Positive Action on Water Conservation

[Whynottryagain]

Inspired by @PermanentTemporary, this is a thread where people can swap ideas for conserving water during a hosepipe ban (or any other time!).

Please share tips and encouragement!

Please don't use this thread to debate whether or not we should conserve water in the first place, or the rights and wrongs of water company management. If you want to do that try this thread which inspired this one: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5552408-aibu-to-be-angry-about-hosepipe-bans-and-whether-people-will-comply

Good to see that you have created this thread.
I look forward to seeing the responses!

Things I'm currently doing / have done in the last year:

1. Installed three water butts
2. Letting the grass grow longer (I'm doing this for the insects etc but has the added bonus of reducing evaporation and developing a deeper root system)
3. Only flushing the loo after every other wee
4. Collecting water in a trug during a shower and using it for cleaning, then for garden pot plants.
5. Collecting water in a bowl when washing my hands / running the tap for whatever reason and using for cleaning or plant watering.
6. Cutting shower from 4 to 2 mins (if not washing my hair. Stop the shower when lathering my hair if I am washing my hair.)
7. Have a jug of water in the fridge so I don't need to run the tap to get it cold.

This is great @Whynottryagain!

I don’t think I’m doing very much at the moment, hence coming into this thread. I am really amazed and impressed how much difference a water butt has made, and we’ve just bought another two.

I don’t think I have washed a car this century, so there’s that.

I used to be very infrequent with flushes but it’s more of an issue due to some medication I’m taking at the moment. I will admit when doing the garden very late the other night I decided to wee on a particular plant…

We put in three water butts last year - they’ve been brilliant. The kids really love to use them so they help with watering the garden. I do most of the things on your list - although I don’t collect my showers down water - do you stand in the trug?

Any cooking water, if it doesn't have salt, goes on the garden when it has cooled down.

Water butts, the more the merrier.

My aim is to not use tap water on the garden, I have had to this week.for the first time in 5 years. But only for food plants.

Let the grass on your lawn grow. I mowed it in spring because I need to see the dog crap to.pick it up, but once summer arrives it grows seeds rather than thick leaves.

Keep showers to a minimum (and baths are for winter when there's plenty of water and it's cold enough to enjoy a hot bath).

As I said on the other thread, I was living in Cape Town 10 years ago when we were days away from water rationing and there were actual fights in supermarkets over bottled water when it opened in the morning - and the water was sold out within minutes of opening. There were still some very entitled - and rich - people who kept their sprinklers on so their gardens would be green. They just paid the fines and let everyone else suffer for their selfishness.

We used to stand in the bath and wash from a 2 litre plastic tub, when we finished washing just tipped the rest of the water in the tub over ourself as the 'shower'. We did that for 3 or 4 months... and every since I have been very conscious of water as a luxury.

In an ideal world I'd have a grey water recycling system for the shower. The amount of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel is so tiny compared to the amount of water that ends up going down the drain.
When I'm in charge every new home will be built with one.

Make sure the lid on your water butt is tightly secured. One of mine flew off in the storm and broke, so I just threw it away. We now can’t use this butt as it’s a mosquito hot spot. Have tried to cover it, but somehow the mosquitos get in.

Also, as I mentioned on the other thread, get a tricker system ( with timer. Water at night so there is less evaporation). They are generally exempt from the hose pipe ban. It means the garden gets some water, but it isn’t wasted. Also means that the ground isn’t rock solid, so when the rain does eventually come back, it won’t just run off the ground and into the drains. It isn’t cheating, it’s just using water efficiently at the base of the plants.

I tend to stand outside it whilst running the shower to temperature and just direct the water in to it, then stand with one foot in it during the shower as it tends to catch the most. I try to avoid soap getting in it. It's nearly full after 2 mins but actually if it's more than 3/4 full it's very hard to lift.

I similarly went to a dry country for three months in my teens and had to spend most of that time washing like that (although after washing ourselves we had to reuse the same water for our clothes!). I think it does open your eyes.

Shower water should be used as toilet cistern grey water.
There's so much that new builds should be doing. They should all have a couple of water butts too.