I’m not sure if I have lots of readers in the arid American southwest (or any at all anymore, due to my lack of posts), but my post on xeriscaping has been one of my more popular posts and I’ve been meaning to do a follow-up post on it for quite some time, but have not got around to it. First, I thought I’d share with you some ways to conserve water around the house.
You Wont Notice Until It's Almost All Gone
1) Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. This can potentially save you loads of money in a month, depending on your water utility. If you brush your teeth at home twice a day, turning off the water can keep you in a lower price bracket. (my utility charges a set amount for the first 1,000 gallons and a higher rate for gallons 1,001-2,000). If you turning off the water while brushing your teeth can keep you from going to a higher bracket you’ll save on gallons you use outside of teeth-brushing.
2) Consider how often you wash your clothes. If you wear a certain group of clothes only at the office and change upon returning home, those clothes may not need to be washed. (This depends on you, obviously they need to be washed if coffee is spilled on them, and hopefully you dont do that everyday). I have about 8 shirts that I wear to work, and barring a disaster, they get washed about once a month. This also prolongs the life of the clothing.
3) “If its yellow, let it mellow” Trent over at the simple dollar recently wrote a whole post (about toilet flushing !!!) And you can read his analysis here. If you are not interested in this, consider a low flow, dual flush toilet. They have different water amounts for liquids and solids, depending on the button you push.
5) Don’t waste what you get. Consider getting a rain barrel and using it to water you garden and house plants. Before you do this, check with your city or county, they may have regulations on these because they can become misquito breeding ground.
6) Take shorter showers. This should go without saying.
7) Think about your appliances. This could be an outdated dishwasher or washing machine. Due to the life span of these, you could have a unit almost 30 years old (I do) that may use 3-4 times as much water as a newer model. Depending on your water rates, the payback period on a new unit could be much shorter than you think. (Old machines are also energy hogs, which can speed up your payback as well)
Check for leaks – This one is fairly obvious as well. If somethings leaking and you dont know about it, you’ve got a problem on your hands.
9) Buy Low Flow Shower Heads - These are easy to install and most are designed in a tasteful manner.
10) Don’t Water the Sidewalk - Your grass needs the water, not the sidewalk. Pay attention to where your sprinkler is spraying when on
11) Dont water your lawn at noon – You’ll lose a lot to evaporation.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Did you know we spend more energy transporting water than on anything else?
That does not surprise me one bit. I noticed you spent some time in Southern California, and that area is basically dependent on water from other sources, Mainly the Colorado river and some from the owens valley.
Moving water around the west has been something that’s been fought over more than anything else. Movies have been created, and cities and towns emptied because of the water supply moving. Currently, they are considering taking water from western wyoming (Flaming gorge res) and piping it to the Denver metro area…Instead of asking denver to water less….
When will it end?
We all know water is the most precious resource among all. Start now and create good habits as water conservation will grow as an issue in the coming years. Thanks for sharing this with us.
People just take water for granted. If only more people followed this advice, great blog.