I Can't Believe How Much Water I Have Been Wasting All These Years

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Since COVID I have been thinking about how wasteful I am and seeking opportunities to improve. I hand wash my dishes, and for years I keep the water running as I wash each piece. I was letting the water run during the time I brush my teeth, and I would run the shower to get hot, then putz around until I was ready to get in. Or put the dog's water bowl in the sink to fill up and walk away for a couple minutes while it was filling. So I looked at my water bill and wondered how much of a difference it would make if I stopped mindlessly running water. I received the bill and I cut my water usage in half. This month I am going to cut down on paper towel use. I use a lot of paper towels and am going to switch to cloth towels that can be washed daily with the other clothes.

Anyone else trying to conserve? Or anyone taking a look at their life differently when it comes to resources since the pandemic?

 

[winnietucker]

I’ve always tried to do this. I think we need to be careful and conserve where we can.

I water my orchids with water from my fish tanks. My husband makes his own kombucha and I use the water he boils to sterilize everything to fill up the fish tank again. I’ve got a rain catchment barrel and am considering making a system for my chickens’ water with that. We live in the PNW so it’d be perfect but I’m working out the details. My grandparents had a house on the Big Island and they had a huge catchment tank that we used for our water (no city water until I was older) and I plan to basically model it after that.

If my husband has to use a paper towel he likes to just take half. And we already buy the ones that come in the smaller sheets. We also have a bunch of cloth towels we usually use.

All uneaten food/ veggie scraps that would be thrown out goes to the chickens. They get actual chicken food too but we use it to supplement their diets. They also free range a bit now so they eat less feed in general.

I have a compost bin for the stuff the chickens won’t eat but it got overrun with blackberries. I need to kill them off and try again.

 

[seaurchin]

I feel like I've been heading that way for years, and have now reached a point where I use few animal products, have downsized homes and other things that I would have considered extreme at one time. I even bought my first lab gem, surrounded by lab diamonds! (I realize I could have just not bought a new ring at all but I'm only human lol).

Right now I especially notice packaging. I'm thinking about going back to bar soap, and candles that don't come in their own glass or ceramic jars (again, I realize I could just not buy candles at all but better is better than nothing!)

Bonus: These changes nearly always cost less, too.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

I hand wash our dishes too and the real game changer was buying a dish basin. Now the water is only running to fill the basin and then I rinse in batches so only while actively rinsing. Saves a ton.

 

[chrono]

My family was brought up very frugally. We used a cup to collect water for rinsing teeth. Use natural lights and all appliances (and lights) must be turned off immediately when not in use. Keep doors and windows shut tight if the AC is turned on (we had no AC growing up). Dishes were soaked in a basin of hot soapy water prior to washing to loosen the dirt. No running water was used. Paper towels did not exist for us. We used rags from old clothes to wipe up messes and washed it repeatedly.

Life is very good for me today. I am spoiled by these luxuries.

 

[stracci2000]

I am pretty frugal. Last year, I noticed we were going through a lot of paper napkins. What a waste. So I switched from paper napkins to cloth. I just throw 'em in the wash.
I keep lots of rags on hand for kitchen spills, so I'm cutting down on paper towels, too.

I try to save on water.
I haven't used my dishwasher in forever. There's only two of us, so it doesn't make sense to run it.

I do get irritated when DH waters the yard. He say the trees will all die if he doesn't water.

 

[nala]

I’ve always been mindful and raised DD to be the same. I still fight off hubby daily when I see him waste bc apparently he has no guilt whatsoever about wasting water, napkins, etc! Ugh.

 

[Lookinagain]

I switched to cloth napkins a few years ago; bought silicone bags to use (and wash) instead of plastic zip lock type bags. I have a roll of bamboo "paper" towels that can be washed an re-used although I do still have regular paper towels to use for the yucky stuff. I use my dishwasher as I have read that it uses less water than handwashing and rinsing but I don't know about that. I have glass dispensers for hand, dishwashing soap and sanitizer that I refill from very large packaging. I don't buy bottled water but use a filter. When I cook something sous vide I save the water for the the plants; I try to be as mindful of the environment as I can. I'm sure I can do better though. I'm going to keep an eye on this thread to see if I get any new ideas!

 

[kenny]

Kudos to you, and to everyone who cares about and minimizes their negative impact on the earth.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

we have a big river that goes straight into the sea so for the first time in my life water is plentiful and we don't have restrictions but i remenber running out of water so i have lots of good habits
When i change the cat water bowls the water goes on plants
ive never left the tap running when i brush my teeth and through the night we don't flush the loo if we don't have to
i shower with the plug in so i can see how much water im using and some times i have a bucket in there to save some water

first week of covid lockdown we had a plumbing problem that ment we had no water for two days
i filled the bath up with water
its amazing how much water you actually go through not even including flushing the loo
i would recomend everyone try it for a day and night just to see how much water you need in a natural disaster if the water supply is compromised

i try to conserve hot water because im not working and i hate the gas bill
if i boil the jug for a cup of tea i be sure to make use of the hot water
same if i do hard boiled eggs
lucky its hot now so i enjoy an almost cold shower

this year ive been using tea towels to cover food in the microwave - i wash a lot of tea towels! but it has to be better than using glad wrap

 

[Austina]

Our water has been on a meter for many years, so we don’t pay a flat fee for water, we pay for what we use. When we moved in to our house, we had all our halogen bulbs changed for LED. (70 or so bulbs). I only run the dishwasher and washing machine when I have a full load, and the washing machine is cold fill, and I use a 30 degree cycle, same with the dishwasher, I only use the 1 hour cycle. I rarely use the overhead lights in the evening, we have lamps with energy saving bulbs.

We have to recycle all our waste, so have several bins for the different items. We rarely have waste food, but peelings etc. are recycled in to the waste food bin.

We donate used good quality clothes and furniture so they can be used again, and I drive a car with a 1600 cc engine.

I use one of these @Daisys and Diamonds for covering food in the microwave, I’ve had it years. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Vent...ocphy=1006596&hvtargid=pla-466813690268&psc=1

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Our water has been on a meter for many years, so we don’t pay a flat fee for water, we pay for what we use. When we moved in to our house, we had all our halogen bulbs changed for LED. (70 or so bulbs). I only run the dishwasher and washing machine when I have a full load, and the washing machine is cold fill, and I use a 30 degree cycle, same with the dishwasher, I only use the 1 hour cycle. I rarely use the overhead lights in the evening, we have lamps with energy saving bulbs.

We have to recycle all our waste, so have several bins for the different items. We rarely have waste food, but peelings etc. are recycled in to the waste food bin.

We donate used good quality clothes and furniture so they can be used again, and I drive a car with a 1600 cc engine.

I use one of these @Daisys and Diamonds for covering food in the microwave, I’ve had it years. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Vent...ocphy=1006596&hvtargid=pla-466813690268&psc=1

Thanks Austina
Next time i order from Amazon ill chuck one on

one thing i noticed durring kick down is cooling from scratch we halved our rubbish so we've cut down how often its picked up

unfortnatly the global pandemic has been bad for some council recycling - here its not even the council who do it but now they won't take paper or cardboard so im composting it

 

[Missy]

All our overhead lights are LED.
We recycle everything we can.
We only have one car and hardly use it.
We try to walk or cycle everywhere possible.
All our appliances are energy star.
We do not waste food.
We shut lights when we leave the room.
We chose the frustration free/environmentally friendly packaging on Amazon.
We don't have human children.

That's about it. I had to have all the flow restrictors removed. I couldn't deal with the low flow of water especially when bathing or showering. No thanks. And I do run our washing machine too often but that is a leftover from our RW experience and hopefully I will get back to using it less when my PTSD calms down re RW.

But we do what we can.

 

[Tartansparkles]

Our water isn't metered (gotta be some advantages to all the rain!) but we are still mindful of what we use (no running water to brush teeth etc).

Our biggest recent change is that I order all our cleaning products from a company that sells the products in a concentrated form. They deliver pouches of concentrate through the post, you reuse your existing bottles to make what you need (washing up liquid, toilet cleaner etc) then you return the empty pouches to the company who have them recycled into new products. We also buy solid soap and shampoo. I wish I could find solid hair conditioner. With the exception of drinks/juice bottles, we don't really have any new plastic bottles coming into the house. The company is called Splosh for any UK peeps who might be interested.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

All our overhead lights are LED.
We recycle everything we can.
We only have one car and hardly use it.
We try to walk or cycle everywhere possible.
All our appliances are energy star.
We do not waste food.
We shut lights when we leave the room.
We chose the frustration free/environmentally friendly packaging on Amazon.
We don't have human children.

That's about it. I had to have all the flow restrictors removed. I couldn't deal with the low flow of water especially when bathing or showering. No thanks. And I do run our washing machine too often but that is a leftover from our RW experience and hopefully I will get back to using it less when my PTSD calms down re RW.

But we do what we can.

Oh those flow restricters make for the cr#pirst shower
one summer drought Gary thought we would be good and he turned the flow down on the shower head
i don't actually like too much water on my head but it was the worst shower ever
And all that happened was i was longer in the shower so used the same anount of water just trying to get wet and clean
i noticed the next day after Gary's shower it had been turned up again !

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I used the paper napkins to wipe the dinner plates--and pots/pans as needed. Then those napkins go into the compost bin. We have recycle bins (city compost and recycle programs)-- hence we have only a little bit of garbage. I am more frugal with the water than my DH. And if it were up to me I would never water the lawn--I couldn't care less about nice grass.

cheers--Sharon

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

HI:

I used the paper napkins to wipe the dinner plates--and pots/pans as needed. Then those napkins go into the compost bin. We have recycle bins (city compost and recycle programs)-- hence we have only a little bit of garbage. I am more frugal with the water than my DH. And if it were up to me I would never water the lawn--I couldn't care less about nice grass.

cheers--Sharon

We have the greenist lawn in the street/ suburb/ town
because we don't mow it
rewilding
Its not quite worked out like i hoped and Gary's family hate it but its green and we love it
never water it
never lived anywhere you were allowed to water the lawn

 

[Missy]

Oh those flow restricters make for the cr#pirst shower
one summer drought Gary thought we would be good and he turned the flow down on the shower head
i don't actually like too much water on my head but it was the worst shower ever
And all that happened was i was longer in the shower so used the same anount of water just trying to get wet and clean
i noticed the next day after Gary's shower it had been turned up again !

The flow restrictors are ridiculous (for me). It took me 20 minutes to fill my tub before I removed them. And as for washing one's hair well forget about it. Or as we say in Brooklyn, fuggedaboutit.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

The flow restrictors are ridiculous (for me). It took me 20 minutes to fill my tub before I removed them. And as for washing one's hair well forget about it. Or as we say in Brooklyn, fuggedaboutit.

I grew up on rural supply
It was restricted by a little ball bearing in the inlet pipe into our water tank
In trickled in at about 600ml (an imperial pint) a minute
The tank was only 6ft off the ground and the holding tank for the street was only about 10m higher than that further up the road

you can imange what the shower was like!

But somehow we got clean !
We got 200 gallons a day and had a 400 gallon tank
4 people don't actually use that much, we didn't have a dishwasher or a wastemaster but we did sparingly water dad's roses

When we had a house full of visitors little kids sheared showers and dad would check the tank but we never even came close to running out

the only times we ever ran out of water was when grit blocked the inlet pipe - of course you don't know until you run out because no one is checking the tank every 2 minutes

i remember having to wash my hair using the water from the horse's trough next door ! (Because teenages wash their hair every day)

It was really lovelly soft great tasting untreated water ...until the creek it was sourced from got infected with gardia one year
Back then it had been safe to drink water from just about any creek or river