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
- Fill the dishwasher instead of washing holiday dishes by hand. Using a dishwasher can save 5 to 15 gallons per load.
- 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.
- To help limit washing, designate one glass of drinking water daily or refill a water bottle.
- Keep a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap.
- Pop food scraps in the compost pile rather than down the garbage disposal.
- 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.
- If you need to defrost frozen foods, place them overnight in the fridge.
- If you drop an ice cube, don’t throw it in the sink. Use it to water house plants.
Bathroom
- Forgo tub baths and take 5-minute showers instead. A full bathtub needs up to 70 gallons of water
- Turn off the water when you brush your teeth.
- Drop tissues in the trash instead of flushing them down.
Laundry
- 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.
- 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