Water-Saving Tips For Your Holiday Guests

Your holiday guests arriving from outside the desert might need gentle reminders to appreciate our water-saving lifestyle. You can share a myriad of easy tips they can learn and embrace for use back home.

Since the kitchen is often the heart of holiday activities, let’s start there.

Kitchen

1. Fill the dishwasher instead of washing holiday dishes by hand. Using a dishwasher can save 5 to 15 gallons per load.
2. If you must wash dishes by hand, don’t let the water run. Fill one basin with wash water and the other with rinse water.
3. To help limit washing, designate one glass of drinking water daily or refill a water bottle.
4. Keep a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap.
5. Pop food scraps in the compost pile rather than down the garbage disposal.
6. Rinse fruits and veggies in a bowl of water rather than running the faucet. Then, reuse the rinse water in your garden or indoor plants.
7. If you need to defrost frozen foods, place them overnight in the fridge.
8. If you drop an ice cube, don’t throw it in the sink. Use it to water house plants.

Bathroom

1. Forgo tub baths and take 5-minute showers instead. A full bathtub needs up to 70 gallons of water
2. Turn off the water when you brush your teeth.
3. Drop tissues in the trash instead of flushing them down.

Laundry

1. The laundry pile can mushroom with table linens, sheets, and towels for holiday guests. Save time, energy, and water by washing items in full loads only.
2. Wash dark clothes in cold water to save water and energy. Plus, it helps your clothes retain their color.

For more information visit CVWD.org/conservation, or by calling (760) 398-2651