Simple Ways to Save Water at Home

July 23, 2019

Marlo K. and Kaitlyn H.

Save Water in the Bathroom

• Turn off the tap. Bathroom faucets can run anywhere from 2 to 2.5 gallons per minute when left on. Try turning off the tap when you're brushing your teeth or soaping up your hands.
• Use a shower bucket. Use a clean hardware bucket to collect water in your shower while the water is heating up. You can later reuse that bucket of water for another purpose, like mopping the floors or watering plants.
• Take shorter showers. Try adding some shorter showers into your routine, such as 5 minutes or less. Check out our eco-friendly shower hacks blog for more shower tips that can help you use less water.
• Switch to low-flow toilets. Lower flow toilets can help minimize how much water you use per flush. You may qualify for a rebate when you buy one, depending on where you live.
• Use a lower flow shower head. Older shower heads can use up to 5 gallons of water per minute, which ends up wasting a lot of water over the course of your shower. Swapping out your old shower head for a new one can easily save water and still give you a powerful experience.

Save Water in the Kitchen

• Re-use your pasta water. Try straining your pasta over another pot to collect all of the water used to cook the pasta, rather than just letting it go down the drain. After the water cools, you can use it to water your plants.
• Wash by using a sink full of water. Rather than leaving the tap running, fill your sink with hot soapy water and wash your dishes. Make sure to clean your sink beforehand.
• Don't pre-rinse dishes - just scrape. Most dishwashers can rid your dishes of small food remnants and don't need much prep in the way of pre-rinsing. Just scrape larger food off the dish before loading it into the dishwasher.
• Load the dishwasher properly. Maximize each dishwasher cycle by loading your dishwasher in a way that can fit the most dishes and avoid running a half-full dishwasher load.

Save Water in the Laundry

• Buy high efficiency washers and dryers. Invest in a washer and dryer that are high efficiency so that they use less water and less electricity per load. Even though the costs may be larger upfront, you can save money in the long run.
• Limit laundry loads. Limit the number of loads of laundry you do by making sure that each load is full to maximize the water used.

Save Water Outdoors

• Water your garden by hand. Use a garden hose to water your outdoor plants by hand, which ensures your plants are not getting too much or too little water.
• Capture rain. Position a large container to capture the roof water runoff from gutters and downspouts, and then reuse the water later for your garden. Don't forget to add a cover to the container to keep mosquitos away.
• Compost. Rather than using a garbage disposal, start a compost for your garden by setting aside food scraps such as fruits and vegetables, egg shells, and coffee grounds.
• Water your plants in the early morning. When the temperature is cool in the morning, less water will evaporate and more will be absorbed into the soil.