Water Saver: Five-Gallon Bucket in the Shower

Keep a five-gallon bucket in the shower to catch the cold water that pours out before the hot. The easy steps are: Place bucket under faucet, turn on water until it’s hot enough, turn off water, remove bucket from shower, turn water back on, and jump in. When the bucket gets full, we use it to water our yard or add it to the washing machine when we start a load of laundry. We’ve saved 10-15 gallons a week in a two-person household for more than a year now. Multiply that by 52 weeks per year, and that’s 520-780 gallons saved each year, not to mention the water you’ve saved in the yard and the washer. The water savings are doubled.

We invite readers to send us their water-saving strategies to share by emailing WaterSaver@independent.com.