of toys we got were hand me downs, but we have so much family that our kids get way too many toys for both birthday and Christmas, which I find unfortunate. We never buy toys for our kids throughout the year, those are the only 2 times a year they get new toys. One thing we will do is take some of them and put them in the basement, then switch them out throughout the year. Keeps the kids from whining for new toys when you go to the store and gives them something "new" to play with from time to time. We just keep constantly switching them out. We'll also get the family to buy something bigger sometimes. Like we got everyone to pitch in to buy a play structure one year rather then toys. Another year it year it was bicycles or sleds...something to get them outside.
We did not use reusable diapers...at the time my wife would never have gone for it...but I've switched her over to healthier habits now and so she'd probably do it more now if we had another.
It's hard to keep the usage down though especially now with the kids being 3 and 5. You tell them to turn the tap off when finished washing hands. You have to teach the young ones to stop flushing the toilet just because. We had just moved into our new house in November and we have well water with iron in it. Well the iron stains the toilet bowl and the youngest one thought there was always pee in it so he kept flushing...yeah...that was fun. We got him to stop now but for a while it was flush flush flush...and this is the old toilets too. Not the new eco ones I'll be buying.
But yeah, at this point, I'm very strict with them about turning off lights and not using too much water. Other then that...not sure if you have McDonald's in your area, but if you do, stay away from the happy meals with those stupid cheap toys...I hate those. Use a rain barrel. If you have a sump pump use it to water your grass.
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