Only Wash Full Loads of Laundry always on cold setting – Always wait until a load is full before
doing laundry. If you must do a smaller load, be sure to adjust the water settings on your washer.
Put a 5-gallon bucket in the shower to capture water -while you wait for it to get warm & use bucket
water for plants or animals.
Take Shorter Showers, Skip Baths Entirely-If you’re someone who likes to take long hot showers, you
might want to get your phone’s timer involved to remind you to keep your shower to five minutes or less.
And sorry, bath fans: A full bathtub can require up to 70 gallons of water, so showers that last less than
five minutes will use much less water than one bath (though that can vary by showerhead.)
Dropped Ice on the Floor? Give It to Your Plants -No drop of water is too small to be saved. So, if you
fumble the ice tray, instead of tossing the ice cubes you dropped into the sink, consider placing them in
the soil of a plant instead. FYI, you can also use ice to water plants on a regular basis. It allows plants to
absorb the water slowly and generally uses less water than traditional watering.
Apply mulch to plants, shrubs and ornamental trees-By covering the soil with mulch around the base
of plants, the evaporation of water from the soil is greatly reduced. Plants can better survive a drought
when mulched and require less frequent watering. There are many different materials that can be used for
mulch, but care should be taken to not use materials with weed seeds or materials which do not ‘breathe’,
such as plastic sheeting. (Using plastic sheeting will solarize the soil, killing beneficial organisms in the
top layers of soil.)
Fix Leaks Around the House – Water lost to leaks from faucets and showerheads can add up. According
to Arizona’s Water: Use It Wisely, one drip every second adds up to five gallons of water lost every day.
In this spirit, make sure you turn taps tightly when you’re done running water to prevent drips. If you’re
renting and you’re unable to fix a leak yourself, inform your landlord or property manager of the need to
fix it straightaway.
Hand water your garden and shrub beds using a hose nozzle sprayer – Hand watering your garden
and shrub beds saves up to 40% of the water used when compared to sprinklers, since sprinklers apply
water across the entire swath they are set to cover. In a garden, the pathways take up much of the ground
space, and do not need watering. And by not watering the pathways you won’t need to weed them since
the weeds will dry up and wither. Hand watering also delivers all the water right where it is needed,
unlike the sprinkler which loses some water to wind and evaporation before it reaches the ground.
Keep drinking water in a jug in the refrigerator -At home, we typically run the tap until the water runs
cold every time, we want a drink. By simply decanting tap water into a large container, or individual
bottles, you can save as much as 50% of water used for personal drinking. Besides the obvious benefit of
conserving water, keeping water in the refrigerator has two additional benefits – the water is cooler than it
would be from the tap, and the practice of decanting water from the fridge helps families wean themselves
of the wasteful practice of buying water in individual plastic bottles which eventually clog landfills and
add to the burden of plastic waste.
Water saving YouTube for kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTcFXJT0Fsc
7 Ways To Conserve Water In Your Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsX4oL1VpgE