I'm THINKING about doing this - we did this when I was younger living in Southern California during a drought and it well, even then it bothered me....
To save on water - with the kids home all day for the summer - it feels like we are going through 1K gallons of water a day....so....I was thinking....should I tell them NOT to flush the toilet after they ONLY urinate? As when I'm home during the day while there in school - I don't go every 5 minutes!! :) I know they aren't - but it sure seems that way....
So tell me mama's - would you have them wait to flush until it's a bowel movement or flush after each use?
When the boys are in school - I do this during the day - and flush before they get home...
Now? I'm thinking to do this on a DAILY thing not a few days - but start in the AM...and in the late afternoon - flush...I don't know Scarlett - you might be right!!!! With three people doing it??!?!?!??! Things that make you go hmmmm.....
As to the water in the milk jug - we tried that - and found that we were STILL flushing more than once to get the stuff down...so I don't think we were saving anything...
And toilet paper back up? My boys don't wipe their penis' off - they "shake it off" - urgh!! :)
Save water! Shower with a friend!
(My highschool teachers in SoCal didn't seem to take these shirts in the spirit in which they were intended. Or perhaps they did.)
Yah. Growing up in deserts and jungles (both with water issues) we always learned "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."
Well, no. One reason is if everyone is peeing in there and using TP each time, when it did finally get flushed, wouldn't it get backed up with all the extra TP in there from all the prior uses and then add the new stuff in there too? Yuck. Maybe my family uses too much TP but I think that might be a problem I wouldn't want to deal with. I would cut back in other ways if it were me. Good luck!
my ex is an environmental scientist and very much a conservationist. One tip he gave me is fill a half gallon milk jug with enough rocks to sink it and put it in the tank of the toilet. That will displace enough water to make the float think it is full and not fill with so much water every single time you flush. That saves water with every flush.
here are some more of his tips
always water your yard early in the morning. 2 five minutes intervals.
keep a rain barrell out back to collect rain water for houseplants.
only run the dishwasher every other day. hand wash the alternate days.
dont run the water while brushing teeth - kids are bad about this if you dont stay on them
use towels and jeans twice before washing to cut down on laundry loads.
contrary to what i thought, showering uses less water than bathing (i made him prove this one to me) so, teach the kids to shower. and you and hubby shower together!
When it's just me and the kids at home, we don't flush unless there's a BM. Otherwise we'd be flushing the toilet all day long. I wouldn't do it this way if our pee turned the water yellow (or worse--tea colored) but we drink a lot of water and our pee is nearly clear...so it's really no big deal at our house! :) Plus, it seems like somebody's always having a BM...so the toilet gets flushed a lot anyway.
My hubby and I don't usually flush unless there are solids or a smell is developing. Our well tends to pull up grit in the summer, but even if it didn't, I know that water is becoming a huge concern in many areas around the world, and waste is never a good thing.
At other people's homes, I sometimes ask what their preference is.
Singing: "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down…"
Tracy's got some good tips, too. At our house, we actually don't wash the bath towels until they ask for it (begin to smell unfresh), and hang them to dry quickly between uses, so they last for at least a couple of weeks. We have yet to catch any dread diseases or disfiguring rashes from doing this. I have some towels that are nearly 40 years old and still in good shape. Frequent laundering breaks them down faster, and uses HUGE amounts of water.
If it's brown, flush it down
If it's yellow, let it mellow
LOL :)
***edited to add*** We actually do this to conserve water (and keep our bill down). What we did to keep from flushing out of habit was turn off the water to the toilet so that when we try to flush it doesn't work. We've also turned down the pressure to the sinks so that not so much is used for hand washing.
I personally could not do this. Our central air is not working, i am sure it would smell. Plus, having myself and two teen daughters...well no one wants to see our monthy friend. I dont want guests using a toilet full of pee. Just my opinion. I would be a little weirded out if i was at someones home and saw it.
No way! Lol, I couldnt stand that.
There are different ways to save water then that lol.
Making sure you turn off the water while you brush your teeth, not watering the yard as long, taking baths etc.
There must be a better way! Lol.
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we already do that. iflush it when i notice too much toilet paper, it's turning bus yellow in color or when we go number 2. although when a visitor comes we flush before or when they arrive and while they are there.
We do this at our cabin. But our reason is b/'c we only have a 55 gallon drum underneath and after it is full we must empty it. Fun! lol. So we bought a camper toilet (the normal toilet looking ones) to save on water flushing and then wait a few "pees" to then flush. Works fine for us for now.
Cheryl, I know you! You are never going to be able to do this!!! HAHA!
Unless you put the seat down (like you like it) and try to forget about it!
You will be in there scrubbing that toilet by the end of day 1 and flusing it repeatedly!!
Try it out - let us know how it goes. Prove me wrong!
I think I personally would find a different way to save - ie less time in the sprinkler for the kids. I just know I would end up flushing, out of habit if nothing else.
Cheryl,
We have been doing this for years. It's very easy, and we just clean the toilet a bit more often.
I just found a great product at MOM's, I'm sure they also have it @ Whole Foods. It's called "Go Flushless" by Eco Command. It's a blue-green liquid that you spray in the toilet and it helps to neutralize the smell. I just spray it a couple of times a day or so. www.goflushless.com
We wait-in hope of saving a buck or two.
It gets kinda gross...be prepared to need to clean your toilet more often.
I don't think I could do that. After a while it starts to smell. I can't stand walking into a smelly bathroom. I would cut back in other ways.
I have a water-saving toilet, so I flush each time. My ex's house has these toilets where you pee and you can't even tell because there's so much water in there, then they flush forever it seems! So, if I had a toilet like that, I'd teach them to wait to flush.
We have energy and water saving equipment and we already conserve what we can. We use a lot of tips already mentioned, but I insist on flushing after peeing. Our toilets are on the smaller side ie. the hole that everything has to go down is kind of small so it clogs very easily. Waiting to flush even through three urinations would clog the damn thing and then we'd end up wasting water having to pour some down with a bucket or flushing it anyway. No conservation in the end in that department.
If you have a toilet like my BIL, where the hole has a huge opening before it hits the pipes, then by all means... save up the pee and flush only when there's a floater. Unless you have curious/thirsty dogs or cats.
