Save Water

Save water from your taps. Turn the faucet/tap off while you are brushing your teeth, shaving, washing your hands, doing dishes, and so on. Turn the tap off when you shower, too. Get wet, then turn off the water while you soap up. Turn it back on for long enough to rinse. Look for a twist valve that installs behind your shower head to keep the water temperature where you set it while the water is off.

• Catch the cold water that comes out of the faucet, tap, or shower while you are waiting for the hot water. Use it to water plants or pour into your toilet reservoir after flushing.
• Water from a hot water tank may have more sediment or rust than water from the cold water tank, but is otherwise suitable for drinking. If you use a water filter, you can filter the saved water, and put it in bottles in the refrigerator for drinking water.

Check your plumbing for leaks, especially leaking toilets and faucets. Fix anything you find leaking. A silent toilet leak could waste from 30 to 500 gallons every day!

Install low-flow shower heads and faucets or faucet aerators. Low-flow devices are inexpensive ($10-$20 for a shower head and less than $5 for a faucet aerator). Most simply screw into place (you may need an adjustable wrench), and good, current units maintain the pressure and feel of the flow while using as little as half as much water as conventional units.

Take shorter showers. Take a timer, clock, or stopwatch into the bathroom with you and challenge yourself to cut down your showering time. You could even play music while in the shower and challenge yourself to cut down the number of songs it takes you. Shave outside the shower, or turn off the shower while you shave.

• Take showers rather than baths. By taking a bath, you are using up to 100 liters of water! Showering will generally use less than a third of this amount. See the water use table below.
• Install a valve that fits just behind the shower head. These valves are inexpensive and simply screw into place. Turn the water on for long enough to get wet. Then, use the valve to turn the water off while preserving the temperature of the water while you soap up. Turn the water on again to rinse.

Use waste water or gray water from the bath, washing machines or dish washing on the garden. If possible, hook up a hose to the outlet on your machine to send the water outside onto your garden. To re-use bathwater use a hand-operated Syphon Pump. When hand-washing dishes, rinse the dishes into a container, and empty the container into your garden.

• Collect water for re-use anytime you are running the water waiting for a particular temperature. Simply run it into a bucket, watering can, or pitcher.
• If you collect clean water (such as while adjusting water temperature), you also can use it to hand wash delicate clothing.
• Also collect water that you use for rinsing produce and for boiling pasta or eggs.
• Use garden-compatible soaps and cleaning products if you collect gray water for gardening.
• If you're not sure whether gray water is suitable for plants, you can use it to flush your toilet. Either pour it directly into the bowl, or (provided there is no sediment) use it to refill the toilet tank when you flush.

Convert your toilet to low flush. Place a plastic bottle of water in the tank to displace some of the water used for each flush. Weigh the bottle down with pebbles or sand, if necessary. Or, try ordering a 'save-a-flush' or 'hippo' from your local water board.^[2]

• Not all toilets will be able to flush effectively with a reduced amount of water, so make sure that you check that your toilet does.^[3]
• Make sure there's a lid on the bottle, especially if there are pebbles or sand weighing it down. You don't want any pebbles or sand loose in your toilet tank.
• Upgrade to a low-flush toilet. Low flush toilets exist that can flush reliably with 1.6 gallons (6 liters) of water and less. Read product reviews to find a good one.

Get or create a dual-flush toilet. This is basically a toilet that flushes a smaller amount of water for when you pee and more water for pooping, thereby saving water. Use the half flush button with a dual-flush toilet.

• You can also buy a dual flush conversion kit to turn your water guzzling toilet into a water saver you can be proud of. Search the web for devices like Selectaflush and Twoflush. They both work well and save money.

Make sure to use your toilet appropriately. Don't flush every time. Remember; "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." Also, don't use your toilet as a trash can. Each time you flush you use up to 9 liters of clean water, which is a lot of unnecessary waste!

Replace your clothes washing machine with a high-efficiency washer. Old-style top-loading washers use 40 to 45 gallons per load, and the average family of four runs 300 loads per year. High-efficiency washers, typically front-loading, use only 15 to 30 gallons per load. This works out to a savings of 11,400 to 34,000 liters (3000 to 9000 gallons) per year.