Friday, 11 October 2013

Let's Talk Water.

It's something we use on a day to day basis, but water is also a massive cost with the rise of utilities prices in the UK. Not to mention the fact that worldwide there is a problem with droughts and shortages.

Less than 0.5% of the world's total water is available for humans. 97% of the water is salt water, and the other 2,5% is frozen in glaciers. To put it simply: If the entire world’s water was in a bucket, then the freshwater available for people would only amount to a teaspoon full.

The average person in the UK uses 150 litres of water a day. It may seem like a massive amount but think about how much a litre is compared to how long you shower for and how much it takes to wash up. This is set to rise 40% in the next 10 years so to combat this or at least curb the rise everyone needs to think about how they use water.

When we lived in our previous home we were always left with humungous water bills despite trying to conserve our water as much as possible. After some careful research we managed to come up with some ideas that we could use to save some water. Not loads, just little ones which if we all work together to do could actually start to make a difference. 

Here are a few water saving tips to help you save on some cash, especially with christmas coming up!

  • Turning the tap off while you are washing dishes, brushing your teeth and doing your daily routine. Do you really need the water running when you are scrubbing away at those wonderful teeth of yours? Of course you need to use it to rinse but by turning it off when you don't need it running allows you to save up to 36 litres of water a day. Also by taking short showers or if you can, turning it off when you are using your shampoo etc will save litres of water a year! We have a timer that we use to let us know how long we have been in the shower/how long we have been brushing our teeth etc. 

  • Use a water calculator to see how much money you could save making simple changes. Having a visual way of seeing where your water (and money) is going means that you can see what you can do to change. Even if you see you can save a few litres here and there it will all help at the end of the day.

  • When using a dishwasher or washing dishes scrape all the food off the plates as if there are still bits left on the plates you will use more water trying to get rid of them. If you don't have a dishwasher, then use a bowl and wash the lightly soiled stuff before the heavily soiled dishes so that you aren't constantly using new water. 
  • Only use your washing machine when it is full. Using it with only half the linen in there still uses the same amount of water. So it makes logical sense to wash your clothes when the machine is full. If you have lots of coloured items then it's worth putting a colour catcher in there to catch any of the leaked dyes. Add a scoop of stain remover too with your washing powder or liquid so it cleans those stains at the same time. 

So there's a few water saving tips for you. Hopefully it will inspire a few of you to save some water in your daily routine. 

Please note this is a sponsored post. 

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