Back to School Water Saving Tips

Summer has come to an end and schools are headed back into session. That means your water bill is probably about to see a pretty big spike. Back-to-school time means more showers every day, more loads of laundry, and other behaviors that consume more water. Each of these things means you’ll use more water each day, which will drive up your utility bills and cost you more money. However, many homes can scale back their water usage and prevent this spike from getting out of control by following just a few easy and quick tips.

Time Your Showers

Bathing uses more water than any other household activity each day, and when you have several bathrooms going at once or a large family who all need to get changed and ready for the day, you could easily burn through hundreds of gallons in a short period of time. Limit your showers to about 10 minutes at the absolute maximum and you could find your water bill will stay substantially lower.

Re-Use Towels

Believe it or not, you don’t need to use a fresh towel every day. While a clean towel might feel good and smell nice, rather than throwing it straight into the hamper, hang it up and use it again tomorrow. Towels can generally be used for anywhere from three days to even as long as a week before needing washed, depending on the amount of use they get.

Be Mindful of Your Laundry

Putting something on doesn’t automatically make it dirty. In fact, a pair of jeans can sometimes be worn twice before needing to be washed again. When undressing at the end of the day, take a look and see whether what you wore is actually dirty before tossing it in the laundry pile.

Use Re-Useable Containers

Single-use things like plastic bags, water bottles, brown paper bags, and more all use a considerable amount of water just to create the plastic that goes in them. Using re-usable containers like Tupperware boxes, plastic lunch pails, and more can all dramatically reduce your water consumption. While you may not see it on your water bill, not having to continually buy new boxes of these bags and one-time use containers will actually add up in the long run, which will save you money.