Preparing for Drought in the Home

Bathroom

There are several ways you can start to conserve water in your bathroom.

• Switch to an ultra low-flow showerhead
• Take shorter showers
  • Preferred under 5 minutes
• Check for leaks in your pipes
  • Put food coloring in the tank and see if the bowl water changes colors. If it does, you have a leak.
• If taking a bath, plug the drain before filling the tub. Don't let the water run until it is warm.
• Turn off the water while you shave, brush your teeth, or lather up your hands while washing.
• Limit how often you flush the toilet. 
• Shower instead of a bathe. Showers uses 12-25 gallons of water while a bath uses 50-70 gallons. 

 Kitchen 

Follow these tips in the kitchen to save some water

• If doing dishes by hand, fill up one side of the sink with soapy water and the other side with clean water to rinse instead of letting the water run
• Have a water picture in the refrigerator instead of letting the tap water get cold.
• Only have one drinking glass each day. That limits how many dishes you have and will take longer to fill up your dishwasher.
• Thaw frozen foods in the microwave or refrigerator instead of letting hot water run over it. 
• Let your dirty dishes soak instead of letting warm water run on them.
• Scrape garbage food into the garbage instead of using the disposal.
• Make sure the dishwasher is full when before starting it. Maximize loads.

Laundry 

Doing less loads of laundry will mean using less water. Follow these tips for laundry.

• Only do full loads of laundry.
• Think before washing.
  • "Do I really need to wash this?"
  • If it is not dirty, do not wash. 
• Plan to use a "high-efficiency" washer. High-efficiency washers use about 50 percent less water.