Originally published March 23, 2015
Whether you want to save water because you’re in a drought, you’re environmentally conscious, or you just want to save money, there are many different ways to conserve water. Some actions take very little effort, while others are more challenging. Whatever your motivation, you can find at least a few changes that will work for you.
While other parts of our country have been buried in snow, Californians have been praying for rain and snow to help alleviate the serious drought we’ve been in for several years. All sorts of regulations are being put on water use.
Whether you have a well or city-supplied and regulated water, the worries are still the same. We’ve been focusing on ways to conserve water lately, both at home and in our community. If you’re on a well saving water also means saving electricity since a pump is required to get the water from the ground to the faucet.
Here are some of our ideas for saving water. Check out the comments for lots of other great ideas for conserving water from some very experienced water-savers. I would love to hear what you are doing to conserve water in your neck of the woods!
Simple Ways to Save Water
Let’s start with some simple ways that everyone can save water with very little effort.
Turn off the water! It sounds simple– and it is!– but lots of people don’t do it. I’ve seen friends leave the kitchen water running down the drain while they rummage through the fridge or help a child with homework. The classic example of wasting water by not turning it off is when brushing your teeth. After you wet your toothbrush, turn the water off until you’re done brushing.
Get efficient! A more efficient toilet can save 2 to 5+ gallons of water per flush. A low flow shower head
Use a Dishwasher. It doesn’t take much to convince me to use a dishwasher instead of hand-washing dishes. Using a dishwasher actually uses less water in most cases than the amount of water a typical person uses to hand-wash the dishes.
Run only full loads. For both clothes and dishes, a full load is the most efficient way to go. Wait to run the dishwasher until it’s full and make sure you have a full load of dirty clothes before you start the washing machine.
Don’t wash clean clothes. With a family of five, the laundry piles up in the blink of an eye. One of my pet peeves is finding clothes that I know were not even worn in the hamper. Sometimes they are even still folded. I’ve also been stressing to my kids lately that their pajamas are not dirty after being worn once and that their jeans can often be worn more than once too.
Hard Core Ways to Save Water
If you’ve mastered the basic ways to save water, here are some more creative things you can do to increase your impact.
Take Shorter Showers. Efficient shower heads still use two gallons of water every minute. That’s a lot of water going down the drain. Try using a timer to help you cut down on the time you bask in the flowing warm water. You could even make short showers into a fun family shower challenge.
Shower Less Frequently. You can still have good personal hygiene without a shower (or multiple showers) everyday. In fact, in many cases, it’s actually better for your skin to not shower daily. Personally I would rather take a longer shower less frequently than a short shower everyday.
Recycle water. Wash your produce over a bowl or bucket so you can use the water for your garden. Keep a bucket in the shower to collect the water as you’re waiting for it to heat up. You can add the water to the washing machine or use it to water your plants or garden. The most hard core version of this would be to re-use all of the shower water by leaving the tub plugged during the shower and siphoning or pumping the full tub into a holding tank for later use. This water could be used to fill the toilet tank or water plants, depending on the soaps/shampoos you use.
Collect rainwater. Rainwater can be collected and used to water your plants or garden. Of course, when you’re in a drought, this won’t yield as much, but even this year we’ve had three seriously heavy periods of rain. Your roof and gutter system concentrates all the water falling on the house into a few convenient downspouts. A barrel under the downspout is an easy way to save some of that runoff to use for outside watering. More complete catchment and filtration systems can be installed, but the cost starts mounting pretty quickly, so unless you’re ready for a serious commitment, use buckets or barrels you already have or can find easily and inexpensively.
The good news is that no matter how terrible or terrific your current water usage habits are, there is always room for improvement. I know our family will be trying to conserve more water than we have before. I challenge you to do a little better too!
How About You?
- What are you doing to save water?
- What are your reasons for saving (or not saving) water?
Water is a really important element in our environment. We need to use that element properly. We should not waste this anyhow.
Thanks for your good guide on saving water.
Nicole @ Budget Loving Military Life. Belated welcome to UK ! You can tip a bucket of shower/rain water down the toilet to flush it. Just tip the water in and it has same action as flushing. In the years when we’ve had periods of drought ( yes, difficult to believe but true!) that has always been recommended.
Stephanie, thanks for the tips. I live in a part of Britain that has the highest water charges so every drop saves helps. Just going to order a new water saving shower head.
Saving water is crucial many people in the African rural areas are not educated about things like that…climate change is becoming a constant problem. We need to protect as save as much as we can. a little thing that each person can do to change their lifestyles and the way the use certain things can do wonders for the earth…a little really does go a long way.
I wash my twin toddlers and myself in the same bath water. Then I wash the clothes in the leftover warm, soapy water. Then I use the water to flush the toilets. Sometimes I use the water on the plants hanging in the bathroom windows, since they are right next to the tub. I was dubious about pouring soapy water on them, but so far they seem pretty happy. They were rescued out of the neighbors trash anyway so they are fighters. I told my husband that I really want a rain barrel so we won’t just waste water on the garden this summer. We have a koi pond so he told me that’s my rain barrel and I can schlep buckets of fish poop water from the pond to the garden. That sounds fun.
I love this article so much!!! Right now we save all the water from our childrens baths and use them to flush toilets. I also save water from soaking/rinsing beans and other veggies for use in our balcony garden. I LOVE the idea of using a bucket to save water while waiting for it to heat in the shower etc. WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?!? We live in the South(-east) so we probably get more water than you. I also bathe once or twice a week (although I do bathe the “stinky parts” once a day in the sink, lol, lest you think I am a full blown dirty hippy) which has also done wonders for my skin leaving the natural oils alone to do their job. Better than any lotion/oil. Anyway, when I do shower it is pretty long (20-30 minutes, eek!) and I am trying to shave that down and I am also brainstorming ways to capture my shower water… but as it is so full of oils/detergents I can’t use it for the garden, and I hesitate to use it to flush toilets because I am not sure how/if it would affect the plumbing. Anyway, cheers!
As a general rule if the soaps you use are phosphate-free they should be safe for the garden.
Keep in mind however that if plants ever grow legs and learn to run away it’ll be because they’re trying to escape me; so do check with your local nursery before you ever listen to anything I say about gardening! (But I have heard from several different sources that the important thing is that they’re phosphate-free.)
As for flushing the toilet, well, it all goes out the same pipes anyway in the end, right? So you should be fine there.
We live in a part of Australia where we rely solely on rainwater for our household/garden uses – no other water supply at all. When my oldest was a baby we lost our water tank; it had ran dry, we went to refill it, and lost 100,000 litres of water in 24 hours. (I freaked out and washed everything in the house rather than let it go to waste – but we still were without water.) We had a secondary tank and we switched to that, but it was tiny; we patched the big tank and immediately went into water rationing to save water until the big tank refilled. We were in the middle of a record-breaking drought, so it took a while. Here are some tips for hardcore water conservation –
1) Time showers to your favourite show’s climatic commercial break. You know how TV shows always leave you hanging and then go to commercial just as everything is about to resolve? That’s when you take your shower. I guarantee you, you really can get in a full shower in under 2 minutes.
2) Make it a goal to reuse every bit of water. Shower water can be used to flush the toilet, or (if you have a top-loading washing machine) wash clothes, or water plants. You can use the water you collect while you’re waiting for the shower to warm up, to mop your floors or do other cleaning, or water plants, and then use it to flush the toilet. Even sink water after dirty dishes can sometimes be used to wash the toilet. (Note: This depends on what you’ve eaten. You don’t really want to use oily water with bits of food floating in it; I suppose you could, because it ultimately all ends up in the same place anyway; but it would make your toilet pretty gross and harder to clean.) You can get giant tubs to stand in while you shower, to make water collection easier. That also means that you can reuse the shower water to bathe a baby or dog. I know that sounds disgusting; but way back when they used to reuse bath water, and we do far less manual labor these days, so our shower water isn’t so disgusting, most of the time, that it can’t be used again. Then you can use it to flush the toilet or, depending on the soaps you use, water the garden.
3) Flush the toilet less. When we were really worried about water, we only flushed twice a day – once in the morning and once at night. And we used recycled water to flush.
4) Use less water when you wash your dishes. I can wash an entire day’s dishes for our family in less than 10 litres of water. Even the most efficient washing machine uses around 50 litres of water for a full load.
At our peak water conservation nuttiness we were using about 50 litres of water a day, for our total household consumption. The drought has broken and our water tank (which we finally replaced) is full to overflowing more often than not. Still, it’s nice to know that if we have to return to that level of conservation, we can.
We find that the best way to save water this side of the pond (note to Military Wife) is to ask to be fitted to a water meter. It measures exactly the amount that you are using. The usual mantra is if you have less people than bedrooms (we have 2 people/3 bedrooms) then it works out well in your favour.
We try to use a little as is practical as we view water as such a precious commodity.
Our area has suffered from years of drought, too, and our private water district rates are inordinately high. Before I started reeling in the water usage, our bills would regularly mount up to $150 or more per month just for the two of us and our dog, and would be even higher in the summer when watering the garden. Now I collect warm-up shower water to use to fill the dog’s bowl, after emptying the previous day’s water onto the thirstiest outdoor (non-food) plant. In our empty nest household, we’d have to wait days to fill up the dishwasher, and I don’t like dirty dishes sitting around to attract bugs or rodents. Dishes are washed by hand. However, warm-up water is used to partially fill a container, and that water is used for rinsing the dishes. The sink is filled with just enough sudsy water to wash the dishes, and then they’re dipped in the container to rinse, just as my grandmother used to do. If the dishes weren’t too dirty, the soapy water that remains is used to wash the floor, and the rinse water is used to rinse it. We’re vegan and don’t add extra oils to dishes, so there’s never anything greasy. If the dishes were too dirty, the soapy water is poured away and the rinse water is used to clean out the sinks after washing them with a baking soda paste. Or, perhaps that rinse water goes into my watering can. On really cold days, I may take a bath instead of a shower, and the warm water is allowed to sit to keep the bathroom and adjoining bedroom extra warm since we have no little ones to drown in a tub of water. Through the day, the water can be used to flush the toilet in that bathroom or I might use it to hand wash undies. I don’t do that in the summer. The steamy water would cause mold in our hot climate, but in the winter, the extra moisture and heat is welcome. I do all this although an autoimmune illness causes me to need a cane, but I realize that children in the household would render some of these measures impossible or dangerous. I would never leave water in the tub when grandchildren are visiting. This is a way that I can be kind to our budget and our earth at the same time. Water rights are hot-button topics in this part of the world, so I do my part.
I try to remember turning off the tap whilst doing X. Never fill the sink completely when washing my dishes, but I have to try not using running water to rinse. Full loads always. Actually I have to watch not overloading. And I catch the water when waiting for it to heat up, especially in Summer when the heating system is turned off. Using that for my plants, just like any left over drinking water in glasses.
Great Tips, thanks for sharing, hope more get into saving water.
Stopping by from Thrifty Thursday. Have a nice day!
Alex – Funky Jungle
I do dishes by hand (we have a dishwasher, but I’ve never used one and it’s not installed, so I just continue to do it the old-fashioned way), and I’ve thought several times to just catch the water as I am rinsing the dishes to save for another time, but I know I would be too lazy to do anything about it. I have been taking showers less frequently, and I know that is saving lots of water. Thanks for the tip to run full loads, because I didn’t know that saved water.
Here are some more ways to save on water :
For hand washing dishes the remainder that doesn’t go into the dishwasher…I have reduced the amount of water I put into the sink & have found it stills works great. We don’t rinse with running water…. we fill one sink less than 1/2 way with water and thats all or less depending on the amount of dishes .
We’re big on saving water (myself more than hubby), making sure not to do a laundry load unless it’s a full load.
I take “Military” showers and have become use to them. I don’t just let the taps run, I get only the water needed and turn them off.
My latest kick is taking “cool” water showers (not cold), they feel great and I still get cleaned head to toe. Plus I find my skin is no longer dry, or itchy. Bonus is that my hair is softer & shinier too.
When brushing my teeth I keep 2 plastic cups, one for dipping my brush into and one for rinsing.
We haven’t “watered” our lawns for years now…the grass always grows back as nature intended.
When finished mopping floors etc… the bucket of water is saved and placed in the bathroom to use for the next flush.
We drink tap water in large 2 L bottles , just take the lid off for 24 hrs to dissipate chlorine, so much better than running the tap.
I use cooled water from cooking veggies to water my indoor plants……outdoor plants if there’s enough
Rain water can also be used to flush toilets and wash clothes. You will need to buy plastic barrels of some sort for storage and a water pump, plus be sure to filter the water first to keep out dirt or leaves , etc.
When we first moved to England we about cried when we received our $300 water bill (for 2 months of water use)! We lived in Washington state prior to England and our water/sewer charge was a flat $45/month. That’s even watering the lawn, garden, and everything!
So you can see why our jaws hit the floor with our bill and we immediately found ways to reduce our water use. We used many of the ways you described and our bill averages about $60-$70/month, so we cut it by HALF!
Although, we haven’t thought about collecting our shower water… I’m not even sure if it would work here in England because the toilets are quite “different” and there is no need to water anything outside (the plants get too much water as it is with the silly England rain LOL).