Our first challenge! Exciting. So we all know saving water is good, right? Right! This week we are going to try to take our showers in 5 minutes (or less). This is actually a shameless steal from Crunchy Domestic Goddess's summer challenge. See her website for lots of good tips on why and how. Some salient tidbits in case you're too lazy to lift that mouse and click:It turns out that the "the average shower length is 8 minutes" and that "by reducing that to 5 minutes, you can reduce the amount of water you use by nearly one-third, or roughly 10 gallons per day." Additionally, "reducing the length of your shower by just one minute could save you up to 1,825 gallons of water each year."
Granted, since Masha was born, the number of showers taken at our house has significantly decreased. (WHEN are we supposed to shower anyway?) This, Ilya hypothesizes, is the reason that our water bill has stayed the same despite doing 3-4 extra loads of laundry per week for cloth diapers. However, I know that when I do get a rare chance to shower, I tend to linger under the hot water a little longer than I really need to, so I am really going to pay attention this week by using a timer. The great thing is, if you turn the water off while lathering your hair/body, you can stop the clock and that time doesn't count against the five minutes. I also plan to try another trick I read about for conditioning, since this takes the most time for me - instead of applying a lot of conditioner and then waiting several minutes to rinse, fill a spray bottle with 3:1 water and conditioner, and then spray a little on after you shampoo and don't rinse. Just leave it in and comb through.
Feel free to join in if you want! If you already take showers in less than 5 minutes, maybe you can try to make them even shorter this week! :) Let's see who takes the shortest shower. This challenge will start tomorrow, Sunday June 29, and end Saturday July 5. I will post an update in the comments section at the end to let you know how we did.
7 comments:
Does skipping a shower count? Can I take a 10 minute shower the next day? Actually, if I even get to take a shower long enough to shave my legs I'm pretty happy. :)
I hadn't thought about it but yes, I like it...so they're like rollover minutes on your phone plan. :) Although I don't think I would go over 10 minutes for any one shower (it might take another minute or 2 to scrub off the extra accumulated dirt, but not, say, 35 minutes if you haven't showered for a week).
dunno... if i'dn't showered for a week, i'd want ALL MY 35 minutes at the end of it. and i'd wanna use them as i'd've pleased too - shower, bath, soap bubbles, whatever... this is america! =)
5-minute shower challenge results:
Overall I think this is a pretty doable greenification. Unfortunately I was disappointed by my leave-in conditioner trick. It did cut my shower time way down, but it left my hair feeling kind of coated and didn't make combing out my hair any easier. My solution? I'm chopping it. Look for pics soon.
Our best shower times for the week were:
Me - 2 min 56 sec
Ilya - 3 min 43 sec
How did you all do? :)
I know I am late in posting my results, but my quickest shower was 3 minutes and 48 seconds. I'm excited about the next one. Hopefully it is nice out. I don't have much space indoors to hang laundry, but I do love to hang it outside. It's kind of fun too!
another water-saving idea - 100% cotton clothes do not even have to be washed, they can be composted
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