Water Challenge: Water Usage Update - March 9

We are now 24 days into our water challenge, and I am pleased to report that our average per person per day water use is down to 17 gallons. I haven’t started my daily diary – I am planning to start doing this during my next bill period beginning March 12 – but I have noticed a couple trends.

1.     We generally use less than 100 gallons per day for our household except on days when we do laundry. Those are the days that we have had our highest use days of just over 100 gallons.

2.     The other days I have noticed spikes are on days when we have been gone and our babysitter/cat sitter has stayed over. I believe this reflects water usage taking typical showers instead of navy showers.

My husband and I continue to feel our new water usage practices are sustainable, although we would still like the comfort of a shower that is warm. For this reason, we may invest in a tankless water heater. My husband remarked this morning that he felt weird yesterday when he took a regular shower because he has adjusted to the navy shower. I think this is true for me too. It is difficult to let the water run now that we are thinking about it more consciously. Thanks so much for ruining a perfectly good long, luxurious and hot shower! Ha ha. We actually don’t feel like we are missing much, and we feel good about paying more attention to wasting water.

Our kids are getting better about not flushing the mellow yellow too. I like that we are increasing their consciousness a bit, although we are not forcing them to take cold showers! Our kids typically take baths instead of showers, and so I save a little water by plugging the drain as the water starts flowing into the tub. Even though it is initially cold, I keep it turned to the hottest setting and let it fill until the too-hot water balances with the initial cold to result in a bath that is the right temperature. They take baths 1-2 times per week. Our friends from Barcelona reported that this is their typical bathing schedule.

More on Social Facilitation

This month as we have consciously thought about our water usage, I have noticed more discussion about ways to save water. It is not just the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission that is pushing for cultural change in our water use. A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook about a 90-something-year-old neighbor of hers who re-uses bathwater on her garden. There was some discussion about how soaps in the bathwater can hurt the garden. I haven’t tried this yet, but I am considering looking into biodegradable soaps for daily use – for bathing and also washing dishes and doing laundry. I believe it should be possible to reuse this gray water as long as we are careful about our soaps. I will be looking into this further. It is great to discover some members of my community discussing mundane details like this in the public sphere.

A week ago or so, my husband and I went out with our friends Bruce and Andrew, and of course, we started talking about what we are doing to try to cut out daily water use. I was pleasantly startled by how our friend responded when we told him about our new way of taking navy showers and not flushing the mellow yellow. He said, “Oh, we have been doing that for years. Isn’t everyone? We are in a drought!” They also enlightened me on flushing toilet paper. A household of boys may be able to go longer without flushing since they aren't using TP. Girls, we need to use less paper to decrease flushing. Is it possible to use 1 little square each time?

 Here I have been feeling so enlightened and great about our new water practices, and our old friend has been quietly doing this for MANY YEARS and assuming we have been too!? Similarly, my sister-in-law who grew up in Korea commented to me that it is simple to use less water, and she felt that water conservation is a cultural difference. She grew up saving water in more ways than people who grew up in the U.S. As a personal anecdote, one of my aunts once remarked that she would sometimes just let the water run out of her kitchen faucet while cooking because she liked the sound of running water! That was the 80s! I too am guilty of long, luxurious showers and bathing excessively, especially when I was a teen ager.

 I am more convinced after a few conversations with people in my community this month that we can use our water more efficiently by simply talking about our bathroom practices. When was the last time you engaged in potty talk with a friend? I think the time is right to go against what your parents always told you as a kid, "Stop the potty talk!" Actually, more potty talk, please!