I live in California and we are in a serious drought. Some scientists are predicting El Niño for this year, but there is no guarantee. I like to think that I'm very good at limiting my water use but then I see people who leave the water running when they brush their teeth or are watering their lawns every day. This made me start thinking about the things that I do without realizing it that affect my water usage. The main thing for me is that my shower takes a long time to warm up, so instead of capturing the cold water in a bucket to use for something else or just jumping into the cold water and showering then, I let it run until it warms up. I also know that I should be turning the water off when I soap and shampoo instead of leaving it running. In conclusion, I believe everyone has something that they should work on fixing when it comes to water conservation. What do you see other people do that you think they should stop and what do you think you do that you should try to work on?

Great post, I too am guilty of using too much water when I am not paying attention. I often forget to turn the water off while I am using shampoo or brushing my teeth. I have noticed some other areas that people should try and work on. One of which is the use of clothes dryers. I know of people who will want a specific outfit to wear the next day and they will do a small load just to get the few things they want. Not only does this waste water when the washer machine is run without a full load it also is not good to run the dryer. My family has a clothes line in our backyard that we use as much as possible to limit our dyer use. When the weather permits, we hang our clothes outside to air dry so that we do not have to run the dryer.

However I do know that sometimes it is not practical to have a clothes line for many different reasons. I found a page (http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles … -tips.html) that talks about ways to limit the en vironmental impact that clothes dryers have. This is just one area that people could think about making changes or improvements to help lower their carbon footprint.

I agree Frances. This is a super big issue! I do not load my dishwasher unless it is full, we have shower nozzles that let out a smaller water flow, and we have instituted the rule "if its yellow let it mellow". However, a huge issue with the el nino is that it may not reach far enough North. We desperately need the rain and the snow in the mountains so we get the runoff water we are so dearly missing.
This is an article about all the scary realities of not getting the rain in the North.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/califo … 43690.html

These are great suggestions. I try not to do laundry that often and we always wait until we have a full load in the dishwasher to run it, but I still fear that we are too dependent on a large amount of water. Additionally, for every person who is really good about water conservation there is probably someone who is really bad about it. I think we need to start getting the word out more about ways to conserve water- like turning off the shower when we soap and trying not to do laundry that often, and even "if it's yellow let it mellow."