efficiency (h20)

rereading my last post made me want to also talk about other stuff you can do to help out the environment. cause maybe recycling isn't your thing. it can be pretty annoying having to drive all around town to drop off stuff at the proper place, and if you city already makes you sort your recyclables from your garbage, maybe what you're doing is good enough.

besides all the usual things people do (turn off the tap when brushing your teeth, only run the dish washer / laundry with full loads) i also do these simple things:

water:
i take pretty fast showers. i usually undress (as i wait for the water to warm up), shower, shampoo, shave, dress in less than 15 minutes. and luckily, our shower head has this cool button thing so you can "pause" the water (so i can shampoo / condition without immediately washing away my product). btw, i usually shampoo and condition first, so as i wait for my conditioner to soak in, i soap up the rest of my body, also with the water off. even if you don't have the pause button, just switching up your routine can help you be more efficient with water.

i don't recommend this for everyone, but i do it anyway because i do my sport on saturdays and sundays but i don't do my laundry saturday night. i wash my clothes in the shower. you're not supposed to use warm water when washing dry-fit stuff anyway, so i'll toss my clothes into the shower, get in, turn the water on, and and as i wait for the water to heat up, i hand wash my laundry. it's not super clean, but i'm going to wear it again the next day (after which i machine wash) so as long as it's clean enough...

i used to do this and will probably start again. keep an empty bucket in the shower. but make sure it only catches the clean water, which you can use to water plants with when you're done.

don't just rinse your produce, wash it in a little bucket thing so you can collect the water, which you can use to water your plants with. it'll also catch the dirt, bugs and small plant break-offs which i'm sure is good for your garden anyway. besides, if you wash your produce in a bucket you'll know when it's actually clean. you can rise your veggies for 5 minutes but how will you know when the water is running clear?

a few other super simple things: water your lawn at night. if you water during the day a lot of the water will evaporate before it gets to soak into the soil anyway. but if you do it at night the water will have a chance to actually reach the roots.

lather up your soap before you turn on the tap. you're supposed to wash your hands for however long it takes the sing the birthday song and you can't do it correctly if all the soap is being rinsed away from your hands anyway.

only use hot water when necessary. not only will you save the energy it takes to heat up the water, but you end up wasting a lot of cold water as well. if you need to use hot water, put a bucket under the tap to catch the cold water and use that to water plants / mop your floors...