16: Sustainable Living with Kids — How to Save Money and Reduce Waste with Jessica Nakamura

From cloth diapers and thrifted toys to birthday party overload, this is what sustainable living with small kids actually looks like — the joys, the trade-offs, and what makes it doable.

This week, I’m joined by Jessica Nakamura — a local realtor, mom of three (including twin toddlers), and self-described “kinda eco mom.” We sat down in my living room (sharing a mic in a DIY pillow fort) to talk about what sustainable living with kids really looks like in the thick of suburban parenting.

Jessica shares the eco-friendly tips and small shifts that have worked for her family — from cloth diapering and gift-free birthdays to secondhand shopping and passing baby "essentials" between friends — and how she’s learned to let go of perfection along the way.

We also talk about frugal living, budget-friendly sustainability, the reality of overconsumption, and what it means to lead by example without being the “boring mom.” This one’s full of laughs, honesty, and real talk about raising kids, building community, and living a little greener — even when life is loud, messy, and on a budget.

Takeaways

• Making eco-conscious choices with babies, toddlers, and tight budgets.
• Why cloth diapering can work — and why it’s okay to buy the disposables.
• Rethinking gift giving, especially for kids' parties
• How to reduce paper towel use without losing your mind
• The emotional weight of clutter (and what she’s seen in thrift stores).
• Why your local Buy Nothing group is a community game-changer
• Supporting local through real estate and building neighbourhood resilience

One Small Shift

Jessica encourages us to pause before clicking “buy” — and consider borrowing, thrifting, or reaching out to your local library or Buy Nothing group instead.

Connect With Jessica

That Mama Realtor - Website

That Mama Realtor - Perks

That Mama Realtor - Instagram

Resources

Zero Waste Birthday Parties for Kids

Thrift Shopping for Kids

Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas for Kids

Transcript

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Eco-parenting with three kids under three is not just possible, it's actually practical. Stay tuned for words of wisdom from today's guest. Welcome to Sustainable in the Suburbs, a podcast for the eco-curious who want to live a greener life and are looking for a place to start. I'm your host, Sarah Robertson Barnes, a soccer mom with a station wagon and a passion for sustainable living. Each week, I'll bring you practical tips and honest conversations to help you waste less, save money and make small doable shifts that actually fit your real life. Because sustainable living doesn't have to be perfect to matter and you don't have to do it all to make a difference. Hi friends and welcome back to Sustainable in the Suburbs, the podcast where we start where we are, use what we have and live a little greener. My name is Sarah and I'm so glad to have you in our growing community. If you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help it grow, there are a few small things you can do to support it. You can share an episode with a friend or leave a rating and review that really helps folks find the show. And you can also check out all the links in the show notes to the blog, shop, newsletter, all that stuff. Or you can come hang out with me on Instagram. I'm at Sarah Robertson Barnes and feel free to slide into my DMS. This week I'm doing something new. I'm chatting with my very first in-person guest sitting right here in my living room with our foreheads almost touching, sharing a mic. Jessica Nakamura is a local to me, realtor, a mom of three girls, including a set of twins, and someone I know through a women's business group that we're both a part of. She's built her real estate business around care, connection, and community, and that really comes through in everything she does. Jessica calls herself a kind of eco mom, and in this conversation, we talk about what sustainable living looks like in real life with little kids and budget. and with all the messiness that can come with both. From cloth diapers and thrift stores to birthday loot bags and navigating the sheer amount of stuff that passes through our homes, she shares the small shifts that have worked for her family and where things have felt harder or less clear. One of my favorite parts of the show is getting to share what sustainable looks like for real people, imperfect, intentional, and rooted in everyday life. So I hope this episode leaves you feeling inspired, encouraged, and maybe a little less alone. Here's my conversation with Jessica. Hello, Jessica. Welcome to the show and to the pillow fort we have created in my living room. I'm really glad that you're here today. I'm honored to be your first in-person guest. Thank you. We are just making it work with what we have. I already had to switch cables and trade computers and we're just sharing a mic while my kids are in the other room trying to be quiet. My husband's taking a meeting upstairs, but we're just doing. We're just two real moms trying to record a podcast. making it work. Nobody make a sound. Okay, here we go. Okay, so for folks who don't know you yet, can you introduce yourself, like who you are, what you do, and like what your average sort of day looks like? So my name is Jessica. I'm a mom of three girls. They're all under five and I have a set of twins. So what three kids in two years was a whole lot of craziness for me. But I also work as a realtor in my community. I live very close to you, Sarah, in East Gwylenbury, which is kind of like the northern end of York region, just north of Toronto. So my days look very differently because I wear a lot of hats. So depending on what I have going on, sometimes it'll be work if I have clients and showings prepping for that, doing offers. I also like to do a lot of community building. So I have a book club, I do stroller walks with my friends, we have coffee meetups, and I do a lot of small business networking events as well. And then of course there's mom life, groceries, laundry, all the extracurriculars and being a taxi. Did not know about the book club. We will talk about that later. I don't think I have time this week, but next one. So like you said, we both live in York region, which are these suburbs to the north of Toronto. Can you paint a picture of our area in York region for the folks? Like sort of what does it look like? What's the density like? That sort of thing. if I'm educated enough to, yeah, I'm a real treasure. Starting over. So it's really like suburbia. There is not, there is public transit, but it kind of gets you either to the places in the area or into the city. It's, you really need a car to survive here. Yeah, I think it's a lot of, least in our part of it, we're in the Northern end of York region. So it is a lot of like sprawl and it's very big box stores, but because we're in the Northern end, also have a lot of green space, which we can't really take for granted. think that especially like here in Aurora, where I am, we have a lot of trails on the ravine where they couldn't build. And I'm really grateful for that. Um, but as you get like further into Newmarket and East Guilinbury, East Guilinbury, there are more. green spaces. So I just wanted to highlight that because we're really lucky to have. And a lot of the new subdivisions, they've worked trails into it. So it's really, you can get everything in your community. There's those trails, the community center. So if you don't have a car, there's some great subdivisions that are in East Goulombry. Awesome. really, it's the fastest growing municipality in Canada, if you believe it. East Goulombry of all places. Yeah, so as we discussed, you're a realtor, but your approach is different from what people usually associate with real estate. Can you tell us a bit about what makes you different? There's a lot of stereotypes about realtors out there and sometimes for good reason. And I really wanted to be the opposite of that in a few different ways. First, I want to help families navigate one of the biggest transitions of their lives in a way that makes them feel supported and a lot less stressful. And I really understand the chaos of balancing kids, work and big decisions because I'm living it. And beyond the transaction. I'm deeply invested in my community. I want to help people grow into a place where they want to live, where families feel connected, local businesses thrive, and neighbors know each other's names. Imagine that. I talk about that a lot on this show. Like we don't do the cup of sugar thing anymore. I don't have the phone number of the person who lives next to me, even though we've lived next to each other for like 12 years at this point. And that's not how I grew up in New Market either. I want to really bring that back, get to know the people who live around you. Yeah, that's wealth to me, I think. And so you also when we talked before, you described yourself as like a sort of a sort of eco mom. What does that mean? So think there's a lot of stereotypes around like eco moms, like the crunchy granola. I'm just trying to do the best with what I have. I was really hard on myself in the beginning of like, if you're going to do something, you got to go all in. And I really made myself crazy. And I know you can relate to that. Yeah, I definitely went off the deep end with like trying to make everything, which was not sustainable for me. Um, and also just like, I can't buy this, these granola bars because they come in like wrapped in non recyclable packaging or whatever. And it kind of wasn't worth it. It definitely wasn't worth it. Um, there are more impactful things that, that we can do. So. Let's talk about that one. Let's talk about where you are right now. My two are in their early teens, but you're deep in the early years. So my girls are four, two, and two. So in those hard years. Yeah, that baby and toddler stage is so intense and trying to make more sustainable choices during that time can be completely overwhelming. But that's also where their habits start to take root. So it's important to model those things. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey into quote eco-parenting and when that started for you? So I've been really fortunate to have some great influences in my life and growing up. My grandmother grew up in World War II era Germany. So everything was reused, repurposed and saved. So I remember when I was a kid, she would like cut the letters out of cereal boxes and use them as an educational tool. And my mom actually cloth diapered me and my siblings. So it was something that I was familiar with and it was seemed achievable to me when I became a parent. So That was very important to me because a lot of people, when I was having my first, I told them, Hey, I'm going to cloth diaper. then you get a lot of that. luck with that, which I'm a very stubborn person. that motivated me even more to be successful at it. Did you use a diaper service or did you like buy the cloth diapers and wash them yourself? So I did everything myself. My mom, when she had me, it was kind of the end of the diaper service era before it made the comeback recently. I just decided to do everything myself because I'm an A plus student. Um, in my experience with, with coin laundry was the same or, but not with coin laundry. I did my cloth diapering in coin laundry. That's how stubborn I was about it. Um, I really wanted to do cloth diapering as well. And again, got looked at, like I've had three heads and like, there's no way you can do that. It's so much work, that kind of thing. So for me, I found it, it was like every two days, um, in the machine, just based on the number of diapers that we purchased. Did you find that it was like, quote, extra work? not really, it just kind of was built into my routine. So we started cloth diapering right from the beginning. So it was just, hey, it's been two days, let's rinse off these diapers, throw them in the load. And it's how I got just part of the routine. Did you find that it was more expensive than if you tried conventional diapers? There's the initial cost. did buy new because I was a first time mom and I wanted everything perfect. But there is a great secondhand market for diapers and it's really affordable. There really is. And the more you, this sounds strange, but the more they are used, the more absorbent they are. oh And then I still use my diapers now to clean up messes. We just went through potty training. So if someone has an accident, we just grab the inserts, wipe it up and put it in the bucket. That's brilliant. I didn't even think about that keeping them for cleaning, but we still have some burp cloths that a friend of mine sewed that are, don't know, like I'm making a hand motion. They're the size of a cloth napkin essentially. And I still put them in the kids lunch boxes and they're in their early teens now. So they lasted forever. Yeah. I was just going to say, you mentioned like that you use them to clean up spills. Have you tried like paper towel elimination or how do you find that works, especially with little kids? I have paper towel reduction. I still buy it and I use it for some things, just for sanitary purposes. If it's raw meat juice, I'll clean that up with a paper towel. But everything else, I will use the cloth diapers or the baby face cloth. Yeah. How do you balance these kind of values with the absolute chaos of having three kids under five years old? I really, it took me a while to learn this, but it's like, do what you can. I remember with my first, I was like, everything is going to be a cloth diaper. We are not going to use disposables. And I lasted about 18 months and we were at my mom's house and a tornado actually went through. There was no power for a few days. We ran out of diapers and I was contemplating boiling water on a generator to wash my diapers. And I was like, Jessica, just go buy a box of diapers. And that kind of gave me the validation of like, sometimes it's okay. You don't have to be perfect. Right. You have to do like what you can, when you can. And this one's the most important, like with what you have access to. So I don't know what I was thinking doing cloth diapers in that, that like six months that we had coin laundry, but I was like, I'm making this work. I don't know if I would do that again, like with where I am now in my eco journey. Like I can't believe that that was such a priority for me, but I'm glad I did it. So. Yeah. Same. That was like me. I had three kids in cloth diapers at one point. It does seem overwhelming, but to me in that stage of my life, it was easier because if garbage pickup is every two weeks and you're going through 20 plus diapers a day, where are you putting those diapers? I was just like, every day I was doing laundry and not because I didn't have enough diapers, because my washing machine couldn't hold all the diapers I needed to wash every day. I don't, and this is weird, but like in our municipality, you can put diapers in the green bin in the organic pickup. And I'm, don't think I'm ever going to understand that. I've been trying to get to the bottom of that for a while and I don't get it. And I just, I feel like it gives people this weird idea that like, you can put them in the green bin. they're compostable and that is not the case. They are fully made of plastic. I'm pretty sure it's just because we have garbage pickup every other week and there would be outrage if people are sitting on their dirty diapers for two weeks. So I think you can put them in there so they get picked up and then it's someone's job to take them out and put them in the garbage stream. That's interesting. hadn't thought about it that way. I'm to be writing some emails today. Yeah. Yeah. It's, creates an interesting way of looking at a material that is in no way compostable. And I think that there's a mindset shift that needs to happen there. So I'm going to be writing some emails to our waste diversion program. so here's, you mentioned with the clock diapers that there is like the initial investment and then, then you're done. The way that I would say, like, cause my kids are 20 months apart. would be like, well, the second kid basically poops for free. Like I'm saving money at this point. Right. So something I really appreciate about the choices that you make and the way that you talk about it is that it's not just about being eco-conscious. It's also about being really grounded in the choices that you make for your family from a financial standpoint. And I think a lot of people assume that sustainable living is more expensive. or it's all or nothing, but you found ways to make it make sense. So has being like that budget friendly choice always been part of your motivation or did that come later? I think it's always been a big motivator. If you know me, I'm big into personal finance, budgeting, and things like that. So all my decisions really come in, does this make sense? Right, like is it financially feasible because it has to be sustainable that way too. Yes, if it's not financially feasible, I'm not doing it. This is why I don't have solar panels on my roof at this time. It's a stretch goal for us. Um, but just due to, I don't know, everything that's happening, um, financially, it's not feasible for us at this point, even though that's something that is really important to me. It doesn't make sense financially to do that. So can you share a few of your save of your favorite ways to save money while being eco-friendly? So when I became a mom, I struggled with infertility for six years. So I had the benefit, I guess, of really having those extra years to decide what kind of mom I want to be. I did all the research and all the things. So when I wanted to cloth diaper, I knew all the brands, the pros, the cons. I was all in the mommy blogs. So in those years, I really had a chance to look at my friends and what they were doing. And I noticed they were registering for a whole bunch of stuff that maybe they'll use once or for a few months and then it just sits and it gets given away or donated or things like that. So I became very conscious of what I was consuming as a mother. Do I really need six swings, a play yard, all those things? Or can I borrow it from someone? Can I get it secondhand? I actually did not have a baby shower. partly because it was 2020 and we know what was going on in the world at that point. And the other fact was, I realized I didn't need stuff. I basically needed a car seat, a stroller, and somewhere safe for baby to sleep. Moms are so heavily marketed to, especially like I read something recently about how basically like the algorithm knows about five minutes after you do that, you're pregnant. Yeah. And just starts really heavily marketing that stuff. It's stuff to you. Like all of the like quote must have. So I'm so glad that you said that because it could not be further from the truth that like kids just come with a lot of stuff. That's something that they don't. Like my kids don't have a lot of toys. The stuff they do have, they don't necessarily play with. Like for the longest time, my kid was playing with potatoes. because we also had a potato situation. You heard it from us, buy the potatoes, multiple uses. And potatoes, as we know, are compostable. You don't need a Mr. Potato hat, you just need a bag of potatoes. Yeah. And this, honestly, like this is such an amazing highlight of the idea that like, you don't need a more eco version of something. It will present itself to you. So, and yeah, and again, like the, the must haves and like, just need to get a, non-toxic version of this or an eco-friendly version of that, that doesn't solve the issue of overconsumption. just rebrands it essentially. Also, I would suggest, find your community. I've met a great group of moms. We met in stroller walks. We have a baby swing. It's on its fifth family right now. So we just pass it around because you you use your swing for two, three months. And then it's just going to sit in the corner, know, pile the toys on it. Like, so we move it on from family to family, whoever has a newborn and it's just making its rounds. That's really part of the village that's missing too, right? It's not just like sharing time and childcare, but just sharing things so that they're in use and out of the landfill or out of the corner that somehow becomes a landfill. You and I are in the same community. We have a great pass it on or buy nothing group. And the people in that group are so wonderful. I had twins and once you have the first one, you realize you don't need everything. The baby doesn't like things. So I didn't buy a second bassinet. I know I was going to use it twice. They were born in the winter. So I actually put the call out to the group like, Hey, can I borrow? It was an up-a-baby bassinet. We know they're not cheap. And someone was like, yeah, absolutely. I have one in my garage. Come pick it up. Huge shout out to our By Nothing group and Jennifer who runs it is an angel. But yeah, so wherever you are, wherever you're listening to this, get on Facebook and search out your local By Nothing group. Not just to like, Ooh, what's posted today that I can get for free, but really you'll find a lot of people offering just services like, I can come shuffle driveways this week if you're on vacation. or what have you, people who are looking in search of things and you may be like, my God, I have that. And it's just sitting in my closet and I'm happy to let it go to someone who will use it. So by nothing is an incredible community connector in that way. Yeah. It like, I had family coming from overseas and they didn't want to bring three car seats with them. So I put the call out, Hey, can I borrow a car seat? And I had so many great responses. So you don't have to buy something that you're going to use for a month or they have to haul it from overseas. Cause that takes time and energy and fuel to bring it over as well. oh There's also lots of like mom to mom groups, um, that, that could be selling, or it could just be like, I have a bag of five T clothes, come pick it up off of my porch. so I've done a lot of that too. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Which is great. Um, okay. So here's the sticky question. This one comes up all the time. It's about gifts. but this is a tip. It's a double-sided coin. Um, how do you handle giving gifts and then receiving gifts? So I did something really interesting with my kids. I decided to do gift free birthdays. And I know that is a very controversial thing, but I started it right when my kids were little. So I said, on your birthday, we can go to a toy store and you can pick out anything you want. You get one thing and they love it. They pick out their one toy and that's that. Because I started it so young, my kids don't associate birthdays with getting stuff. And I noticed it taught them a really cool thing about gratitude. So my daughter would go to the store and she would really think about what she wanted. And she would say, okay, I want this, but I also want that. And I'm going to save that when I turn six, I'm going to come back and pick that up. And when we go to a store and she sees something she likes, she says, mom, when it's my birthday, can we come back here and pick that out? So. I'm not always having to struggle saying, you can't have this. They're not whining at me to get stuff. They are really becoming conscious consumers. You set the expectation for your child, right? So if they know like we're not just throwing us in the Amazon cart, we're not just getting a treat everywhere we go with that type of thing. It does get stickier when they're older. Like I said, like minor teens, but we started that with them young as well. And the way that they started being like, can we look for this on Kijiji? Like, dad, can you look for this Lego set on Kijiji? And so they were taught to wait as well. And I think that that pause is really critical. Yeah. Yeah. Now on the flip side, gift giving, I struggle with that because when I go to a baby shower and I look at the registry, I think you're going to maybe use this once, not at all. And I know it's going to get donated or given away or just become clutter in your house. And I don't want to be that person that made clutter for you. So it's really hard for me. I lately, I was giving money, but I didn't want to be the morning person, you go to a five-year-old birthday party, here's some cash. The kids not going to love you for that. So I've been trying to gift experiences, whether it be like movie passes or admission to a local play group, play place, play place. that's what it's Or if it's a new mom, I'll get a gift card for meal delivery because we all know what those early days are. You just like trying to survive. So just trying to do things differently that is not just consuming stuff. Yeah. Have you had to deal with the goody bag experience yet? Either a party that you've thrown or one that one of your girls has attended? The goodie bags. think that's something every mother struggles with. And I've noticed over time, it's just getting worse. say for Halloween, they'll have not just... So remember when we were in kids in school, there was Valentine's Day. Now there's Valentine's Day gift bags and not just like Valentine's, Halloween, Christmas. We got... a St. Patrick's Day gift bag this year at daycare. And I look at it and I feel bad because it's all junk and I know it's going to end up in the garbage. So do I let it clutter my house and not throw it out? Do I throw it out now? I don't have a good answer for that. It's hard. It's tricky too, because they are done with good intentions. Yeah. And this, and the spirit behind it is good. And it's just like, the way that we handle loot bags coming from parties was just like, I never told them, no, like, don't take it. was just like, if you want to take it, take it. It's, it's fine. Um, and they always came home with one, but the way that we handled it is here is we would just give out jars of candy. That just, would go to the bulk store and they would fill a couple of bags of candy. They would help me assemble little jars. put stickers on them, all that kind of stuff. And almost universally, it was like, what a good idea. There's such a relief and not being handed a bag of. Yeah. I just gave nothing. I was like, you don't need anything. You get nothing. me being torn between like, oh I want to do it but I don't. I've also gotten gift cards like gift cards like McDonald's or chapters or something like that, which is nice too. I tried to get them to give out tree seedlings one year and they were not having it. yeah, it's finding that middle ground between like what you want to do, what your kids' are when they have more pressure from their peer group. It's really just like, do the best you can with what you have and like what you can feel good about. And that's going to look different for everybody. Yeah, I'm really early on in the peer group. So my daughter just finished junior kindergarten. So I'm sure there's going to be a lot more peer pressure coming. Yeah. Mine starts high school in like a month. Um, so I'm interested to see how that might shift things, but so far he's pretty chill. Like he wanted this like really fancy pair of basketball shoes for graduation and Brad found them on Kachiji. I think they've been worn once and he knows that. And he knows that he's like, you found these. So, and like, so he has the expectation that like, yeah, these are secondhand. This is awesome. Doesn't have to be brand new. So I felt good that like. that that's how that worked out. felt really good about laying that foundation. That's a good segue into the secondhand market. A lot of people think that it's junk or garbage or like really worn out. And I've found some amazing things secondhand for my kids. Basically their entire wardrobes are secondhand and they wear beautiful labels, not just like cheap, fast fashion things, because there is so much out there and in abundance. Especially with small children, that's such an easy thing to do as well because kids grow so fast and you'll find a lot of clothes that get donated haven't even been worn or you find things that have the original tags on them or what have you. so I know you've seen this close up through your work in thrift stores and that gives you a really unique perspective on where all of our stuff ends up. What do you wish more people understood about secondhand shopping and also donating? So I started volunteering at our local thrift store back in 2017 and it wasn't one of the big names. It's kind of an independent one. So it's a smaller store in a suburb of Toronto. So I saw the amount of donations that came in and there was so much. And I remember thinking to myself, we are one store in one town in one area. I cannot believe the amount of stuff that just gets cycled through. And I mean, it's great that we're getting donations and it's not ending up in a landfill. But what people don't understand is only a small portion of what is donated is sellable. mean, it could be broken chips, stained, or there just can be too much of it and there's no market for it. I've noticed that a lot with like the rise of dollar store things or cheap Amazon finds that if you can buy it brand new for a dollar or something. What are you selling that second hand for? People are just going to buy new naturally. uh I remember once, um, like 10 years ago, like my kids were we, so maybe, maybe kindergarten ish. It's probably at the kindergarten pickup speaking with another parent about, um, yeah, it was just like, I found this jacket or whatever it was at once upon a child. and the comment back was like, Oh, I don't, I don't bother shopping secondhand because like it's, it's just as cheap to like, just go to old Navy and get something new and cute. I, I. I just sort of like froze. I didn't really know what to say. Um, so how do you make that distinction? Like if it costs $5 at the thrift store, it costs $5 at the mall. What do you choose? I actually had that issue come up last Halloween. I wanted to get them those really cute trick or treat buckets. So I went to the thrift store and I was like, this is $1.50. Pretty sure I could go to Dollarama and get this for $1.50. But I chose the thrift store option because I said, hey, it's already out here in circulation. Let the money go to a good cause. Yeah, it's such an interesting, shines a really interesting light on how like deeply baked in like convenience and newness is to our choices. Like if it's the same price, I'm just going to get it new. It's very strange. I think that that's something that we can start shifting. Like it's already out there. Everything you could ever need ever for your kid, for yourself, it already exists and it's in the secondhand market and it may take a little bit longer to find it, but I think that's also the point. It's also fun. I, you know, you my kids are the age that they are, but I know that they're going to grow. So if I see a shoe that maybe they'll use in a year or two, I will grab it if it's in great condition. Cause Hey, it's 2 99 for almost like new sketchers shoes. So I have bins of stuff they will eventually grow into. So I'm not just shopping for what they need now or next month. That's really smart. And it's really budget conscious as well. So yeah, when you're thinking long-term like that, you're going to end up saving money because you don't have to run out and buy it the night before or, my God, they don't have indoor shoes. It's like, wait, I have a bucket for that. It's also a fine line. You don't want to become a thrift hoarder. So I straddle that line a lot where my husband's like, why do we have all this stuff? because you buy it at a thrift store doesn't necessarily mean you need it as and I've had that, that moment myself where I started being like, I'm not going to exclusively buy things secondhand. And then I found that I was breaking my own rules at the thrift store because I was like, well, this is only $4, but like, I don't actually, do I like this? Am I going to wear this 30 times? Like that's my new rule for if I'm buying a piece of clothing, even if I'm buying it secondhand, like, am I just buying this because of the label, because of the price, because you can still overconsume at the thrift. it is. It's not an overnight switch you can flip about your consumption. It's just like every time you make that choice. You just have to make conscious decisions. You got to go through the checklist. Okay, so let's switch gears a little bit. I would like to talk uh about That Mama Realtor and the ongoing theme of this show, which is community. So one thing that I love about what you do is That Mama Realtor perks. So can you tell us what that is and what inspired it? That Mama Realtor Approach program is my way of connecting my clients and the community to be amazing small businesses that make our area special. So it's a free locally focused program that gives you exclusive discounts and deals at participating stores and services. So think of it as like your VIP pass to supporting local while saving a little extra. And for folks who are new to the community, I'm sure that's really vital because we do live in like a sea of big box stores. So when you find those smaller local businesses, that can be like such a treat, such a treasure to find those things. Yeah, a lot of people move here and they're like, I need to find a butcher or a plumber. Like, where do I start? And I feel like that's a good role that realtors can fill because they are building the communities. So how do you your role as a realtor connecting these two parts of your life, what you really value about sustainability and about building community? So I think realtors are more than just selling houses and doing transactions. You're really building communities and you want to make places that people want to move to. So build those connections, help people find the businesses and make really great places to live. Yeah, when we moved here to this house, that's not something that we were thinking about at all. It was just like, my God, I have two under two and we needed to move really quickly. And Brad's parents live 10 minutes down the road in New Market and I had zero knowledge or understanding about Aurora. And I had to like really seek a lot of that out myself because I couldn't find the kind of community that I would want to be a part of. So just having someone. helping you with that as part of the home that you're buying, think it's really critical because as I keep saying, like community is what will build resilience in the challenges that we'll face in our future. So yeah. Um, what does community mean to you in this season of your life? Like as a mom, as a business owner, as a, as a local resident. community is so important, whether you and I are part of the same small business. No, it's like a group for like small business owners who are also mums. So it has that, that's sort of the foundation of it, right? Is that we all understand that like we're going through it as mums, but also as small business owners. And that is a specific group of entrepreneurs that not everyone can relate to. So finding your people, whether it's other moms who are in the same stage of life, whether it's other entrepreneurs, I think it's so important because I don't think we're meant to do this life thing alone. Yeah, absolutely. It's deciding to dive in and join that group has been really useful for me and pushing boundaries that I sort of felt like, I can't do this. I can't do that. I can never start a podcast. could never what have you, you know? And so that has really lifted me out and like challenged a lot of preconceived notions that I have about like using AI or I don't even know, just like I was sort of in my own little eco bubble. And so it's been really useful to me to like talk with other months, but like, well, what are some challenges that you're facing? And, know, like today we've talked about cloth diapering. I haven't thought about that for a minute. Um, but it's a really important topic to keep talking about. And I've noticed the more I talk about what I'm doing and things like that, I've seen changes. We've been invited to multiple gift-free birthdays this year. Oh, see, yes, this is so important. It's the leading by example bit and just talking about what you're doing without like, wake like wagging a finger at somebody like, I can't believe you would do that. just like, yeah, no, we did. get everything at the thrift store or, oh you can always find that on Kijiji. soccer boots, like my, my son plays rep soccer and it's like, yeah, no, we just got new boots at the club. Like what? Like, yeah, there's a whole shelf of boots. You can just go exchange. my gosh. I didn't know that. with other soccer parents. So it's just chatting, just talking with people because I think like deep down we just want our kids to be like happy, safe, and we're all going through it budget wise. So lead by it's really just changing the culture as well. Like, as I mentioned, my grandmother was very thrifty. And so was my mom. And I remember she would chop for me secondhand at value village or whatever. And I one time she got me this onesies pajamas and my aunt was like, I like your pajamas. And I was like, yes, I got them at value village. And my mom was mortified. She was embarrassed to kind of like let people know that she was buying secondhand for me because my aunt on my dad's side was a little more wealthier and she just was really, my mom felt really embarrassed about that. now like I'm bragging and like, look what I got at Value Village or Once Upon a Child for my kids and other people, like it seems like it's more normalized to shop those places. Definitely. Cause I remember like going to the Valley village in the New Market Plaza when I was in high school, um, just moved from there this year. Wow. Time is a flat circle. Um, but yeah, it used to be like when I was in university and all that, like I shopped at both barn and I shopped at Valley village because I had no money. But as my life has progressed and I've become a mom and all of that, I'm still doing those things and it is still to save money, but it has all of these other layers on top of it. And. Now it is like it's for the planet. It's to keep perfectly good materials in use. But also I love telling people I got something thrifted. I love those memes that are like, thanks, it's thrifted. I'm wearing thrifted Yeah, same. Okay, so before we wrap up, I like to put my guests on the spot with a segment that I call one small shift. So the idea behind it is really simple. Sustainable living can feel really overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be small changes really do add up. So I ask each guest to share one small thing that's like very doable in everyday life that you could suggest to folks. They wanted to start today. More like a conscious thought of, I have to buy this new? Is there another place that I can get it? We didn't even get into like the library has a whole lendery program. So you don't have to go buy garden shears new if you're just going to use them a couple of times. So really thinking about where can I get this instead of just clicking on Amazon and adding it to your cart, whether it's those buy nothing groups or like in your mom groups, there's so many options and you don't just have to resort to convenience. Yes, snaps, get a library card. All right, so, okay, this has been a really great conversation. We had a lot of technical difficulties getting this started and I'm really glad that it worked out. We're sitting very close together, but I really want to thank you so much for coming on the show and being my first in-person guest and hanging out in the pillow fort in the living room. And before we let you go, where can folks find you? And that one a realtor. So you can find me at thatmommarealtor.com or I hang out a lot on Instagram, I'm at thatmommarealtor. And also on threads sometimes, yes? Yes, I'm trying to get the hang of threads. haven't reached the Sarah Robertson Barnes level yet. Oh, no, I'm yeah, I'm a whole other person on threads, but you can find me there as well. So Jessica, thank you so much for coming over today. I really appreciate everything that you do. I'm glad we'll catch you soon. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode. I hope you found it as grounding and honest as I did. I really appreciated how open Jessica was about what's worked for her family and what's still a work in progress and how she's trying to live her values without trying to do it all. Whether it's shopping secondhand, rethinking the way we give and receive gifts, or just finding ways to use a little less or pause before we buy things. I hope you're leaving this episode with something to think about and maybe even one small shift of your own. As always, you can find links to everything we talked about in the show notes. And if you haven't already, head on over to sustainable in the suburbs.com and sign up for my newsletter while you're there. All that and other ways to support the podcast are linked in the show notes. Until next time, start where you are, use what you have and live a little greener. Thanks for tuning in to Sustainable in the Suburbs. Every small step adds up and I'm so glad we're doing this together. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. You can find me at sustainableinthesuburbs.com or at Sarah Robertson Barnes on All The Things. Until next time, start where you are, use what you have, and live a little greener.