10 Easy Water Saving Tips – Conserve Water

I know generally speaking people who are trying to live sustainably and reduce their waste, already do a lot of water saving tips already. However I thought I would put together this list of ways to conserve water in case there were some things that you hadn’t considered.

What Are 10 Ways To Save Water

You might be wondering how can we save water at home? I have put together some of the best ways to save water below, whether that’s conserve water or avoiding water waste. Some of these are simple ways to save water and some are slightly less easy as they require purchasing things such as a water butt.

Conserve Water

There are few ways that you can conserve water at home, so I’ve put together some easy water saving tips.

Buckets

If you don’t have the money to purchase a rainwater system then just keeping buckets to collect water in your garden is a good alternative as water saving tips.

This is what I do to collect water for my pots in the garden. One bucket collects enough for my needs, however I would like to get another couple in the future to conserve more water for growing fruit and vegetables.

Water Butts

In case you’re not aware, a water butt is a system which collects rainwater in your garden or yard. My American friend talks about how they saved 10,000 gallons of water in 3 months on her blog! They didn’t even avoid flushing the toilet or doing any weird things like I do, haha.

A system which collects the rainwater is particularly useful if you live in England like myself, it’s a very efficient and passive, of my water saving tips. Again of course rainwater is not drinkable. However, it is perfect water to reuse in your garden throughout the summer months.

I haven’t had the opportunity to get a Water Butt at the moment. I live in a rented property with a gravelled garden so there hasn’t been much need for it. It’s definitely something I’d like to get in the future though.

Dehumidifier

I know that not everyone will have a dehumidifier. However, if your house has a lot of condensation or mould then a dehumidifier is perfect because it takes the excess water out of the air.

I heard about using a dehumidifier for drying washing a few years ago now and decided to purchase one. As I wash *cloth nappies on a regular basis for my daughter it seemed sensible to invest in this to help reduce the water in the air, especially during the Autumn and Winter months ( from drying washing inside).

The amazing thing about the dehumidifier is that it collects a considerable amount of water every day. This water saving tip is to then use this water for other things around the home. However it has been collected from the air, therefore it is not drinkable. It’s a great way to conserve water that would otherwise be wasted.

Bucket In Shower

This I think is one of the best water saving tips, we all know that it can take showers a little while to get warm and collecting this otherwise wasted water is really useful.

I know family members that do this and it’s a really good idea. (I seriously need a spare bucket or two before I’m able to do this). That-being-said I usually don’t wait for the water to get warm and just brave it as it warms up so I don’t think I would benefit so much from this tip.

I wash my hair in cold water aswell and I would like to work my way up to cold showers to save energy.

Water From Cooking

This next water saving tip is definitely a bit more advanced I would say. Saving water from cooking pasta or rice is a brilliant way to collect water. This water is supposed to be really good for plants in particular. Just be careful not to add any salt or spices to the pasta or rice.

How You Can Use The Water

Once you have started collecting water you may now be wondering what to do with all this water. There’s a few ways to use this water that you’ve collected.

• Plants
• Toilet Tank
• Cleaning

All of this water is suitable for watering your indoor or outdoor plants.

The cleaner water such as dehumidifier or shower water can be used to fill your toilet tank if you have easy access to it. If you wanted you could of course use all the water for that but I just think rainwater and cooking water wouldn’t look quite to clean in the toilet.

I have heard that doing the some people doing the ‘No poo’ method like to use rainwater on their hair which is really interesting. It’s supposed to make your hair feel very soft. I haven’t been brave enough to try all of these water saving tips just yet! However, this one does intrigue me.

Avoid Wasting Water

Some of these water saving tips might seem a bit obvious but bear with me. These are just some water saving tips and tricks that I have been doing for years now. Some might also seem a bit quirky as well but I do hope they are useful.

Avoid Flushing Toilet

We have a rhyme in my house which people usually find really amusing.

“If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.”

Anon

I’m not exactly sure where I learnt this rhyme but I liked it so we live by this in our house. I don’t flush the toilet every time I go, I learnt a few years ago just how much water is wasted every time we flush the toilet so I decided to only flush for solids or if it starts to look a bit unpleasant in the bowl.

It does depend on how old your toilet is but it uses between 5 – 10 litres of water every time you flush. When you flush, the cistern releases water into the bowl and flushes the water and waste away. After you’ve flushed, the tank then begins the process of filling back up with water including the bit of water that always remains at the bottom of the bowl.

When you think of the process like that it does make sense that quite a bit of water is used by the toilet.

Showers Not Baths

I think most people are aware now that showers use a lot less water than baths. I am not trying to make anyone feel bad and if you enjoy the relaxation of a bath or if you have children – I do understand that baths are sometimes the only option or needed.

However, they do use a lot of water and energy to make. In my house my children have a bath together once a week. I have a shower once a week in the Winter and twice in the Summer.

Turn Off Tap

This is one of the water saving tips that might be obvious to some people. However, if you’re cleaning your teeth don’t leave the tap running. Make sure you turn the tap off as soon as you’re done.

It makes me really upset on the TV when you see people wasting water in this way!

It’s also good practise to only turn on the hot tap when you need hot or warm water. If I’m just rinsing a plate or something I will turn on the cold tap. I just don’t like the thought of using the boiler kicking in to heat the water when it’s not needed.

Attachments

I personally haven’t invested in these tap attachments yet. I’m annoyed with myself because I meant to do it before I embarked on the ‘No Buy’ year and now I don’t consider it an essential purchase so I’m going to wait.

However, these attachments that you can buy for all the taps in your house and a replacement shower head are one of the best water saving tips.

They are designed to disperse the water more efficiently meaning you use less water to rinse plates and wash your heads.

The official name for them is Tap Aerators, they are said to be most beneficial on the taps that you use more frequently to conserve water, such as in the bathroom and the kitchen.

This article states that the ordinary older style taps use on average 15 litres per minute and using an Aerator can reduce this to 6 litres per minute. This means that filling the bowl to wash up would take longer, however you’re unlikely to notice any difference while washing your hands.

Boil Kettle

One of my favourite water saving tips is to boil the kettle for cleaning instead of turning on the hot tap. Nowadays I mostly wash up with an Enjo cloth so I only need lukewarm water for that so I don’t need to have warm water at all.

However, for years I’ve boiled the kettle to wash up and if I need to do some extra cleaning I do the same to conserve water.

I just think it stops you wasting water waiting for it to heat up. Of course you could save that water as the tap is running, if you didn’t want to boil the kettle but I have plenty of others ways to conserve water so this is just what I like to do.

I hope you’d found these water saving tips useful. Let me know if there’s any simple ways to save water in particular that stood out to you. When I was thinking what are 10 ways to save water, I wanted there to be a mix of easy ways and slightly more advanced ways of saving water at home.

I also have a frugal tips that are also sustainable post if you’re interested in other ways to save money. I have also written some sustainable tips for lazy people if you’d prefer to do more but you don’t have the time.

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