California faces its most severe drought emergency in decades; we are now in our 3rd consecutive year of below-normal rainfall. Governor Jerry Brown has called for Californians to reduce water use by 20 percent voluntarily, and mandatory rationing could be ordered soon so that homes, businesses and farms don’t run dry over the summer. No matter where you live it just makes sense not waste this precious resource. Here are 2 super simple steps you can take to drastically reduce water waste in the kitchen.
We have a double sink in the kitchen, 1 was used for washing the other ended up being a dumping location and quickly filled with dishes waiting to go in the dishwasher, which drove me BONKERS!
Wishing to reduce our water waste and save my sanity I bought a nice new bucket and put that in one sink, into this we collect the water from vegetable peelings, hand washing and rinsing out the coffee filter. This bucket is used to water plants in the flower beds. This water is fairly clean but I don’t recommend using it in potted plants as the small amounts of soap, coffee etc may not agree with the plant or cause an imbalance in the ph. However Roses LOVE the coffee grounds.
Our family of 4 collects between 1-4 buckets per day SAVING 90 gallons per month!
I also have an open top watering jug by the sink which is where clean water gets dumped. This where the half drunk glasses of water, end of the kettle water, water used to boil an egg etc goes. This is perfect for the potted plants. 
Water collected 1-2 liters per day savings 10-15 gallons per month!
How do you save water?
Sunny Sleevez 
We went through a similar thing here in Australia a few years back, after about 11 years of drought, thought our government put us on water restrictions, so you weren’t allowed to water your garden, you couldn’t wash your car. If you wanted to water your garden you had to use water from elsewhere. I used to use laundry detergent that was environmentally free, and then collect the water from the washing machine and water my garden with that. Restrict how long people could shower for. Have some good pointers as well.
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Reblogged this on ugiridharaprasad.
yes we have vastly empty damns here to supply the city of Perth, we have short showers and while you’re waiting for that shower water to get hot, you collect the shower water in a bucket, which is used later in the garden. Also, when I boil or steam vegetables, I put the water aside to cool after, and then water the garden with it, as it has nutrients in it from the vegies.
I’m also in Australia and we chopped our shower time to less than 4 minutes. A good way to do it is to get in, wet yourself all over, turn the shower off while you soap up, then on again to rinse. Amazing how much you save.
We also used waste water for watering the plants, kept them going.
Washed dishes only once a day, but there’s only the two of us, so manageable 🙂
My mother had a special hose off the washing machine so she could save rinse water for her garden. I just do the bucket-in-the-shower thing for my outdoor plants. Thanks for the thoughtful post – I see I could be doing more!
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This is a great idea. I don’t actually pay for my water but I think I will talk to my roommates about doing this considering there is five of us in the house. We could save tons. Thanks!
This is a great idea. carry on 🙂
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Love this – so simple and what an impact it makes! 90 gallons a month! That’s just amazing!
I need to get an open top watering jug! Thanks for the reminder.