Daily Water Usage

Two days ago I kept track of how much water I was using on a daily basis. I kept track by recording how many gallons and cups were used when taking a shower, using the washing machine, washing dishes, flushing the toilet, and running useless water such as brushing my teeth. I started off the day by waking up and using the bathroom. Each flush uses 1.5 gallons of water. I then brushed my teeth. I put a measuring cup in the bottom of the sink to see how many times it would fill up during the brushing. I had to pour the water out two times and on the third time it filled half. So I used 5 cups to just brush my teeth. I did not use any water during my meals for the day so I did not have to record any for that. I did though have to do some laundry. The washing machine in my house uses 50 gallons a cycle. I ended up doing two loads which equaled 100 gallons of water. After dinner I decided to wash the dishes by hand. I did the same method as I did for when brushing my teeth.

This time around I filled up the measuring cup five and a half times. I ended up with 11 cups of water for washing the dishes. Before bed I figured I would take a shower. I decided the easiest way to do this was to cut the top off of a one gallon milk jug. I would see how many times that would fill up in the twelve minute shower that I took. I had to dump the water out two times and the third time it filled about three quarters. To take a shower I used 2 and 3/4 gallons of water. During the day I went to the bathroom eight times. Each time used 1.5 gallons so all together it was 12 gallons of water. When going back and looking through each amount that I wrote down I started to put it all together. For the whole day I used 13 and three fourths gallons of water and 16 cups of water. I honestly did not think this was too bad because the washing machine took up a lot of that number. I could easily cut down on the water used when brushing my teeth by not letting it run in between. I could also maybe only do one load a laundry when necessary. Being honest I do not really try to conserve water as much as I should. It should cross my mind more often but it sometimes goes right over my head. Overall I enjoyed doing this experiment and got a big heads up when it comes to water usage. http://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php