Friday, July 31, 2009

Different Ways to Save Water

This came in the mail yesterday.

Water meters will be installed in our neighborhood this fall, to be be activated in 2010. [scary organ music plays as I look at the 25,000 gallon pool]

Since I have no idea how this will affect the budget, we're ramping up our conservation efforts now.

Everybody knows to turn off the water while brushing teeth, to take showers instead of baths, and so on. Here are some different ideas that you might want to try:

Don’t flush kleenex, smooshed bugs, or deceased aquarium fish. The outside trash will do just fine for all of these.

Instead of running the garbage disposal, put veggie peelings in the outside garbage or the compost bin.
icon
Scrape plates instead of rinsing them before loading the dishwasher.

When you change the fishtank water, use the “old” water for the garden. Veggies and flowers love fishy-poo water.

At a restaurant, only ask for water if you’re actually going to drink it.

When you make (or buy) laundry soap or dishwasher soap, use the powdered form. The liquid version is the same thing, just with water added.

Put extra ice cubes in your houseplants instead of dumping them in the sink.

But don’t:
Put your pasta or veggie cooking water on your plants if you put salt in it. Salt is a plant killer!

Put a brick in your toilet tank for water displacement. Any particles that wear off the brick can mess up your plumbing. Use a milk jug filled with rocks or this cool controllable flush doohicky.
icon
Is anybody else thirsty?

3 comments:

  1. One way to save some water is to take a "Navy" shower; when you're lathering up or shampooing, turn off the water. Some shower heads have a pin/button that shuts off the water, so you're not bending over and fumbling to turn it back on, while soap or shampoo is dripping all over your face. It's amazing just how much water we use when showering.
    ReplyDelete
  2. The pool and the lawn are probably the biggest water users in your house. Some kind of pool cover should reduce evaporation from the pool (and help keep out debris: bonus), which should reduce the amount of fresh water coming into the pool. Also, cutting back on lawn watering or even putting in low water use grass (some varieties don't even require mowing regularly). For the last 5 summers I've watered the lawn 1 hour (1 inch) every Saturday morning. At first it was browner than most on the block; but this year it is as green or greener than the house across the street that waters 15 minutes every morning and evening.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I tend to leave half-drunk glasses of water throughout the house, I don't like the taste of "old water", I know weird... When I gather them up to take them back to the kitchen I pour them in the dog bowl or use them to water my potted lime tree that's outside my kitchen door...when I'm refreshing the dog's water I use the 'old' water to water my plants outside as well.
    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...