22 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Save Water That You Can Do at Home
By Tiffany Taylor
Water is one of our most precious resources. When I was in college I had a roommate who would leave the water running while she brushed her teeth. It bothered me because the thought of wasting it and not being able to have water for future generations is scary.
So here’s what my family and I are doing to keep our water bill down and some more ideas for me (and you) to use in the future.
Ways to Preserve Water
1. Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth
Ah, you should have known I was going to go there! Seriously, though, water comes out of the faucet at two and a half gallons per minute. Just use the water to wet the brush and rinse!
2. Invest in a Rain Barrel
If your house is a thousand square feet and the water is falling off your roof, you would be able to collect six hundred gallons of rain water from one average-size rainfall. For many areas, a simple permit is required to install a rain barrel. We have one that collects off our greenhouse and we use the water to help the plants grow.
Very often our community has a drought warning, so we are only allowed to “water our lawn” every other day. We don’t care much for watering our lawn because that is extra mowing; however, this ensures that our plants do not go dry and we are helping keep the water levels for the city up.
3. Don’t throw things down the toilet
Just like with brushing your teeth, for toilets – it takes a minimum of seven gallons of water to flush the toilet. If you are using the toilet as a waste bin, you are being even more wasteful. Instead, why not add a trash can next to the commode, and just throw the excess in there?
4. When replacing you toilet
If you are building a home or when it comes time to replace your toilet, why not add one of those that has the easy flush for number one and harder flush for number two. I offer this as an option because many people say, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow”. Um. No. My girls and I will go back to back in the restroom and I still make them flush. It’s a personal decision but when we purchase a home, that will be my way of contributing – purchasing a two flow toilet.
5. Check to make sure you don’t have any leaks
I recently started teaching at a new school. One of my four sinks had a fairly even leak. My principal informed me that they have yet to fix it and the leak was costing them upwards of five hundred dollars extra per year. I threw a bit of a fit along with another teacher who had never seen it until we did a luncheon in my room and we got it turned off. When they opened up the cabinet (it was sealed with screws), they found the entire base had rotted. Not only does having a leak cause a problem with water conservation, but it also costs you money. If you have a house with a crawl space, I recommend investigating under your house to make sure that all pipes are good to go.
When they opened up the cabinet (it was sealed with screws), they found the entire base had rotted. Not only does having a leak cause a problem with water conservation, but it also costs you money. If you have a house with a crawl space, I recommend investigating under your house to make sure that all pipes are good to go.
Not only does having a leak cause a problem with water conservation, but it also costs you money. If you have a house with a crawl space, I recommend investigating under your house to make sure that all pipes are good to go.
6. Go Low-Flow
Investing in a low flow shower head is a great idea. This means you will be using less flow than your sink faucet per minute while you are in the shower. The good news is it does not affect the water pressure coming out of the shower head, so you still feel good and feel better because you are saving money and conserving water! Added benefit? It doesn’t cost too much either.
7. Reuse pasta water
This was an interesting one I had never thought of but a friend suggested it to me. She said that when we drain the water from our noodles, we should collect it in another bowl and let it cool. Once it had cooled, use it to water plants. This seems like a good idea to me because the plants get extra nutrients from the starch in their food source.
8. Fill the water bottles up with sand
This is one I think we have all heard of, in some fashion. I normally hear bricks being added to the toilet in order to not use as much water but I worried about the discoloration. When somebody suggested I use water bottles with sand instead I said “yes!” Be careful here though because you can use too many water bottles. If you do it will be hard for your toilet to flush and one flush is better than two. We currently use only one bottle but two would be the maximum to get the full effect.
In addition, I just read that the brick idea is totally out because it will break up over time, causing the particles to get in the pipes and that might damage them.
9. Insulate Your Water Pipes
When I read this, I thought about the winter months when our former landlord would put heat on the pipes to keep them from freezing. Instead, this is used to help you get hot water faster. So while you’re down there checking that there are no leaks, why not put some foam over the pipes to reduce the amount of time wasted to get hot water?
10. Top and Bottom Dishwasher
Here’s the good news, it is actually more efficient to use a dishwasher than to wash dishes by hand. That being said, this is only the case when the dishwasher is actually full. So what to do if you live in a household where it is only you or you and your significant other? Invest in a dishwasher with a top and bottom layer.
Each section folds out separately and you can decide if you need to use just the top portion or when family or friends come over – the whole thing. You can purchase them individually or as a set and the set runs about twelve hundred dollars.
https://morningchores.com/how-to-save-water/