Tuesday, July 22, 2008

10 Easy Ways to Be More Sustainable in the Bathroom

You've probably seen this on a t-shirt or a bumper sticker somewhere - "Conserve Water - Shower Together." While the idea is appealing, let's face it - showering together usually leads to an extra long, hot and steamy shower, right? There may be a lot going on it that shower, but water conservation ain't gonna be one of them.

There are however, plenty of easy ways you can be more sustainable in the bathroom. Here are ten of them:

  1. Take navy showers. Turn the water off when you're soaping up, shampooing your hair or shaving your legs and turn it back on to rinse off.
  2. Install a low flow shower head.
  3. If you've got an older toilet, put an old milk container filled with water in the tank to displace some of the water that would go in there. It saves water every time you flush.
  4. Speaking of saving water when you flush - flush less. You've heard the phrase, "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" right? If you're family can handle that, go for it.
  5. When you use a towel, hang it right up to dry. If towels are dried properly they won't need to be washed as often.
  6. Use toilet paper made from recycled paper (which is different from recycled toilet paper - ew!). I use the Marcal brand - $.80 for a 1000 sheet roll.
  7. Use only the amount of toilet paper necessary to get the job done and teach kids to do the same.
  8. Got boys? Then you've probably got a canister of wipes in your bathroom to clean up "misses." Method offers an eco-friendlier version of those Clorox or Lysol wipes.
  9. Turn the water off in the sink while you are brushing your teeth.
  10. Make sure that the things that can be recycled from the bathroom such as toilet paper tubes, shampoo bottles, and the boxes toothpaste or soap do get recycled. Sometimes, it's easy just to throw them in the bathroom trashcan. Make the extra effort to ensure that these things get recycled, too.
See - easy.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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2 comments:

Melissa said...

it is all so easy...that's why I don't mind making these changes in my life!

Robin Shreeves said...

It is easy - what I'm shooting for with these 10 Easy... posts really is stuff that takes you less than a minute to do usually, costs very little, and doesn't disrupt your life too much.

I find that when people initially make these types of changes and get used to them for a while, they feel empowered to take further steps and tackle some not so easy changes.