Water water everywhere but not a drop….at least 36 states are predicting a water shortage by 2013.

Turning off the water while you brush your teeth can save up to 8 gallons of water per day, which equals 240 gallons a month or 2,880 gallons a year!  If you are one of those people that like to have extra water available while brushing your teeth then fill a cup, wet your toothbrush and turn the water off.

In comparison, your outside hose’s can cost almost as much waste because they usually go undetected longer.  Check for leaks in your pipes, hoses, couplings and faucets.  Check each one to make sure they have washers or a spigot to minimize leaks.

Some experts believe you should start out getting serious about your water by reading your water meter every 2 hours for a full day or two to see when your family is utilizing the most water, it will also show you how your meter moves while no water is being used.  

The average American uses almost 100 gallons of water PER DAY, we can all use 30% less by following these simple tips and others like them.

Here are some quick tips

• Do you wash your car at home?  Save over 100 gallons just by shutting the hose off between rinses…

• Most of us use an average of 60 gallons of water a day inside our homes, depending upon the season; the same can be used outside.

• The Majority of indoor water use is in the bathroom; get a low flow toilet or attachment, like a float booster to reduce your water use.  We will be product testing a toilet attachment in our real lab coming up this month.

• Take shorter showers, a 5 minute shower can waste approximately 30 gallons of water.  Use the same thought process as with your toothbrush; turn the shower off between each step of showering.  

• Sprinklers are another water guzzler; a sprinkler running for just 1 hour can use more than 100 gallons of water.  Try a soaker hose or other options now available.  Also, letting your grass grow a little longer, like to 3” promotes water retention in the soil.

• IF you do dishes by hand, don’t allow the water to run for rinsing, fill one basin for washing and one for rinsing, if you don’t have a double basin sink then soap up all dishes put in the dish rack and then refill sink and rinse.  If you have a dishwasher, don’t pre-rinse your dishes and only do a load when the dishwasher is full.  Same goes for your washing machine.  

• Washing your driveway or sidewalks with a hose is a huge waste of water, do this with a broom, better for the environment and a better work out.

Sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed when you first become “eco-friendly”.  The important thing is, don’t let that happen, pick one or two things that you feel you and your family can commit to and go from there.  Once you have those few things mastered, move on to a few more. 

There is a lot of information out there on water and water usage, a good place to start your research is either a site like this with a goal of conservation or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov)

This article has been about conservation, for more information please read the article on Water Leaks.