A day out with the family should be remembered for the fun, not for the bin bag you fill along the way. The good news is that cutting down on waste on a trip to the coast, a castle or a country park rarely means extra effort. It usually means a bit of sorting the night before and a handful of habits that quickly become second nature.

Start with the night-before routine

Most waste on family days out is created in the five minutes before you leave the house, when someone grabs a multipack of crisps, a sleeve of plastic-wrapped sandwiches and a bottle of pop from the corner shop. Shift that job to the evening before and it becomes far easier to do it well.

Fill a reusable water bottle for everyone and pop them in the fridge overnight so they are cold when you set off. If you are taking hot drinks, a decent flask saves a small fortune at café counters and keeps you going when the queue is twenty deep. Put out a canvas bag or a small crate by the front door with your picnic kit in it, and you will not be rummaging in cupboards while the car idles on the drive.

Build a reusable day-out kit

A dedicated kit that lives in the boot or at the bottom of the pushchair takes the thinking out of it. You do not need anything fancy, and much of it you probably already own.

• Bottles – one per person, with names written on in marker pen. A 500ml bottle is plenty for a short walk; take a litre each if you are out all day.
• Flasks – for tea, coffee or soup on cooler days. A wide-necked one can double up as a container for pasta or rice salad.
• Containers – a few lidded tubs of different sizes. These replace cling film, foil and sandwich bags entirely.
• Cutlery and a small knife – bamboo or old stainless steel from the kitchen drawer. Add a couple of sporks for the children.
• Cloth napkins or flannels – far better than a fistful of paper serviettes, and they can be rinsed out and reused.
• Beeswax wraps or a couple of small wet bags – for half-eaten sandwiches, apple cores and anything sticky.
• A bin bag and a spare bag for recycling – so you carry everything home rather than relying on whichever bin you find.

Rinse everything when you get back and put the kit straight back where it lives. The whole cycle takes two minutes and saves a surprising amount of plastic over a year of trips.

Pack a picnic that travels well

Food is where the waste adds up fastest, so plan a picnic that does not depend on individual wrappers. Fruit that comes in its own packaging is ideal: bananas, apples, satsumas, pears. A whole cucumber, a bag of tomatoes and a block of cheese cut at home beat snack-sized packs every time.

Make one big item rather than many small ones. A pasta salad, a frittata, a pot of hummus with carrot and pepper sticks, or a batch of flapjack cut into squares will feed everyone from a couple of tubs. Take a large bottle of squash or water to pour into cups instead of a multipack of cartons, and a bag of loose biscuits rather than individually wrapped bars.

If you know you will buy something on the day, take a container with you. Many seaside chip shops and bakery counters will happily put a portion straight into your own tub, and it keeps the food warmer on the walk back to the beach.

Plan your picnic stop before you go

Knowing where you will stop makes a real difference. Look for a country park, a picnic bench by a river, a beach with a reasonable amount of shelter, or a National Trust style garden with grassy corners. Sitting down properly rather than eating on the move means you are far less likely to drop wrappers or leave litter behind.

Check whether the site has toilets and a water tap, since refilling bottles on site saves buying drinks. Plenty of towns and parks now have public drinking fountains, and tourist information points or cafés are usually happy to top up a bottle if you ask politely. If you are travelling by train, station concourses often have a fountain near the toilets.

A blanket or two folded in the boot turns any dry patch of grass into a lunch stop, and it gives you somewhere to gather all the rubbish together before it blows away.

Think about the journey as well as the destination

Waste happens in transit too. A bag of activities for the car or train – a few books, a deck of cards, a notebook and pencils – prevents the emergency purchase of a magazine with a plastic toy stuck to the front. Take empty bags for any rubbish generated en route and keep a small lidded tub for fruit peel and cores so nothing ends up loose in the footwell.

If you are using public transport, a refillable bottle and a couple of snacks in a tub are the two things that make the biggest difference. Buy tickets in advance and travel outside peak times where you can; a calmer journey means fewer impulse buys at the station.

Keep it going without making it a chore

Nobody wants a family day out that feels like a lesson. Keep the tone light: give each child a job, whether that is carrying the water bottle, holding the rubbish bag or choosing the picnic spot. Praise them when the bag comes home nearly empty, and let them see you refilling rather than buying.

Start with one change on your next trip – bottles for everyone, say – and add another the time after. Within a season you will have a kit that lives by the door, a picnic that packs itself, and a lot less to carry to the bin at the end of a very good day out.