California is in a drought.

You knew that, of course.   It’s in all the news reports, even if you don’t live in California.

So they’ve been talking about the 20-gallon challenge: reduce your water usage by 20 gallons per day.  The only thing is, I’ve already been doing everything they suggest for years.  Like, my entire life.

Do only full dishwasher and laundry loads.  Fix leaks.  Don’t run the water whilst you brush your teeth. 

I’m sorry, but if you’re not already doing these things … well.

So then I added a bucket to my shower, so I could save the cold water that runs before it gets hot.  And I used it to flush the master-bath toilet.  (Most people who do that use the water in their garden, but I’d have to carry the bucket through the master bedroom, down the hall, through the kitchen, through the back room, and then out the door.  Water sloshes.  I wasn’t real confident about how much would actually arrive in the garden.)

Okay.  Many years ago, I started getting very, very careful about paper.  Every scrap gets recycled, and I use as little as possible. 

What would happen, I wondered, if I did this with water?  What would happen if I acted as if every drop had to be carried, instead of just turning on the faucet? 

I’m a camper.  I’m familiar with carrying every drop of water I use in my campsite.  With that familiarity, and my general “green” approach to life, I thought I was being careful with water.

Holy wow. 

I put a dishpan in the kitchen sink.  I’m astonished by how much water I use just to rinse my hands, wash veggies, or rinse the dishcloth to wipe the counter.  Gallons.  And I’m careful about water use.

I put a bowl in the bathroom sink.  Holy wow, again.  Just washing my hands after cleaning the cats’ litterbox!  So now I wet hands, turn water off, soap, turn water on.  What a difference!

I have to say I draw the line at turning the shower off whilst soaping up, though I have a friend who does that. 

But I’m saving all that other water.  I’ve got a dishpan in the kitchen sink to catch whatever’s not totally gross (I draw another line at cat-food detritus and meat or grease particles), and bowls in the bathroom sinks to catch handwashing water.  I’m watering the potted plants on the patio, and flushing the toilets with it. 

I’m very, very curious to see what happens to my water bill this month.  But that’s not why I’m doing this.  I’m doing this because water IS precious.  There are millions of people in the world who don’t have access to clean water.  I don’t want to take the water we do have for granted any more.

I’ve replaced swaths of grass in my yard since moving here eleven years ago, replacing it with drought-tolerant plants.  Eventually I plan to kill all of it, and put in more lovely Mediterranean-climate plants.  But for now … I’m just pretending that every drop is as precious as it actually is. 

That doesn’t mean I’m going crazy.  I doubt I’ll be turning the water off in my shower anytime soon, especially in winter (brr!). 

And I washed my car this morning.  Hey, after seven weekends of RenFaire dust and dirt, it was about ready to be declared a superfund cleanup site.   And if you don’t believe that (and I don’t blame you), what about the fact that I couldn’t see out the windows?  Hazardous conditions, for sure.

But I think I can save a LOT of water just by being aware, and catching the water that’s still perfectly usable before it runs down the drain.

What about you? 

California is in a drought.  But water is precious everywhere.  My wacko friend who turns her shower off whilst soaping up is in Oregon, which has one of the highest annual rainfall rates in the country.

What about you?  Are you game to join my water challenge?