5 Ways to Conserve Water

5 ways to conserve water in your house to save money and help the environment. Reducing waste is important especially during fire season in California and other states.

Ways to conserve water

1.Take shorter showers – This might be a given but sometimes it is hard to know just how long you’re in there……it just feels so good sometimes and it’s easy to lose track of time. One way to help is to set a timer on your phone that has an alarm once 5 minutes is up.

Of course less than 5 minutes would be ideal but many people are in there for far longer so keeping a shower to 5 minutes is a great goal to conserve water. Another clever and free way to track your time is to listen to a song that is 5 minutes or less. This can give you a good guideline as typically you know when a song is about to end and you can adjust your speed accordingly.

If you want to go a step further….bring a bucket into the shower and catch all the water that flows before the hot water arrives! Take out the bucket when it’s warm and you’re ready to get in, then water the plants outside with the water that would’ve gone down the drain. 😉

Tips for conserving water

2. Wash only FULL loads of laundry and dishes – Typically we do this anyway, but when there’s a drought it is very important to keep that in mind when you’re doing the laundry.

Waiting until there is an entire load of whites or colors for instance could mean the difference of several gallons of water being wasted when just waiting another day or two could conserve quite a bit. The same goes for the dishwasher.

Try to scrape as much food off of the plates as possible instead of rinsing the food off with water. Once most of it is gone you can do a quick spray, load tightly, and turn the dishwasher on when it is completely full. This is another great way to conserve water at home.

How to save water

3. Use a broom to clean off your driveway and the gutters in front of your house, or the sidewalks out front. Using a hose to spray these areas off is very wasteful and can easily be replaced by a broom. Large brooms can be found at any hardware store, are relatively inexpensive, and can help conserve water and save you money on your water bill as well….great solution to keeping things tidy!

4. Water your lawn 1-2 days a week rather than 5 and use Scotts® Everydrop ™ water maximizer for lawns and landscapes to use 25% less water while still keeping your lawn healthy and hydrated. If you haven’t heard of this new product let me tell you how it works and how easy it is to use! Ideally you want to apply the granuals in late Spring before the typical Summer heat and drought begins.

It’s better late than never if this is the first time you’re hearing of this. 😉 You just set and fill your spreader so each pass is 5 feet apart. Just one cup covers 185 square feet so 1 bag should last you quite some time.

How to cut down your water bill

You only have to reapply every 4 weeks. Everydrop™ has a unique formula designed to help move water into the soil which helps to reduce the wasteful runoff and pooling that occurs without this product. It makes the most of all the available water whether it be from the sprinklers or rain so waste is kept to a minimum.

In the end you have to water less frequently while keeping your grass green, that’s the ultimate goal right??!! Scotts® and Miracle-Gro® are great ways to reduce the amount of water you use on your lawn and keep you grass looking pretty (and it’s easy to do too)! 😉

5.  Last but not least make sure your faucet is turned off when you are brushing your teeth and/or washing your face at night. This can save a lot of water! Do an experiment with your kids to show them just how much water would be wasted if they left the water running while they brushed their teeth at night. Put a bowl under the faucet, have them brush as usual. Keep the water running as they brush, and when they are done look at the amount of water in the bowl. They’ll probably be surprised.

Then, take the bowl outside and show them how many plants they can water with everything that would’ve been wasted had they let it run down the drain. They’ll probably think differently next time. Extend this tip to your nightly ritual of washing your face too. Instead of letting the water run while you’re washing your face at night turn it off and back on again when you need to rinse.

Simple ways to save water

If you want to go a step further, get used to cooler water when you initially get your face wet so as to not waste so much water waiting for hot water to appear. I made this change and it’s not so bad + I’m saving money and conserving water = double benefit.

If you’ve done all that and ready for the next step for conservation, make sure your appliances and toilets in the house are high- efficiency units. Many brands and some areas even offer rebates if you swap your older units out and replace them with ones that use less water.

These 5 easy ways to conserve water including Scotts® Everydrop™ (and a bonus at the end here) should help the drought we’re in, and help lower your water bill as well. Every little bit counts! This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts® EveryDrop™