At Bear Plumbing, we know water. We work with it, we rely on it, and we’re huge on conserving it.
That’s why this month, we’ve dedicated our Bear’s Big Tips blog to savvy water saving!
There are so many ways you can help to save our precious water around your home, and even in the office too. In fact, saving water in the office is almost more important – because it can encourage staff to change their home water habits.
While Bear can help you with WELS 4 or WELS 6 star rated water-efficient plumbing – and that alone can save thousands of litres and dollars – there are a number of other ways you can do your part for our most precious resource. Read on to find out how.
1. Shower buckets
Placing a bucket on the floor of your shower is one of the easier and fastest ways to save litres upon litres of water. You will be shocked by the amount of water you can collect just by directing your shower head into the bucket as you wait for the water to warm up. When it’s full, haul it out to the yard and use it to water your garden. Be sure to use a bucket that isn’t too big, and preferably one that has a handle – otherwise you will really struggle to carry it out of the shower!
2. Sink buckets
Similar to the shower bucket trick, this one just involves inserting a wide, shallower bucket into your kitchen sink. Think about all the times you quickly rinse something that isn’t too dirty, or rinse vegetables, or run the tap to wash your hands – and all of that water goes straight down the drain. Let it collect in the bucket instead and throw it on the lawn when it’s full. Yes, the water might end up with some organic matter in it – but that’s even better for your garden! Just don’t tip any water on the garden that contains dishwashing liquid or hand soap.
3. Shorter showers
This one is a no-brainer, but always bears repeating! Limiting showers to 4 minutes – or even better, 2 minutes – is the one of the best ways to save water. If you shower twice a day, reconsider your need to do so. One shower a day in the morning or the evening is generally enough to stay clean. A shorter shower isn’t always possible if you need to wash your hair, but limiting that to once or twice a week can really make a difference.
4. Shaving outside of the shower
Shaving your legs or shaving your face in the shower are two of the biggest contributors to wasted water. Anybody who shaves their legs knows how nice it can be to sit under the warm water for the enduring task of hair removal – but breaking that habit is one of the absolute best ways to save water. In any season but winter, you shouldn’t feel too uncomfortable sitting on the floor of your bathroom with a bucket of water and a bar of soap to shave your legs there instead. Same goes for shaving your face – just do it in front of the mirror with a small amount of water in the plugged sink instead.
5. Cram that dishwasher
Well, not really – don’t actually cram it so full that nothing gets clean and you need to run it again! But make sure you only use the dishwasher to clean smaller things that can fit in there with ease. Anybody with a dishwasher knows that sticking three or four big pots in there will immediately take up most of the space available – and you’ll have to run all the plates, bowls and lunchboxes in a separate load. That makes two loads where only one was needed. If you fill the dishwasher with smaller items and only wash bigger things by hand, you’ll be halving your dish water use.
Bonus points if you wash the bigger items with some fresh water in your sink bucket and then throw that water in the garden!
These are just some of the ways you personally can save more water around the house. But if you want to make saving water even easier, remember Bear can help with repairs, leaks, blocks and installations of water-efficient plumbing ware.
Poor plumbing is hard to hide, but great plumbing goes unseen – so reach out to Bear for all your plumbing needs!
