Go Green: 4 Tips for Saving Water in Your Home
Looking for ways to go green? Check out the Domestic CEO’s 4 easy ways to save water (and money) in your home!
As you may have noticed, I’m on a bit of a going green kick lately. If you’ve been listening to or reading my recent episodes, you’ve already learned how to cut down on the amount of trash you create in your kitchen as well as some environmentally friendly laundry tips. I’m sticking with the going green topic again this week and will be focusing on some of the best ways to save water in your home.
Water is a natural resource that has become a hot-button topic lately. Living in Arizona, our main source of water is the Colorado River, and we share it with 6 other states, 10 American Indian tribes, and part of Mexico. That’s a lot of people depending on one river, so the smarter we can be with our own personal water usage, the better for everyone! Whether you depend on a river, an aquifer, or a lake for your water, how you save water around your house does have a direct impact on your community’s water supply.
In today’s episode, I’ll give you 4 easy tips to save water around your home. If we all implement just one, or maybe even a few of these, we can help save huge amounts of water and our planet.
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Tip #1: Check for Leaks
The first way to save water around your house is to check for, and fix, leaks. Leaks can take many different forms, so finding them takes a few different methods. First, watch your water bill. If you have a month where your water usage spikes, don’t simply think that you used more water. You may have a leak outside or under your house. If it simply jumps a hundred gallons or so, that could easily come from washing extra loads of laundry during the month. If it jumps thousands of gallons, you may want to call your city to have them send someone out to detect underground leaks. These often go unnoticed until a $5,000 water bill arrives in the mail, so keep on top of your water bill and catch the leak early on. It will save water, as well as a huge hassle and cost of the water bill.
The next way to check for leaks is to always keep an eye out for dripping faucets. While those slow and steady drips may not seem like a big deal, a faucet that is losing just one drop of water every 6 seconds is actually losing about 3 liters of water a day. Now imagine that being multiplied by every house on the block, or every house in your town. That water isn’t helping anyone, and in fact it’s likely even damaging your sink. A leak left unfixed can cause the surface of your sink to erode over time, which causes some ugly damage, and may require a costly repair to replace your entire sink. Get leaks fixed as soon as you notice them, and you will save yourself money and hassle down the road!
Tip #2: Never Let Water Run
If you recall from an earlier episode, I’m a big fan of couchsurfing. That’s why the Domestic CEO house hosts a lot of people through Airbnb. Besides meeting many great new people, we also get to witness a lot of different living habits. What amazes me is that we Americans are the only ones who leave water running while we’re in the bathroom and kitchen. Our European and Asian guests have shown Mr. Domestic CEO and me that in other countries kids are taught from an early age to shut the water off. These guests wouldn’t fathom letting the water run down the drain while washing dishes or brushing their teeth. In other parts of the world, they are so aware of their water usage, they even shut the water off while showering!
The first time we heard a guest turn the shower water off and on a few times, it was a little confusing. But we soon realized that many non-Americans turn the water on to get wet, turn it off to lather up from head to toe, then turn it on again to rinse off. The shower is running for maybe a total of 90 seconds, compared to our American guests who let the water run for the duration of their 6-7 minute showers. Showers can use up to 7 gallons of water a minute, so if you follow the lead of our friends in Europe and Asia, you can save about 30 gallons of water for each shower! Look for any opportunity you can have to shut your water off.
Tip #3: Get Creative with Old Water
As the owner of a Phoenix house cleaning company, I see a lot of houses with half-empty water bottles laying around. Families grab them when running out the door to activities, but the kids may only drink half before the water gets warm and the kids start saying it tastes stale (picture the little girl in the movie Signs). Instead of dumping the water and tossing the bottle, use the extra water to fill your dog or cat’s water bowl, water a plant, or even save the purified water for using in your iron.
See also: How to Iron a Dress Shirt (Video)
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Tip #4: Swap Out Old Fixtures and Appliances
If your house is older, you may have old fixtures that are letting water literally go down the drain. A regular shower head uses about 7 gallons of water a minute, but a water saving shower head can cut that down to around 2.5 gallons per minute. An old toilet can use nearly 6 gallons of water per flush, but a water saving toilet uses around 1.5 gallons per flush. When it’s time for you to get new appliances, look for ones that are built efficiently to save water. A new water saving front-load washing machine can save you over 20 gallons of water per load compared to an old top-loading washer, so when it’s time to make the make the switch in your home, do your research and you can save on your water bill for years to come.
These are just a few tips to save water to get you started. If you have other ways to go green that you use in your home, I would love to hear about them! Post them on my Facebook wall, or tweet me @thedomesticceo.
Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.
Dripping Tap image from Shutterstock