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8/11/2025
WT Staff
 Got water questions? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email us at info@wtga.us
August 11, 2025 428 pm PDT
Addressing water scarcity: How to conserve water use around home
Reddit/water user "beaniesandbootlegs" collected and contributed an extensive list of water conservation tips offered in response to the question, "What more can I be doing to save water at home, that also contributes to helping the water scarcity crisis in other areas?"
Responses collected from around the country covered everything from changes in home and garden design to small adjustments in our daily living habits. The list is long, there should be something here to inspire water saving measures in every household.
1. Home Lawns and Gardens
The single largest domestic use of water is not inside the home, but outside. Green spaces - lawns and gardens can take up to 60% of the total daily water supply. For perspective, a typical garden hose left running for an hour will cover 1000 sq ft area an inch deep, 600 to 650 gallons. To reduce irrigation demand, consider replacing lawn with rock mulch and/or drought-tolerant plants. A generous layer of organic mulch will hold on to moisture, keeping it around the garden plants. Limit watering to early morning or later evening, only when the mulch is dry and only enough to dampen it again. Conservation experts prefer drip lines with inexpensive soil-moisture sensors over sprinklers. Rainwater caught in barrels can be used for watering or rinsing off. If you have a pool, keep the cover on to limit evaporation. Wash cars at a facility that uses recycled grey-water, or wash from a bucket rather than a hose at home.
2. Track down and fix leaks
Listen for leaks in the bathroom. Worn parts in the toilet can leak hundreds of gallons per day. Place a few drops of food coloring in the tank. If the color leaks into the bowl, you need to replace the flapper. A dripping tap, losing one drop per second will fill up a 3000 gallon tank in a year. Use aerators to save gallons per minute in flow. Good water conserving showerheads deliver a great experience with a flow 1.5 to 1.8 gpm. Taking shorter showers is a heroic move. Get out the timer and keep it under five minutes. If toilets are to be replaced, aim for 1.1 to 1.28 gpf or dual-flush. Select Energy Star appliances, efficient front-loading washing machines and dishwashers use less than 5 gallons per cycle, a better option than hand-washing with a running tap.
3. Home management, daily tasks
Hold off running your Energy Star dishwashers and clothes washing machines until you have a full load. Capture the excess from showers and sinks in a bucket for use flushing toilets or watering plants. Wrap hot water pipes with insulation to cut down on the run time needed for warm water. When cooking, use steam rather than boiling. Recycle water from cooking pasta to water plants.
4. Find the local incentives
Check for local rebates, your city may pay you to upgrade fixtures, replace lawn areas, or acquire irrigation controllers.
5. Rethink your relationship with data and the internet
Digital information searches and Internet activity in general is far more costly than one might think. The facilities that support the searches, storage and calculations on the world wide web use a phenomenal amount of energy and water for cooling. Considering reducing your own demand for digital processing. Store digital files in your own system rather than the cloud, use the library for more information searches, meet up with friends and family in person again. Just skip AI. Data centers consume large amounts of water for cooling, and this demand is growing exponentially with the increased use of AI.
See the Hot and Thirsty Dozen, Data Centers water usage article, here.
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