Sensible Showering and Frugal Flushing
Let's face it, using water in our bathrooms is a necessary part of our daily lives, but also something that, in a highly developed society, we take for granted. In a world where many suffer from water shortages and drought, it is all the more important to be mindful of our water usage. As we continue our focus on making small but impactful changes in our homes by reducing waste, water usage can be one of the most critical components worth addressing!
The simplest ways to reduce your water use while showering is to reduce the amount of time that you shower and invest in a low-flow shower head. When searching for these types of shower heads, look for those with the WaterSense label. WaterSense-labeled products meet the Environmental Protections Agency (EPA's) specifications for water efficiency and performance. A low-flow shower head with this label will yield around 2 gallons per minute of water flow, so for an average 10-minute shower, you will use less than 20 gallons of water. The WaterSense label also ensures that you will still get the satisfactory shower (water coverage and spray intensity) that a conventional shower head would provide.
Trying to be more frugal with your flushing? Over the course of a lifetime, one person may flush the toilet up to 140,000 times! If you have an older model toilet in your home, you could be using 2 gallons of water or more per flush. Perhaps it’s time to look into replacing your old, inefficient toilets with WaterSense labeled models. Toilets with the WaterSense label are high performance while retaining a high efficiency standard. The average family can reduce water used for toilets by 20 to 60 percent—that's nearly 13,000 gallons of water savings for your home every year! The water savings will also trickle back into money saved annually.
To learn more about the WaterSense label, please visit
