I got asked the question this weekend and it made me think.

People who live in condo generally don’t have a yard, or plants or grass. They may not have a washer/dryer and maybe can’t afford to upgrade. So what can you do to drop usage by 25%?

First I’ll go after the “low hanging fruit”, these are things you could do TODAY.

  1. Turn off the faucet when shaving or brushing your teeth.
  2. Follow the phrase – If its yellow, let it mellow. If its brown, flush it down. (Then invest in some Clorox spray to clean the ring out of your toilet after you do flush.)
  3. Take a shorter shower OR take a “military shower” – ie: turn on the water to get wet, then turn it off and lather up. Turn on the water again and rinse off and be done.
  4. Only run the dishwasher when its full.
  5. Same could be said for laundry – only wash clothes when full.
  6. Stop putting trash down the kitchen sink and running your in-sinkerator. Put the trash in the trash bins and save a bunch of water.
  7. Educate your children on what it means to be in a drought and encourage them to take shorter showers. A 20 minute shower is unacceptable.
  8. Married or dating? Shower together. 🙂

So you’ve done all of these. What else?

  1. If you had older style toilets that use way more than 1 gallon of water, you could put a used half gallon jug of water in your tank, screw the cap on and use that to displace some water in your tank. Now each time you flush, you’ll use less water.

    Bottle In Toilet Tank

    Place a bottle in the toilet tank to displace some water if you have an older tank.

  2. Place a bucket in your shower to collect water while you wait for the water to heat up. Save that water and use it instead of flushing the toilet. If you don’t want an ugly bucket in the shower, paint the bucket.
  3. Place a bowl in your kitchen sink and collect water there when you’re washing your hands or vegetables or again – waiting for water to heat up. Re-use that water somewhere else in your home.
  4. Invest in low-flow toilets, shower heads, kitchen/bathroom faucets. In most places, you can get a rebate from your local water company. Go to your local hardware store for details. Directions for installation can be found online or ask a local plumber to install for you.
  5. Get Recycled H2O at one of the Residential Fill Stations in the area and put it in 5 gallon buckets and use that to flush your toilet. Mark the bucket so you know to only use it for non-potable means (and never switch back and forth between potable and non-potable).

We’re all in this together, anything you can do at home will help.

Have other ideas? Post it in the comments below.