Reducing Your Water Usage

Conserving water usage can save you money. While my water bill isn't my most expensive utility, I have noticed it creeping up over the last few months . It has made me sit back and take a look at some of the things I can do to bring it back down.

Time your showers...Everyone loves a nice, long, relaxing shower. Most especially me. Implement a time limit on the shower. Set a timer in the bathroom. When it goes off the water needs to be off.

Turn off the water when you don't need it...Try not to leave the water on while brushing your teeth or shaving. When rinsing off dishes, instead of running the water full blast, before dinner fill the sink with water and then just dip the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher.

Put in low-flow shower heads and faucets...These units use less water while still maintaining the pressure. We actually had an energy audit from our utility company last year and he put these in for free.

Fix dripping faucets and leaking toilets...Even these small leaks can add up to wasted water and larger bills.

Check outside faucets, sprinklers and hoses...These items need to be checked and maintained as well. Since we don't use them as often leaky faucets can go unseen for weeks or months.

Invest in making rain barrels to water your garden or flowers...Instead of paying to water your garden why not recycle rain water? This past Spring we made these rain barrels and have used them to water our vegetable garden. Only a handful of times have we actually had to use the outside hose.