This is Day 58 of the Green in 365 series!
By Sara Shay from Your Thriving Family
Drought Advisory. Be Water Wise. Don’t Waste Water.
You’ve most likely heard how much water we waste and misuse right?
Since moving to an older, larger house I have been watching an astonishing water bill. It has also made me aware of how much water has been going down the drain, along with our money and resources. So it has made me change my ways while standing at the kitchen sink.
9 Ways to Conserve and Reusing Water in the Kitchen
1. Wash your produce in batches. Instead of turning the faucet in preparation for every meal, wash when you get home from your shopping trip – once!
2. Use a lid. Not only will this speed up your cooking – or water boiling, it saves from all that water going up in vapor.
3. Cook twice with the same water. When boiling rice, potatoes, pasta, eggs or the like, place a steamer basket on top instead of a lid and cook your veggies all using the same pot of water. If the steamer basket doesn’t fit perfectly on your pot, use a splatter screen to set the basket on.
4. Water your plants. You can allow your cooking water to cool and water your plants with it. This actually benefits the plant because the water contains minerals from the food you cooked in it.
5. Rinse your dishes with cooking water. Some days when I think about setting water aside for the plants I realize it has been raining and they don’t need any more water. So try pouring the hot water over or into those dishes that need a good soaking.
6. Use the water while waiting for it to get hot. We’ve all ran the water waiting for it to get hot. Put a pot under it next time instead of letting it all go down the drain. Leave the pot covered on the stove to use later or go water some more plants.
7. Rinse Immediately. Rinsing or washing your dishes right after you have used them takes less water than letting them get crusty and requiring more water and elbow grease.
8. Cut out the pre-washing. If you use a dishwasher, try scraping off any large food particles and put them in! Most of your dishes will come out sparkly clean – the few that don’t you can then hand wash. If you get to them while they are still wet they can usually be wiped clean and don’t require much scrubbing.
9. Compost instead of using the garbage disposal. Not only are you going to get some good soil for growing your own veggies, but you won’t be running water when you turn on your disposal.
How are you limiting your water waste in the kitchen?
Sara from Your Thriving Family is a full-time mama to three beautiful, sweet & mischievous blessings. Wife of 8 years to a man who has an amazing heart for working with youth. She is a homemaker, gardener, chicken-raiser, doul
Find all the Green in 365 posts.
__________________________________________
If you’d like to learn more about living green and living frugally I’d love to have you as a Live Renewed reader! You can subscribe, either by email or in a reader, to get the latest posts, ideas and inspiration for living frugally green. You can also connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest!
If you have pets, they can be another option for some of that extra wastewater. We keep a pitcher by the sink. I put it under the tap when I’m waiting for the water to get hot and also dump “extra” water–leftover water in the tea kettle, the random glass of water that nobody ended up finishing, etc.–into the pitcher. Then, when the dogs need water, I fill their bowl from the pitcher instead of the tap. I rarely need to fill their bowl with “fresh” water from the tap, and they don’t notice the difference.
Word to the wise, though, I’ve learned not to give them water left over from boiling pasta, veggies, etc. It gives them gas something horrible. So save that water for your plants. 🙂
That is good to know about the pets!
What a great idea Katie! Thanks for sharing! And my kids could easily use the pitcher to fill the dog’s water bowl, but if they bring the bowl to the sink to fill it, they usually end up spilling. I always love finding easy ways to give my kiddos more responsibility around the house! 🙂
Great post! I feel like in the grand scheme of “living green” we often overlook water usage, and the fact that we have access to clean water. I never thought to use a steamer basket while making rice! That is such a great idea!
I think it is easy to overlook those everyday things that are so abundant in these first world countries. While we were in Nepal we had to turn the water off between stages of washing in the shower because it was such a precious commodity. So we forget to be frugal because of our abundance.
I especially like the idea of watering plants with water that has been used in cooking. Cool. Great Tips, Sara!