On Wednesdays we offer suggestions for ways to reduce your waste. You can find our full archive of Waste Less Wednesday posts here.

Like many of our Waste Less Wednesday suggestions, this one is pretty simple.

This past year, the art-making has really picked up in my house. And with two elementary-aged kids to homeschool, we go through a lot of art supplies. Their interests are always changing, and so I like to have a wide variety of supplies on hand, but I’m also aware that doing art with kids has the possibility to lead to a lot of waste.

In an effort to reduce our impact, I’m always looking for ways to limit our consumption. If you’re in the same boat, here are three suggestions for refillable art supplies that we love.

• gel pen refills : Have you colored with gel pens? It’s addicting. Those pens can also run out faster than you expect. Rather than buying new pens, but ink refills! You can buy a variety pack of refills for the fraction of the price of new pens. The refills work just as well as the originals.

• bingo daubers : bingo daubers are those plastic containers with a large circular felt tip. They are perfect for stamping circles, but they can do so much more. When filled with ink, they can be used for large line drawing and writing. I’ve also heard of teachers filling them with watered down school glue to use for a slightly less messy glue applicator. Want to learn more about using daubers? Read this post from my favorite art teacher.

• watercolor tin : my kids love watercolors, and last year my brother gifted them some quality tins. The great thing about these tins is that the outer box is made from metal rather than plastic AND it’s easy to refill the little watercolor pots.