The Blue Bucket Project

Ok, so that's not really a thing, I just came up with that name,  but what we do is very real. Several years ago we decided that we would need to conserve water whatever way we could. Living in a semi desert landscape in California, means that water is a commodity, especially at our home where we choose to homestead. Unless you've been living under a rock you will know that California is being hit by a serious drought. Drought isn't anything new to California, but this year drought seems to be the worst we've had  in a long while.  A few years ago after deliberating on ways to conserve water, one of us  (I don't even remember who it this point) suggested the "Blue Bucket Project"

It's a simple enough concept, we keep a 5 gallon bucket in each of the showers, to collect the water that would've been wasted during warm-up. Then we carry the buckets outside and water something. Trust me, at this house there's no short supply of  things that need to be watered.

One would ask, "Does it really make a difference? Is it really worth the trouble?" The answer in our book is, "yes"! If you figure at minimum there are three people every day taking a shower, it takes roughly a gallon and a half of water to warm up the shower. At the end of one week that's 31 1/2 gallons of water. At the end of the year it's 1,638 gallons of water that we're paying for that otherwise would've gone down the drain and been wasted.  And that's just for three people, imagine if you were a family of five or six! Consider starting your own Blue Bucket Project in your own home!