In America, the average person uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water every day! In Europe, that number drops to about 50 gallons, and in some less wealthy places such as Africa, the average person uses about 2-5 gallons of water every day. I know that I live an extremely privileged lifestyle, but I think most people could never imagine regularly living off of 3% of their daily water consumption. I assumed I was using less than the average American. At least, as an environmentalist, I try to be intentional with these kinds of things. But there are many things that are part of my everyday life that I didn’t even realize were consuming so much of this life-producing resource. At least, in my opinion, water is pretty important. Even with my low-flush toilet, a single flush uses over a gallon and a half of water. Regular toilets can use about 5-7 gallons of water per flush. Imagine, the majority of America uses more water in the first five minutes of being actively awake than the average person in Africa uses in a day! So to get a sense of what this would feel like, I spent the past month, using (on average) only 2-5 gallons of water every day. Here’s how it went.
On day one I decided to just dive in and wing it. I had no plan. I carried around a 50-ounce bottle of water with me all day. Since there are 128 ounces of water in a gallon, I aimed to only fill up the bottle once and a half so I could still have water for flushing the toilet, washing clothes, and doing dishes. I poured that water into a smaller bottle throughout the day to attempt to stay hydrated in a measured way to avoid running out. I quickly realized I needed a plan though. The hardest part of this month was probably the stress of not running out. So I wrote one out. I likely was a bit dehydrated this month but I aimed for about 50 ounces of water to drink every day. It’s hard enough to only get 2 gallons of water let alone have to boil it to make sure it is purified like they have to do in many countries. My other main focuses in life where I need water are laundry, dishes, and bathing.
I was lucky enough to only need to wash my clothing once this month. I had enough clothing to wear and wanted to wash my clothes in bulk. Honestly, I probably could have gone the month without doing any laundry, but I figured that wasn’t super fair to all of you guys since laundry is definitely part of life. I also realized I could do the dishes with just a few ounces of water, rather than about a dozen gallons (well, for my dishes alone). I didn’t get my long hot shower this month either. But hey… no one told me I smelled and I still managed to find a way to somewhat get clean.
Will I continue to live my life like this? Unfortunately, probably not. Like I mentioned, this was stressful to count every ounce of water I used. This did open my eyes however and there are areas in my life where I am willing to make a change. For example, I don’t think I need a dishwasher. I was able to use the same four or five plates and dishes for the whole month while washing them by hand. My family did use water normally this month, but I think just with one less person using dishes, they ran the dishwasher around once a week (if that!). Normally we have to run it every 2-3 days. This means we probably saved anywhere from 5-10 gallons/load. I might as well also keep washing most of my clothes by hand since I managed to only use about 50 ounces of water per “load” of laundry. That saves about 15 gallons of water. And lastly, I wasn’t a daily showerer before and I probably never will be. I used about a gallon of water to shower where typically the average shower would use another 15 gallons. When you add these up, they compound to save literally tons of water over time… and I am just one person.
I challenge you to try something like this. Figure out areas of life where you use excessive amounts of water and see if you can make a change to just use a few gallons less. Every drop counts.
Before I leave, here were a few of my “reality thoughts” throughout the month:
I want tea but it’ll all evaporate
May have forgotten and used utensils
Accidentally used bidet (still saves water)
Sharing water (if someone was already washing something)
Am I even allowed to use soap?
Crap my mom cooked my vegetables in unmeasured water
I think this fork was in the dishwasher
Whoops pooped twice today
I feel stupid using toilet paper (since I couldn’t measure the bidet water)
Do I have to share water with my cat?
I am so glad I haven’t started my garden yet.
Definitely not a perfect science
I hope this was inspiring. I will see you all next week. For now, peace.
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