What are you doing to become water efficient?

[igorsMistress]

I stopped washing. I haven't found it difficult.
Water was a problem when I lived in Catalonia. We had a well and the water was pumped from the well to a tank and then gravity fed down to the houses.
The well ran dry (below the pump suction pipe a few times.
It always irritated me that despite the known water problems a couple of people had a shower every morning by habit; nothing to do with being dirty.

It’s not difficult lol! I only wash every other day unless I’ve been outside sweating. Every few days in winter.

 

[Wolfie2]

I do as some of the posts here suggest. I don't bathe everyday. I pee outside, mostly in the flower bads. I don't flush if I pee inside until I have to. Anytime I clean something outside I use the water on a plant somewhere. Long time ago I routed the washing machine to a field line in the yard. Banana plants grow close to it. Have always used mulch in the garden. I have put together some "wicking pots" to grow things in. they work pretty good but are not the solution to all the problems. ( google 'em on Youtube to learn how).Tried soaker hoses in the garden and have not found any yet that I am satisfied with. Ordered some recently that I hope will live up to my expectations. I don't water my lawn. I love my lawn, I weed it, I feed it, I mow and trim and most of the time it looks great but it needs to survive on it's own. I do have fruit trees in the yard, and flower beds so when they get watered the lawn gets a little through seepage so the grassy areas around them gets some. This year the weather has been brutal though!

 

[igorsMistress]

I do as some of the posts here suggest. I don't bathe everyday. I pee outside, mostly in the flower bads. I don't flush if I pee inside until I have to. Anytime I clean something outside I use the water on a plant somewhere. Long time ago I routed the washing machine to a field line in the yard. Banana plants grow close to it. Have always used mulch in the garden. I have put together some "wicking pots" to grow things in. they work pretty good but are not the solution to all the problems. ( google 'em on Youtube to learn how).Tried soaker hoses in the garden and have not found any yet that I am satisfied with. Ordered some recently that I hope will live up to my expectations. I don't water my lawn. I love my lawn, I weed it, I feed it, I mow and trim and most of the time it looks great but it needs to survive on it's own. I do have fruit trees in the yard, and flower beds so when they get watered the lawn gets a little through seepage so the grassy areas around them gets some. This year the weather has been brutal though!

I ordered a soaker from Amazon and one from Lowes. Trying them both this year to see how they hold up, so far they work much better than the cheaper ones. They’re hard to find with metal ends, I have always had leaks with the plastic ends.

 

[CaroleW]

Brad Lancaster's books "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and beyond"

Many of the concepts could be used even if collection of rainwater isn't allowed. One example: simply using a curved swale instead of a straight one allows the rainwater to flow slower so more of it to be absorbed by the soil or plants.

I'm decidedly not on drylands and still find the books among the most helpful of all my resource books.

Just about ready to recommend the same book - also see Kirsten Dirksens YT feature video on Brad Lancaster and I think he has a couple of his own YT videos on his setup in Tucson where they transformed the entire neighborhood streetscape not just his own property.

Basically you "plant the water" before you do anything. That's what I'm improving for my second year in my Lazy Garden which overflows from Lazy River running thru chicken run that catches water off the pole barn roof directing it to the chickens use first and away from the barn (OR when no rain I just fill the Lazy River with hose).

Lazy Garden gave me about 10 butternut squash, 7 huge sunflowers and some smaller sunflowers, and some melons. This was last year -without any work except harvesting, I didn't even weed, I just let them grow too and fed weeds or overripe stuff to the chickens.

 

[Naisha]

I stopped washing. I haven't found it difficult.
Water was a problem when I lived in Catalonia. We had a well and the water was pumped from the well to a tank and then gravity fed down to the houses.
The well ran dry (below the pump suction pipe a few times.
It always irritated me that despite the known water problems a couple of people had a shower every morning by habit; nothing to do with being dirty.

Hey I live in the countryside in Tarragona! I also don’t shower every day, only when I see that I need it. I remember I used to take more showers when I lived in Barcelona because the city made me feel dirty from the pollution and so many people! We have water from the agriculture community and also a well that fills with rain. I use that for the plants.
Also my partner usually pees outside xD a little pleasure that he discovered when we started living here.

 

[Shadrach]

Hey I live in the countryside in Tarragona! I also don’t shower every day, only when I see that I need it. I remember I used to take more showers when I lived in Barcelona because the city made me feel dirty from the pollution and so many people! We have water from the agriculture community and also a well that fills with rain. I use that for the plants.
Also my partner usually pees outside xD a little pleasure that he discovered when we started living here.

I'm back in the UK now and people will no doubt be pleased to read that I rarely pee outside now. I shower a bit more because as you write, the cities tend to leave one feeling grubby.

 

[Coldd]

We let our lawn go dormant, but will water areas that need it. Specifically the garden and chicken related plants. We’ve used drip irrigation in other locations and will be moving back to that at our garden at our home.

 

[Tinypahomestead]

I used to live in Phoenix, now I'm in PA. Mulch in the garden, will be adding rain barrels to greenhouse and chicken coop. I run a dehumidifier in the basement and use that water for houseplants, seedlings, etc.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I do the same LOL.

Me too

 

[Sally PB]

Well... This is kind of gross but I often don't flush the toilet if it's just urine.

If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.

Ditto here. I wish I convince DH to pee around the perimeter of the fence, but I'm sure he would say no.

In the winter, I don't shower every day. This time of year when walking the dog makes me sweat, I shower every day, but about half of the time it's a quick "rinse off" shower, and I don't shampoo my hair.

I don't use a sprinkler to water the garden. I either get buckets of water and ladle out some for each plant, or haul the hose around to water each plant. I want as much of the water to go to the plants as possible.

We've talked about doing a rain catchment system on the roof of the pole barn; I hope we can get that done this summer.