I’m all about cutting down on our utility bills, water included. So, when I found this cool article on treehugger about saving water a while back, I thought I’d pass on some of the tips. In fair warning, some of them are a little more extreme than others, and I personally don’t know that I’ll be adopting them anytime soon, but still, they are worth thinking about.
The article led with the “bucket flush” method of flushing the toilet. It allows you to use reclaimed water, from say, a bath or shower, and dump it down the toilet {you’ll need about a gallon} to cause it to flush. That way, you aren’t using fresh water. While the concept is genius, I’m not sure I a can commit to having a big bucket of water next to the toilet. There is something gloriously first world about pushing the lever and walking away.
One tip I could totally get behind is not rinsing my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. I mean, what is the point of basically washing them before I wash them? I’d rather stick to hand-washing altogether, or go straight to the dishwasher. Rinsing is just double the work and more water down the drain.
Another great tip was not to dump the pot of water down the drain when you strain pasta, or have steamed veggies. Instead, strain your food above a bucket and use the reclaimed water to give your houseplants a drink. Depending on what you’ve boiled/cooked/steamed, the water may have extra nutrients for the plants. Bonus!
One of the more obvious tips was not to let the water run while you are doing dishes, shaving or brushing your teeth. Duh, I know, but did you know that the faucet lets out about 2 gallons per minute? I didn’t realize it was that much. That adds up pretty quickly.
Finally, you already know that I am a huge fan of composting, but did you know it can save you water too? It totally makes sense when you think about it, but I’ve never really thought about it. Dumping food into the garbage disposal takes power and water. Dumping it into the compost bin takes very little water and a little free sun. It’s the little changes that add up.
Are you already doing all of these? Are there any you plan to work on?
~Mavis
KAte says
I’m a Californian born and bred, so the idea if saving/conserving isn’t new to me. When I went to college in the Pacific NW I was stunned (and a little horrified) to see a whole row of sinks just running away in the bathroom while people brushed their teeth. It was a bit of culture shock to be sure.
When the droughts get particularly bad I will sometimes use my dishwashing water to water plants. I just carry the tub outside and dump it on the plants. Although I have to admit that sometimes laziness wins and I dump it down the drain.
Sammie says
Sometimes it takes a long time for water to run long enough to get hot. Save some gallon jugs near your kitchen sink, for instance, and fill them as the water in getting hot. Pour them into your clothes washer and you’re using that water and saving water that goes into your washer.
Sarah b says
Is that Monkey Boy or HH?
Mavis Butterfield says
Neither. It’s my friend Amerlina’s husband. 🙂 He’s so much fun.
Sarah says
I love the mystery/characters you’ve given all your family & friends!
erin says
I never rinse my dishes before running the dishwasher and everything comes out clean. I have to clean the gunk out of the bottom more often but I never could understand why anyone cleans the dishes just to clean them again.
Cheryl says
I live at the beach in Florida and the humidity is usually quite high, I am able to collect as much as 6 gallons a day from the outside unit on my air conditioning. This water goes onto my garden to I don’t have to use as much potable water on the yard.
Tracy says
Is Lucy’s neck as soft as it looks? She is just so….precious. Dogs are the best.
Mavis Butterfield says
yes. And she loves it have it massaged. 🙂
Spreciouslife says
We keep a bucket in our shower to fill while we are warming up the water. We then use it to flush toilet or it gets put in water jugs I use for watering my garden. It keeps the water cost down in summer if have saved enough in jugs since not running fresh water for garden. I manually water each plant..
But, we are not always as good as we could be saving the water ‘warm up’ in kitchen sink to use elsewhere too.
Linda Tibbetts says
I grew up on a dug well that went dry every summer, usually in August when we carried water from the town library’s artesian well. Keeping a pail of water to flush isn’t a bad thing- you can keep it out of sight in the tub. Much preferable to using an outhouse, believe me.
Julia says
I dump my pasta and veggie water on my plants. I also try to save the water that would otherwise be wasted waiting for the hot water. I dump it into the dogs water dish, or save it for cooking or make iced tea with it.
Jeff Carter says
We have a jacuzzi off of our porch that we’ve converted into a Koi Pond that collects rain water from the roof. This water is used to water the garden and plants. The Koi keep the mosquitoes down and poop in the water adding nutrients to the water for the gardening.
Hazel says
The little things definitely add up.
I empty unfinished glasses and bottles of water into the dog or cat bowl or into the washing up water rather than down the drain, for instance. The dregs from the coffee pot can be used to water some acid loving plants (like blueberries).
It’s worth considering how many things we use potable water for, that we don’t need to- flushing the loo, washing floors, soaking laundry, washing the car, washing windows, watering plants. With a water butt near the kitchen door, for example, it’s not onerous to collect the odd bucket of (free) water for some of those jobs, or use the warm up water from the bathroom or kitchen. Even if you only do it sometimes, it all helps.
Erin Wilson says
It’s not uncommon to run out of water here in Iraq, so there is always a bucket under the shower to capture water. Seems very strange, all things considered, that locals don’t think about water conservation when it’s sometimes a tough resource to come by.
Slightly off topic, but my hot water heater gets turned off from May/June to October. Water tanks here are kept on the roof, so the water gets heated by the sun. For the summer months there is no such thing as cold tap water.
Tisha says
My pasta water is salted so it goes down the drain. However, during gardening season, we keep a large stainless steel mixing bowl in the kitchen sink where we capture the water from rinsing veggies, washing hands, rinsing dishes (because mine do not come clean without a head start), etc. When the bowl is full, it is dumped into a 5 gallon bucket and later taken outside for plants. We also keep 5 gallon buckets in each shower to capture water for plants. If someone takes a bath, we bail that water out for plants, as well. Since our water comes from an aquifer, we try to be conscious of use and because with gardening in the desert, one has to us as many tricks as one can.