Being Green in Your Daily Bath

If you are eco-friendly, I bet you hate taking those 8-minute showers, like everyone else! It's hard, it's not relaxing, and it can even be irritable when you need a quiet moment alone to rest. Frequently, long showers fill up more than a bathtub full of water, so you are conserving more water by taking a bath. This way, you get to relax for more than 30 minutes, you can wash any amount of that time, and soaking in a nice warm bath is very soothing at the end of a high-stress workday. Here are some ways to make your bath more eco-friendly.

Head to Toe. One of the biggest reasons why people shower after they bathe is that the water becomes too dirty that they don't feel clean stepping out of the bath. Since your feet and legs are oftentimes the most soiled parts of your body, wash them last so that the dirt does not have a chance to travel around the bath before you get out. Also, wait until the end of your bath to scrub your dirt off. It will be loosened by then, easier to scrub, and this way, you will not be wallowing in your own filth for half an hour. If you still need to shower afterward, turn the water on just for a quick dousing all over your body, and turn it off immediately.

Natural Body and Hair Washes. Invest in some gentle, eco-friendly shower scrubs, hair shampoos and soaps. The natural feeling they will give you to use something living rather than dead petro-products is an experience worth having. Sandalwood is especially soothing in the bedroom or the bathroom, so have some nice, beautiful sandalwood soap on hand.

Warm, not Hot. Many people run their baths ultra-hot in order to keep that nice, sauna feeling in their bath. However, if you are taking an hour long bath, this is not recommended. The higher heat in the water will escape more quickly than a lower heat, thus leaving the water cold at the end of the hour and you more miserable than when you got in. Run the bath water very warm and maybe even a little hot, but don't overindulge on the heat unless you're taking a short bath. This way, you'll have some heat left over at the end of the bath. Also, be sure not to move too much under the water, which causes the heated water molecules to escape more quickly, and have the bathroom heated as well, so that you are not stepping out into cold air.

We would all like to do our part for our good, earthy environment. It's not so much about doing everything just right, but about doing everything smarter. Sometimes, what seems to be more green is actually, in the end, equivalent or less eco-friendly. Use your head and we'll save this earth that much more efficiently.