How to Reduce Water Waste in Your Home

The average adult uses about 150 gallons of water per day!  Considering that less than 2% of the Earth’s water supply is fresh, it makes sense to put forth an effort to reduce our usage.  Doing so will conserve energy used to recycle water and reduce our environmental impact.

Here are some easy to manage tips for using less water in our homes.  Teaching our children to follow these guidelines, too, will ensure that we are all good stewards of our Earth!

Don’t Let it Run

Brushing your teeth while the water runs can waste as much as 5 gallons of water.  For a family of four, that amounts to 40 gallons of water wasted daily, so keep the water off while brushing, and shaving!

Don’t be afraid to wash your hands with cold water.  Letting it run until the water warms up can be just as wasteful as leaving the tap on during your dental care.  If you’re waiting for the bath or shower to warm up, put a pitcher under the tap and use the cold water to hydrate all of your house plants.

Conversely, instead of letting the water run for a cold glass to drink, consider keeping a pitcher of water in the refrigerator to avoid waste.  Water left over in drinking glasses can be used for pets.

Time Your Showers

In just ten minutes, your shower can use up to 40 gallons of water.  A bath typically requires about 37 gallons, so if you’d like to enjoy the warm water for longer than 10 minutes, a bath is your best option.  Just be sure your tub has high quality piping installed, or it may need to be replaced.  To be most efficient, set a timer for 5 minutes and get clean fast.

Efficiency in the Kitchen

While doing things the old fashioned way may seem like the right thing to do, washing dishes by hand actually uses about twice as much water as using a dishwasher does.  Also, don’t pre-rinse your dishes—scraping them is just fine.

Let it Mellow

The phrase, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow” does not appeal to you, never fear—there’s a more hygienic way to save water in the toilet.  Place an empty mason jar with no lid into the tank of your toilet.  Each time you flush, you will conserve as much water as what fits in the jar.

Launder Less

Reduce your laundry by wearing jeans and sweatshirts a few times between washes.  Bath towels may also be re used quite a few times between washings so long as they are hung to dry properly afterwards.  Only run your washing machine when you have enough laundry for a full load.

Even if you can’t make all of these changes, making just one or two will greatly reduce your water consumption for a positive impact you and your family can be proud of.