One simple way to reduce water consumption
I have a wonderful friend whom I love because she puts up with my quirky ways without judgement, but it’s a true case of ‘opposites attract’ with our relationship.
Take her ‘green’ habits for example. Yes she’ll do a bit of recycling just to shut me up but when it comes to water usage quite frankly, I despair!
Water consumption
She has a family of four who have two showers a day EACH! On top of that they wear each item of clothing only once before washing it; sometimes changing two or three times a day. No wonder there are two lines of washing out every time I visit and my friend pays her children pocket money to iron!
Environmental drought
According to Ofwat, the average person in the UK uses 153 litres of water per day; one third of which is used to flush the toilet. It’s a stark contrast to developing countries where water consumption is as low as 20 litres per day. Already this year The Environment Agency announced an environmental drought in parts of Britain and urged us all to use less water.
My Clothing Helper
This week I was contacted by James who works for a small Connecticut startup called CTG, Inc. They’ve launched their first earth-friendly and money saving product called “MyClothingHelper” ; a closet organisation tool that reduces laundry and water footprint.
Live lightly on the earth
Now you know me – I love the simple no-brainer ideas that can help us live more lightly on the earth and it seems that MyClothingHelper might just be the ticket for busy people who want to help the environment and save money; as it takes all the guess work out of laundry.
Save laundry bills
MyClothinghelper consists of a cardboard disc with numbers on different coloured ribbons which show through a small window. You place a disc (sold in packs of 7) over your hanger and each time you wear the item on that hanger you slide the card down the ribbon to indicate you’ve worn it. When the window shows number 7, it’s probably time to wash it!
Reduce water footprint
This would be the perfect tool for Little Miss Green who can never remember what she’s worn and finds the quickest and easiest option of tidying her room means throwing all her clothes into the washing hamper. Yes you can do the sniff test and I don’t mind doing that on my own clothes, but it’s not particularly pleasant doing that on someone else’s; even when it’s your own beautiful daughter!
Reduce dry cleaning
It’s great for people who dress for the boardroom and want to reduce their dry cleaning bill. And as for my friend; well her husband changes when he comes home from work in the evening, wears something for a couple of hours, then puts that clothes to be washed! I think this might put a stop to that habit!
Save resources
An average washing machine load uses 45 litres of water, so if you’re doing unnecessary laundry, it’s a huge contribution to your water footprint; not to mention laundry detergent and electricity plus the wear and tear on the clothes.
Organising clothes
But you know what? I reckon this could be a brilliant tool for someone like me who is really bad at decluttering clothes. When you consider we only wear about 20% of the clothes we own, you could find out for sure just how often you wear something by utilising MyClothingHelper
Find out more by watching the short video below:
oh yes, i have noticed that many people use at least 3 different sets of clothes in one day–then compound the waste by throwing it all in the hamper, dirty or not–worn or not–all casualties of primping in front of the mirror, and discarding it on the floor or bed..simple mindless gestures can affect more than the personal psyche.
the children never learn the art of caring for objects, and resources.
water, the stuff of life! you flow so well.
Love the clothing helper idea! I keep my lightly soiled clothes in different piles on the floor or chair – only worn once, worn a few times, only good for dirty work, etc. Problem is, this system is easily disrupted by a playful 2 YO so I probably end up washing things before they really need it. I also used hang shirts inside-out on my husband’s pull-up bar…but I’m sure he’d prefer I found a different location 🙂 Thanks for the tip!
I put my partly-worn clothes away in the wardrobe again, but keep them all together in one place in the wardrobe so that I know what is what – and also so that any dirt on them does not get onto the completely clean clothes. How soon they need washing varies depends not just on how long I have worn them, but on how hot the whether has been, what I have been doing – and whether I have spilt anything!