It’s that time of the month again! Why yes, I AM ovulating quite painfully, but what I meant, rather, was that it’s time for Project Support Beauty in Nature. Remember, if you have a “green” post you can link to it on the Mr. Linky Widget at the very bottom of this post any time this week.

I’ve posted about water conservation before, but I thought it would be a good article to run at this time of the year when people tend to use more water than ever.

John and I have been much more careful with our water use, and it has made a serious difference in our water consumption.

It’s worth it just to save the water… but if you take these steps you can also save a considerable amount of $$$.

• NEVER wash a load of laundry until you have a full machine’s worth of clothes. I even experimented to see if I could get away with “medium” water on a load I normally would have called “large.” It actually works most of the time.

• If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down. A lot of people are squeamish about this, but it made a rather large difference in our water bill. We now pee 3 or 4 times (sometimes more) before we flush. Think of how many tanks of water that saves in a month’s time!

• Reduce the number/size of baths. Braden takes a bath every night as part of his bedtime routine. We fill the tub only half as much as we used to. He never even noticed when we made that change. All he cares is it’s wet, there are bubbles, and he has toys. We also stopped waiting for the right water temp before dropping the plug. The plug drops, water starts. It all mixes in and evens out.

• Take shorter/less showers. Less showers is hard if you go to work every day and have to shower to get ready, but you can try shortening by using a timer with an alarm, the kind that counts down and then goes off. Start by figuring out how long your average shower is, then try to shave off 5 minutes at a time. It’s just a habit thing. With practice, you can knock off some time (if you shower longer than 15-20, especially).

• Collect the cold water at the beginning of a shower in a bucket for use elsewhere. I got this awesome tip from Sandy @ Momisodes back when I first started doing PSBN and it is a GREAT thing to do. We have saved SO MUCH water doing this! During gardening months, you can use it to water plants, but there are plenty of other uses, such as:
  • add to bathwater for baths
  • use in clothes washing
  • mop floors
  • dog’s water bowl
  • aquarium refill
  • vases for picked flowers
  • rinse water for dishes
  • wash car in driveway
  • wading pool during summer (idea courtesy of Alison)
  • water for live Christmas tree
  • ETC

• Don’t run water when you’re not actively using it. Whenever you wash your hands, put soap in your hand, then wet them, and turn the water off while you lather. Turn it back on to rinse. Do the same when brushing teeth. If you handwash dishes, don’t leave water running while you’re soaping them.

This is just a short list of the things that have made the largest difference for us so far. In fact, our monthly water bill is as low as $16 most months, and never more than $34. I don’t know about you, but to me that is amazing!

Other tips:

• Make sure you inspect all pipes and areas where leaks can occur (water heaters, outside hoses and spigots) because a slow leak can add up to a huge amount of wasted water over a long period of time.
• If your toilet is high flow, you can place a brick in the tank so that it takes less water to fill it. Make sure there is still enough power to flush in one try – if you end up flushing twice to “get it down” it’s not doing you any good.
• Don’t put any extra bulk in the toilet (like tissue you blow your nose with, for exampe). Reduce the amount of TP you use to wipe if possible. We did!
• Wash your dishes by hand. Buy sink tubs and run one with soapy water, one with clean. Wash in one tub, rinse in the other. This reduces water use DRASTICALLY over using a dishwasher IF YOU RINSE DISHES FIRST. You can also re-use the water from the tubs for mop water, and even garden water if you purchase posphate free dish soap. Energy Star rated dishwashers use as little as 4 gallons of water, however. So if you scrape instead of rinsing, this type of dishwasher will save you more. You cannot re-use the water, however.
• Rain collection barrells gather a large amount of free water for you. You can use that water for gardening, mopping, car washing, etc. I really want one, but we rent, and you have to make modifications to the downspouts on your gutters. If you own your home, you should REALLY consider it. The cheapest I’ve found pre-made are $150, and they can get really pricey, up to 3 times as much as that for the “really nice” ones. But you can also make them yourself with a little effort, and that costs WAY less.

Click HERE for helpful links about rain collection barrells, as well as other water saving tips.

It’s worth saving this stuff and making sure there’s always plenty left over.

There are plenty more ways to save water – do you do some things I didn’t mention here?

If you have a “green” post, please feel free to add it to the Mr. Linky! Thanks.