Archive for February 10, 2009
Reduce: Shower Time
I’m still feeling a bit meh, so this is just a short post – me trying to get back in the swing of things.
Wasting water is bad. The biggest water waster is the shower. Most people shower every day. Yeah, most. Hmm.
Anyway, you guys already know all this.
Showers are massive water wasters
As we’ve been in a drought for ages over here, most Australians are used to having to reduce the amount of water we use in the shower. Here’s how.
Take shorter showers. It seems pretty obvious, but it’s the most effective way to reduce water wastage. You can get clocks or timers which can help you keep to time. We have a clock from IKEA that attaches to the tile wall with a suction cap, and a similarly attached hourglass type of thing that goes for four minutes. Everyone got the hourglass with their newspaper, but you can buy them – an egg-timer even, would work.
Use a water-saving shower head. In Australia you can get rebates when you buy them – just Google. There are all different kinds – they don’t have to be that kind with the crappy water pressure or the kind with the sprays that bore through your shoulders.
Turn the water off when you’re not using it. For example, if you’re just putting shampoo in your hair, you don’t need to be under the water – so turn it off until you need it again.
Don’t brush your teeth in the shower. It’s much better to do it over the sink with the tap turned off. Just turn on the tap to rinse.
Only shampoo once. Apparently lots of people already did this, but I always did rinse and repeat, just like it says on the bottle. It’s a good idea to use less conditioner too – just condition the ends of your hair. These methods will require less water to rinse out.
Put a bucket in the shower to catch the water that comes out while it’s heating up. Just take the bucket out once the water is warm. You can use the water on your garden, or for any other purpose that takes your fancy. My friend’s cat used to drink out of her bucket!
Take cool showers as often as possible – that way you don’t have to wait for the water to heat up.
And my personal favourite – shower with your partner. While you’re shampooing, they can be under the water, and vice versa. At least, that’s the theory…
I’m sure people have other tactics – what do you do to save water in the shower?
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