Five Easy Ways to Conserve Water

Every year it seems that we are constantly being told that we need to conserve water not only for ourselves but for our children and their children and so on. While it may seem like a daunting task it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that there will be plenty of drinking water to go around in the years to come and there are five easy ways in which this can be accomplished.

1 - Turn your faucet off: When you are brushing your teeth or shaving, or doing anything else in the bathroom be sure that you turn the faucets are turned off. It is a common habit to leave them on while performing such tasks, but doing so will see the waste of countless gallons of water per year.

2 - Wash loads that are full: When you do the laundry or the dishes be sure that you are washing full loads. This is especially important with the dishwasher. With the laundry, if you do have to wash a load that is less than full, be sure to put the water level at the lowest possible setting.

3 - Jug up your toilet: Here is a neat trick that will have you using fewer gallons per flush. Simply take an empty milk jug and fill it with sand. Now place that jug in the tank of your toilet after you flush and the jug will take up some of the volume in the tank. The result, less water used when flushing and many saved gallons of water for all.

4 - Fix leaks: So many households have leaky faucets or toilets that need to be fixed. This sounds like it would be a no brainer, but you would really be surprised as to the amount of homes that feature these water wasting demons. By fixing your leaky faucets and toilets you will not only save water, but if you pay a water bill every month, like many of us do, you will save yourself some money as well.

5 - Eat less red meat: The U.S. Geological survey estimates that it takes only 408 gallons of water to produce a single serving of chicken versus a whopping 2,607 gallons for a single serving of red meat. By cutting back on your red meat intake, you will not only be helping your health, but you will be saving water in the process.

Conserving water doesn't have to be a chore and it can be done with relative ease utilizing these five steps. While there are many other ways to save water, we all must start somewhere other than yelling tour teenagers to stop taking so long in the shower.