Super EZ ways to cut your water bill & recycle household water to the garden

[K8-EEE]

We cut our usage by over 30% last year making these easy changes:

1. Don't be on auto-flush

I'm a person who routinely glugs huge amounts of water, iced tea and coffee every day. Subsequently I am constantly using the bathroom! Our toilets are the low-water usage kind which I think now are code in L.A. But still....1t takes 1.5 gallons every time.

Obviously if you live in a house with one bathroom and 10 people it's harder than if you live with four people and 2 bathrooms but what we do is basically use our the bathroom in our bedroom and only flush it a couple of times a day. Guests always use the "flushed" bathroom anyhow. I'm sure we save 100 gallons a week doing that!


2. Keep these groovy IKEA watering cans in all the sinks!

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20118230

I love this design because it's low-slung and fits even in small bathroom sinks. The white one blends right in with white porcelain and doesn't set off my "clutter-itis." The handle doesn't go over the top and so, it doesn't get in your way. And it's only $2!

You would not believe how many times a day you fill this just washing your hands or rinsing out glasses, coffee mugs etc.

I keep a 5 gallon bucket in the shower-tubs of each bathroom and as it fills just throw it in there. Before showering, empty the bucket into the driest part of the garden.

3. Leave the bucket in the shower while showering

And the next morning you will have another full bucket to take outside.

4, Reclaim some of your laundry water.

At least with a top-loading washer, you can do this! At the end of the soak cycle before the water drains, dip a couple of watering cans in. As long as you use a bio-degradable soap and no bleach, your plants will not mind the soapy water at all.



Granted there are many variables that would make parts of this unworkable (for instance if your bathrooms were upstairs or far away from your garden) but for us it's been easy to fall into these habits and really besides conserving what is a very precious resource here -- who wants to pay more on their water bill than you have to?

[hippywife]

1. Good ideas, K.

I use a powdered soap from our coop for laundry that's made from goats milk. Wouldn't harmy my garden at all. I'm thinking of putting stopping it just before it drains and pulling the hose from the drain pipe. Then turning it back on to let it drain into a large pail.

:hi:

[K8-EEE]

2. I would love to replumb so the laundry rinse water goes to a rain barrel outside!!

That's def on my "to do" list, my laundry set up is in the house but by the wall by the back veggie garden.

[hippywife]

3. I would like to do that, too.

At the moment, I'd only be able to do it manually each time. Gotta add this to the to-do list, tho.

I use Seventh Generation dish soap in the sink and the same goats milk soap in a small, portable dishwasher. Should be able to capture that greywater, too.

Thanx for the reminders. This was on our list of things to explore last year and kinda got lost in the shuffle. :hug:

[trof]

4. "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."

I've been doing that for several months. Big difference in the water bill.

[trof]

5. Oh yeah, doing the 5 gal. bucket thing, too.

My shower is at the opposite end of the house from the water heater (solar with electric backup :-)), so it takes forever for the hot water to arrive.
I capture the initial flow in the bucket and use it to water plants, garden.

[BOSSHOG]

6. And guys Pee outside if practical

I always end my day with a nice stroll out back. I do have a nice wooded acre lot so my chances of saving the planet undetected are most likely better then the average DUer.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. One note of caution on reclaiming laundry water. Your plants will mind the sodium in phosphate-free

formulas. Be sure to use soaps that aren't sodium-based if you're going to recapture the final rinses.

The other stuff all makes sense and does save water.

We also reclaim the water used to rinse raw fruits and vegetables, especially the fruits and veggies from our own yard.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. We set up a rain barrel outside

As we get more money, we're going to add them to all our downspouts.

1" of rain on a 1000sq ft house = 600 gallons.

It was super easy to set up, too. It took about 15 minutes.

[hippywife]

10. We've set up our second one last week

to capture runoff from the chicken coop roof. They are both full since it's been pretty rainy and, at least one weekend, snowy here. Gonna have to get a few more barrels since the real rainy season is upon us.

[FedUpWithIt All]

11. We made three out of recycled garbage cans.

First rainy day and all three are filled. Over 90 gallons.

We are pretty happy with them and we only spent $44 total. :D

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

12. Yeah, we bought one

We call it "Big Blue" but LostinVA won't let me put a Giants logo on it.

[FedUpWithIt All]

14. Aw hell, she's no fun.

;-)

Are you guys planning to use your exclusively for gardening?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

15. Yeah, pretty much

We never wash our cars or anything.

[JustJeking]

16. We're also thinking of

getting rain barrels too - where did you get yours?

[Kolesar]

9. Plumb the commode to use water from the sump pump

For that matter, pump the sump pump into a rain barrel for use in the garden. There is a new building on Times Square that is going to use filtered water from the sump pump to run the toilets.

[XemaSab]

13. You clearly don't have a puppy who steals the TP

x(