Reducing our water footprint #ctww

conserve waterSmall Footprints has set us a difficult one for this week’s “Change the World Wednesday“.

It’s all about reducing our water usage.

And I’ve blogged before that doing this is something I find difficult.

Little Miss Green tends to produce a LOT of laundry. Despite repeated requests to keep her room tidy and bring down dirty washing as and when; it seems to be that once or twice a week a whole pile of stuff turns up at the washing machine.

And I’m quite sure some of it has never been worn – it’s just the easier option to chuck it in the wash rather than put away clean laundry.

Mr Green insists of leaving the tap running when he has a wash or brushes his teeth.

I don’t know why that is and every time I bring it up in conversation my requests fall on deaf ears. Something about a life long habit that he isn’t about to change now.

Recently we’ve had a lot of work on and as I work behind a computer screen all day I find one of the best ways to relax my mind and rest my body is in a bath of hot water.

So I’m having a bath nearly every day at the moment.

In my defense, I do share the water with Mr Green 😉

Here are some of the suggestions we’ve been given for reducing our water consumption:

  1. Install at least one low-flow aerator on a faucet in your home.
  2. Eat no meat, pork or poultry (they all require a lot of water to produce).
  3. Reduce or eliminate spending (except for true essentials).
  4. Keep a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap.
  5. Review your water bill history to determine periods of high use and make plans to reduce during those times (it’s also a good tool for determining leaks).
  6. Fix leaky faucets or toilets.
  7. Consider removing some of the lawn (or all of it) and planting native shrubs, plants, trees, etc.
  8. When refreshing your pet’s water, or changing the water in a fish tank, use it to feed your plants.

No 1 isn’t going to happen. I actually like our high water pressure because I’m impatient. I know, I know!
No 2 – well I eat chicken a few times a week but I’m surprised to read it takes a lot of water to raise a chicken. We have them for eggs and they use little water, so I’d be interested to learn more.
No 3 – I could do this; I don’t mind having a small spend week; in fact this would do us good!
No 4- This is somewhere we get full points. I never run the tap as I boil and cool my water before drinking any way -woohoo!
No 5 – We don’t have a water meter so I have no idea how much we use; which probably accounts for my blase attitude.
No 6 – We don’t have any leaks and we adopt the ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ mantra, so I’m giving myself a brownie point here as well.
No 7 – No way to this one. I love my grass and we never water it as we live on a clay bed.
No 8 – I empty my hot water bottle onto the house plants in the evening before filling with hot water – does that count?

So I think I’m left with a no-spend week aren’t I?

Game On!

What about you – are there any areas in which you could reduce your water usage?