So, I've decided as per my "feeling guilty over the environment" stage passing.... I'm going to not feel guilty, but feel good about the things I can do to make a change, and I'm going to try to make a change each month in my life that will impact the way I live (however small) changes that will impact my "footprint" size...
hey... there's a huge difference between a well fitting shoe and one that's half a size too small... If I can make even a half size difference that'd be cool with me.
SO on that note... what am I changing, what have I changed?
Last month was April... where the frig did the month go?
So, last month the roomie and I moved the bucket.
huh?
we moved the bucket into the tub.
huh? you're not back to bucket baths again are you?
we moved the bucket into the tub to catch the drips. And to catch the water that we waste while we run the water to the right temperature before a shower. I catch about one bucketful before I get it right. And then I leave it there to catch the drips from the faucet while I shower... and that crazy trickle after I turn off the water.... It surprised me how much was "going down the drain" (har har har). So... I've lots of options on this bucket of water I'm producing each morning... my plants are getting lots of water now.
AND (and this is my favorite) (as partly stolen from Mandamanda)
As we're already subscribing to the "if it's yellow let it mellow" train of thought.... That bucket of water is going towards one fill up of the back of the tank after a flush.... pretty neat. pretty simple.
So... what about May?
I'm getting a brick. For the toilet. Knowing full well that the landlord would never go for a better toilet... I'm putting a brick in the tank to decrease the volume that it holds... in my experimenting with the bucket, I noticed that the bowl was flushed fully after 2/3 of the water had gone thru.... that's 1/3 a tank of wasted water.
Also...the bike is on the road...
4 comments:
Instead of messing with the toliet try this one. Turn the water off to your toliet. Wait there's more. I really like the catching water under the tap, but how about stopping the water leaving the tub all together. That's right plug the tub. Then after your shower put the water into buckets and use this water to flush your toliet. You don't even have to put it into the tank. When you want to flush the toilet, pour water from your bucket right into the bowl, this will force it to flush. Then wait for it to finish flushing down and retop up the water in your bowl to an acceptable level. We are implementing this tomorrow at my new appartment, I had to get a new plug for the tub, the apartment didn't come with one! My friends at school taught me this one, and their 80 year old land lady taught them! For more ecofriendly tips I'm going to start thinking... what would my great great grandma do?!!?!
- manda manda
P.S. word verification getting pretty long today, myayrgku is hard to type
We're going to try the 100 mile diet this summer. By making a real effort to only buy/consume foods, fruits etc produced from within 100 miles of "The Burg" we're going to try to reduce our footprint during the typically smoggy summer. Hopefully by the end of summer we'll be so used to doing it it will become ingrained. However, I just can't see subsisting on root vegetables and bagged apples during the winter. Must have kiwi!
The couch surfer had a great idea, he said to bag the brick first... so that it doesn't break down and add sediment to our already sedimenty toilet... fantastic.
Glad to see that you are working really hard on making a difference.
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