Australia is under devastating water restrictions due to a nationwide drought: see here, here and here. The Sydney water authority site is riddled with conservation tips (and requirements.) If you like Australian wine, stock up now.
But occasional water shortages affect parts of the United States and other countries every year. Here are some things I do at home, even though Washington, D.C. has a good supply. (My conservation concerns come more from domestic water pollution and treatment.)
- After a year and a half, I still think buying an ultra-low flow shower head was one of the best things I did. I’ve begun to prefer sea showers (a.k.a. Navy showers) because when the water is off, I can scrub down quickly and effectively. The bathroom is less steamy.
- Hubby got a bottle of foaming hand soap a few weeks ago. I thought this was a pleasant treat but an unnecessary use of plastic. Now I’m hooked. A squirt of foam eliminates the need to wet and lather a bar of soap, and uses less detergent than if I tipped the dish-liquid bottle. (I’ll be getting foaming dish liquid next.) Now we’re coming to the end of the bottle. It seems a 3 to 6:1 dilution of liquid soap will do to refill. You can also buy the bottles by themselves. I’ll most certainly use Dr. Bronner’s.
What a coincidence — my wife and I use this same foam-making bottle and also fill it with Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap. For this purpose, we like lavender the best. However, you may notice that after the first few refills, the pump will begin to stick a little in the down position. But it’s no big deal to pull it back up — you only need a couple of pumps anyway. We eyeball the dilution at about 6 water 1 Dr. B. also.