Drought and Your Family and Home

General water conservation measures.

• Check your faucets, pipes and toilets for leaks; even a small faucet leak can waste as much as 20 gallons of water.
• Do not pour water down the drain when there may be another use for it (e.g., watering plants or a garden).
• When purchasing a new appliance, choose one that is more energy and water efficient.

Conserve water in the bathroom.

• Turn off the water while you brush your teeth, wash your face, or shave, instead of leaving the faucet running.
• Install aerators with flow restrictors on all household faucets.
• Replace your shower heads with low-flow heads, which use less water.
• Install a low-flow toilet to replace your existing model; this can cut your home water consumption by 20 percent.
• Install a toilet displacement device.
  • Place a 1 gallon jug of water to displace toilet flow.
  • Do not use a brick, it may dissolve and loose pieces may cause damage to internal parts.

Conserve water in the kitchen.

• Run your dishwasher only when it is full; select the water-saving cycle, if you have that feature.
• Store drinking water in your refrigerator to avoid the need to run water in the sink to get it cold.
• Clean fruits and vegetables in a pan filled with water rather than running water from the tap; reuse the water in the pan for other purposes (e.g., watering plants).
• Hand wash dishes by filling two containers – one with soapy water, the other with rinse water containing a small amount of chlorine bleach.
• Avoid rinsing dishes prior to putting them in a dishwasher to conserve water.
• Kitchen sink disposals require lots of water to operate properly; start a compost pile as an alternate method of disposing food waste.

Conserve water while doing laundry.

• Operate automatic clothes washers only when they are fully loaded.
• Set the water level for the appropriate size of your load to avoid wasting water.

Conserve water outdoors.

• Do not overwater your lawn. Lawns only need to be watered every five to seven days in the summer.
• Water lawns during the early morning hours when temperatures and wind speed are the lowest; this
  reduces evaporation and waste.
• Plant native and/or drought-tolerant grasses, ground covers, shrubs and trees that can survive dry periods without watering.
• Use mulch to retain moisture in the soil.