In today’s world, where there is much concern for depleting resources, Will and I have been trying to find ways to conserve energy.

There’s always the obvious; turning off lights when you’re not in the room (and not using lights until you really need to), not using the car unless you need to (and biking to closer destinations or taking the bus), finishing your plates (Will is generally better at that than me), being thrifty with leftovers in the fridge (ie. using those leftover tomatoes in a soup, throwing that extra pasta sauce into a stew, whatever), recycling, composting (although we don’t do that, as we don’t have the means), etc.

And then there’s water. I have always been educated about water usage (more specifically inappropriate water usage), and yet it is so easy to be lazy and just leave the tap on, stay in the shower longer, have baths every other night, flush the toilet every time, use new water when using the washing machine, and of course using a dish washer.

Random trivia:
Washine machines use 100L of water with every load.
Toilets are one of the highest users of water in the house.
Dishwashers use 44L per load (stats curtosy of Anthony’s comment)

Having lived in Uganda for a year, I learned to fetch my water from a well 1km walk away. I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t a burden. I enjoyed having to work for my water. It forced me to conserve and appreciate it more. I liked being challenged to find creative ways to do everything I needed to do with my water without using it up. I wish we had to live like that here.

When I came home I became more water conscious. I used a water saving washing machine (which pours the water into a sink and sucks it back up again for the next load), I put my teeth brushing water in a cup, so I don’t leave the tap running while I brush my teeth. I wash dishes by hand, and wait until I have a LOT of dishes to wash so as to make the best use of my dish water. I then use the rinse water to clean all my kitchen surfaces. Will and I let it mellow when it’s yellow, and you know the rest. We used buckets full of rain water to water our garden.

But we still get lazy. And had baths just cause it feels good. And flushed more frequently cause it started to stink. And let the shower water run for minutes beforehand because it takes forever to heat up.

Then when we went to the cottage last week, it rained all day. We had run out of water, and we thought, “Hey! Let’s put buckets outside to catch the rain water.” So we did, and would you believe that was the best tasting water I’ve ever had? We used that water for dishes, drinking, and cleaning. I joked about bottling rain water to sell, it was so good. But, of course that defeats the purpose of it being FREE and all. And I’m not interested in being a salesperson anyhow. Now I know that not everyone has the luxury of safely drinking rain water (ie. those in cities), but man, if you are ever in a clean air area, catch the rain water. It’s worth it.

Will and I were also recently inspired to save our bath and shower water (and the water that drips from our stupid leaky tap) and use THAT to flush our toilet, rather than flushing at all. That works well enough, and the process of pouring water down at a certain speed sets the flushing motion into place nicely. The only downside is that the water doesn’t properly replenish itself afterwards, so you have to pour a little more water in just to get it at the normal level again. But, it still saves water, as it was previously used water, or as Will taught me, “grey water” (previously used water that is still usable for certain things).

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents about that.