I woke up early this morning to rain gently hitting our roof. It made me so happy. Water is in such short supply in so many places in the U.S. My first thought was that I hope it is raining in those places especially in the Southwest and California.
The Grand Solar Minimum has been causing such weird weather the past few years. It’s a weather cycle that our ancestors went through also. I remember learning about the “Dust Bowl” in history class. Farmers are dealing with drought conditions and it is not pretty. Many are choosing not to plant crops because they have no water to keep them growing. It will be a major reason why produce will become more and more expensive this year. I am already seeing that our local prices will be very high for fruit and vegetables this summer because of supply and demand. I expect that eventually shortages will affect us also.
In all parts of the country even if we are not in drought conditions, we should conserve water because wasting a precious commodity is not a good idea. Yes, water is now a commodity. It trades on the stock exchange in California and the price of it has doubled since it went on the exchange in December. Here is an article about this in case you aren’t aware that this is happening.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/water-running-fast-wall-street-223053972.html
If you think that you will never have a drought where you live, don’t bet on it. The Grand Solar Minimum could last many years and we could all end up in drought conditions.
They are rationing water in California and many other states are looking at doing the same.
So here are a number of tips to conserve your usage of water and save you money too:
- Take “Navy Showers”
- Take quick showers, not baths. Or only fill up your bathtub with a minimal amount of water for the bath. Don’t fill the tub.
- Put your sprinkler system on a timer. Don’t water your lawn or garden when it is raining. Make sure you turn the timer off when it rains. Or get a sprinkler system like we have that has a mechanism that senses the rain and turns the system off.
- When you are boiling something, use as little water as you possibly can to cover that item.
- Reuse that boiled water to water your plants or flowers
- If you wash dishes by hand, use as little as possible and stopper that sink. Don’t let it just run down the sink while you are washing them.
- Catch the water in a bucket while your shower water is warming up. Use it to flush toilets, clean a floor, etc.
- Use your dishwasher if you own one. It will use less water than washing them all by hand. Wash full loads.
- Use the Eco cycle on your washing machine. It will only fill up your machine for what you actually are washing instead of filling it up all the way.
- Check your toilet for leaks.
- Don’t use your toilet as a waste basket to flush a Kleenex.
- Turn the water off while brushing your teeth. Then turn it on to rinse your mouth.
- If you don’t have a water saving shower head, install one.
- For the men, turn the water off while shaving.
- If you don’t have a low flush toilet, put a filled bottle of water in your tank. Make sure where you put it doesn’t affect the flush mechanism. You will save that bottle amount of water every time you flush.
- Don’t wash clothes if they are not dirty. Unless you are doing really dirty work, you can wear your outer clothes at least twice before they need to be washed. Underwear is my exception. Of course, I do have to say that I do not go to work everyday. Do what you are comfortable with.
- Are you washing your towels every time you take a shower? Why? You just dried your clean body? Your towel should be hung up and dried to get at least one more shower out of it.
- Check your faucets and pipes for leaks.
- Wash your vegetables and fruits in a bowl, not under a running faucet.
- When you water your lawn, do a deep soaking. It will get to the roots. If you just lightly water it, the sun will burn the water off.
- Don’t let the water run while you are soaping up your car to wash it. Soap it up in big sections and then rinse.
I am sure that there are many more ways to conserve this precious resource but these are the ones I use and all that I can think of this morning.
Remember that if you pay for your water, conservation also saves you money! That is a big bonus!
If you would like to add to this list, feel free to leave a comment and let us all know how you save on water.