Name: Shayna
Location: Oakland
I'm a firm believer in the concept of baby-steps. Grandiose ideas are great, but as for becoming reality? The follow-through just isn't always there. Like Janel, I think it's the small, feasible actions that become a part of your daily vocabulary that really make a difference. For my home, that means using cloth bags, recycling, composting, line-drying clothes in warm weather and buying local when we can; and we're always on the lookout for new ideas to add to our arsenal. This summer, faced with a mandatory water reduction, my family is looking specifically at reducing our water usage...
If you live in Alameda county, you already know about the mandatory water reduction program. Our home is quite small and after conducting an informal survey amongst neighbors and friends, I found that our water bill is relatively small despite all of the planting we've done recently. Faced with a mandatory reduction of 19% of the average of our water bills, we're a bit overwhelmed at the idea of reducing our water usage even more. Here are two easy ideas that we've managed to pretty much seamlessly incorporate in to our daily life.
1. Using a bucket in the bathroom shower. Instead of watching all of the water go down the drain, we collect the water in a bucket and use it to water our newly planted fruit trees. A good bucket of water every few days keeps the trees happy and we haven't turned the hose on them in over a month now....
2. Using a tub in the kitchen sink. We didn't realize how much water we wasted in the kitchen just washing off fruits and veggies and rinsing our hands while cooking. I found the perfect size tub to keep in one side of our sink. Now, every time that faucet goes on, we collect water for the garden or for our houseplants. We use biodegradable soap and even empty the leftover coffee in to the bucket.
What other real tips do you have for us? We want all of your ideas!
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Because of the water ban in her town, my mom started using the water collected from the dehumidifier in the basement to water her plants. I thought it was a great idea since she needs to use the dehumidifier anyway even though it probably sucks up a lot of electricity.
view TCMB's profile
My landlord just installed one of those new hot water heaters that only heats water as you need it. It works great, is more environmentally friendly than a big tank, and my gas bill is sure to go down. Plus, it seems to get hotter quicker than my old tank, which saves water. I'll also probably start using this bucket technique in the shower to save even more water--the container garden on my deck dries out pretty quickly.
view burpchick's profile
Leave the plug in the bath when you take a shower, then scoop up the water in a bucket to flush the toilet. We leave water in the tub all day until someone has a shower, and use the water all day - but you do get some godawful rings round the tub.
view Laurel's profile
I live in Atlanta and my husband and I have been keeping a bucket in my bathroom and kitchen for a while now and it's amazing how much water we collect. We also follow the if-it's-yellow-let-it-mellow rule (except when we have company).
view Carmella's profile
but what do you do with the collected water if you don't have (many) plants?
view coyontita's profile
I use the water I collect in the kitchen for boiling pasta, washing veggies/fruit, rinsing dishes, and watering. plants.
view Carmella's profile
So everyone has to reduce water usage by 19% of their past average use? What would you do if you had been utilizing all of these water saving methods over the past year? Give up daily showers, while the guy who hoses his walk down every day would just have to stop doing that? Sounds like a flawed mandate.
Carmella, are you saying you boil your pasta and wash your veggies in gray water, or that you save the water used during those tasks?
view Shawn's profile
I'm with coyontita. I don't have any plants or a garden.
Great point Shawn.
view Artichokesoup's profile
just this morning, i was contemplating a "shower water diverter" as our bath/shower is on an outside wall through which we could easily create a "graywater exhaust port" into the garden opposite the shower. hopefully, some creative plumbing investigation will yield a solution. i'd be interested to hear form other graywater folks how "toxic" daily shower runoff might be. seems fairly benign to me, but buildup of chemical residue might be an issue.
view redneckmodern's profile
I lived in Venezuela for two years, and we had a leaking valve in the shower that would cause water to drip from the head. We started collecting it in a tub, and then using a pitcher to shower. I was amazed that you could take a shower with three or four gallons if you were careful. We didn't bother fixing the drip because it allowed the water to warm up during the night in the bucket so it wasn't so cold. The shower didn't have hot, only cold water.
That being said, I don't do that now. Hot water in the morning just seems to wake me up more gently than a bucket of cold over the head...
view DavidC's profile
in response to coyontita and artichokesoup, you can use that water for anything that doesn't need absolutely "clean" water, such as flushing the toilet, washing/soaking dishes (although not rinsing them), cleaning sinks/tubs/surfaces and rinsing them after cleaning, mopping, washing your hands mid-gross task, etc.
also, though it sounds quite weird, i sometimes use a sort of hierarchy of gray water. some things require actually clean water (drinking, showering, washing veggies); for others, mostly clean gray water is fine (cleaning, washing dishes, washing hands); still others can use the *really* gray water that's been recycled several times (flushing the toilet, watering plants). thinking about it that way helps me (a) actually reuse as much water as possible and (b) not be secretly grossed out by reusing it.
view katiebug's profile
I really need to start collecting shower/sink water, since I have a lot of plants and I live in the desert (not sure why we don't have madatory water usage laws--denial, I guess).
view jen_g's profile
I also live in Atlanta and keep a bucket in the shower. I then use the water to flush the toilet, following the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" policy.
view Elvira's profile
I work in Haiti as a volunteer and we have a program where we teach residents there to use the water that they have used for cooking or cleaning to water their communal gardens. The nutrients that are washed off while cooking or washing dishes are actually quite an effective fertilizer. Also, the soap used washing clothes serves as pest control.
We also use all the "mellow" rules and toilet flushing rules with gray water, of course.... it is truly amazing how little water you can use if you have to fetch it from a mile away with a bucket and carry it on your head. (I don't actually do this, as we have a cistern... but the neighbors do).
view cal's profile
Hi Shawn,
To answer your questions...I collect water in the kitchen while waiting for the water to get hot when doing dishes and that is what I use to boil pasta, rinse food, etc. I live in an older apartment and it takes about two gallons before the water gets hot.
view Carmella's profile
Really great suggestions everyone. Thanks!
If anyone has installed a gray-water system or any other great ideas, feel free to submit them here for a chance to win a prize...
To answer your question, Shawn: Yes, it does present a bit of a challenge and can seem unfair if you're already using less water than the average joe. But I suppose that the idea is that everyone starts where they are and moves from there...in an ideal world we wouldn't need the mandatory cut-backs anyway, right? There's never an easy or perfect solution, I suppose...for now, we'll just reap the rewards of doing our part to help the environment(*grin*).
- Shayna
view shayna r's profile