10 Ways to Conserve Water



In recognition of World Water Day, here are some ideas for saving water:
  1. Drink filtered tap water in reusable water bottles, not bottled water.
  2. Use your dishwasher (if you have one) to wash as many dishes as possible, and run only full loads.
  3. Turn off the water while brushing teeth.
  4. Turn off the water while washing hands. I make my kids do this. They wet their hands, turn off the water, put soap on their hands, and sing the ABCs rubbing their hands together before turning on the water and rinsing off their hands. I do this partly because if I do leave the water running my children wash the soap off their hands immediately after applying it. Yep, the faucet handle does get a bit soapy.
  5. Do less laundry. Use less water when you do the laundry.
  6. Get a high-quality low-flush toilet and don't flush every time (if it's yellow, let it mellow). Don't get a low-quality low-flush toilet because they will clog up so much they will drive you nuts.
  7. Get rid of your front lawn. I wish we could do this, but we are renters. I would like to have either low-maintenance low-water landscaping in the front or an edible garden.
  8. Shower, don't bathe. This one is easy for me because I don't like baths, so I never take one. My toddler still prefers a bath, but we use a little plastic bath, instead of filling up our bathtub. Everyone else showers. And don't forget to use a low-flow shower head
  9. Tag-team showers. I'm not virtuous enough to fill buckets with water while the shower water gets warm (not virtuous enough to take a cold shower either). But my husband and I do try to tag-team shower in the morning whenever possible. As soon as one gets out, the other gets in. For the second shower, no wasted water while the water warms up because it's still hot!
  10. Shower less. I used to shower every 2 or 3 days, but postpartum-ness has made me need to shower every day. But since I only wash my hair once a week, most of my showers are very short. If you'd like to be extra awesome, shower like a soldier.

Conserving water helps the environment and saves you money!

How do you conserve water?

This post is part of


Photo credit: Davey C. while in Iraq

7 comments:

  1. We do take a lot of baths here but we almost always use the water for at least two people. I'll go first and then have my girls--together or seperate hop into the tub when I get out. My son always insists on being the first one in the tub, but no one else seems to mind.

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    1. Tag-team baths! Also an awesome idea. When I was a kid, my sisters and I often took baths 3 at a time.

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  2. we are doing everything on your list except the front yard. i am working on my husband on that one. hopefully in the near future we will convert the front yard. did you notice your water bill when you stopped flushing everytime? or do you get a water bill being renter's? when we first started doing the mellow yellow several years ago it cut our water bill in half! it was amazing to compare it to the previous ones. we do use one of our tubs for our indoor duck. she swims around in it every morning. she does not get clean water every morning!!! if she was living in a park her pond would certainly not be clean. she gets clean water once or twice a week. when we drain the water we always siphon it off into a garden with a long hose. during the summer when our little city goes on water rationing we will make her water last a week no matter how horrible it may look. then some vegetables will get some water. they also thrive with the natural fertilizer. if i ever "had" to have a bath i know that i would be siphoning off the water instead of just letting it go down the drain.

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    1. We do get a water bill as renters but it's on auto-pay and I haven't looked. I should! My kids would love an indoor duck.

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  3. I have an edible landscape in my backyard. I have grass in the middle, too--it is my children's playground, and they are home all day (we homeschool). You can click over to my site, then to Garden, then to Edible Landscaping to see our yard. Everything (except the grass) is watered on a drip system. I would LOVE to do the front yard (we did at our last house) to all be edible, too, but right now it's mostly rock (low water, but not edible!) Doing the front yard would be an increase in our water bill, but it would be watering food, so I'm good with that.

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  4. Really fabulous water conservation ideas!

    My Mom, apparently, takes showers like a soldier. We all thought she was crazy, but now I see the logic behind it (as opposed to when I was younger). She's always been very concerned about water conservation.

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  5. Great tips! I wish I were better at water conservation.

    One thing I have to mention: When washing dishes by hand, put some soapy water in the sink and soak the dishes for a few minutes, then take out one at a time and wash them with a cloth dipped in the soapy water. This uses MUCH less water, and less soap, than holding each dish under running water while scrubbing it. It's most efficient to wait until you have enough dishes to fill the sink.

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