A while ago I made the effort to put a load of washing on every day. Having smaller loads to fold each time meant I was able to stay on top of Mt Washmore and we never ran out of any clean clothes, even when there had been multiple accidents in undies (the boys that is, not us LOL!). But I noticed my water usage had gone up a fair amount, so this last quarter I went back to larger loads less frequently and was amazed to see that our water usage dropped 13% on the previous quarter. That is a huge amount, so I guess I won't be going back to daily washing.
I'm wondering what others do to find the right balance?
I wash when the basket gets full. My nappies load is generally a half load, but I can't help that. If I wait until there is a full load, both buckets are full to burst and I'd pass out from the smell. Some days I wash several loads, but that's when sheets and towels get done too. Which reminds me, I'm going to put our sheets on and I forgot to get my daughter's sheets. Will do that in a sec. But I do try to wash only when necessary. We haven't got our water bill yet, so have no idea what our usage is.
It might be hard to get a true balance as from the 1st Jan many utilities went up. I used to wash every second day and I now wash about twice a week. My machine has a few levels so I don't have to use a lot of water if I don't have a large load.
Also we use the washing water on the garden so we save by not having to water.
Its a hard balance as Mt Washmore is a pain as is Mt Foldforever.
We didn't realise we were using more water than we needed to by not having the outlet hose hooked higher than the top of the washing machine.
DH unhooked it to attach it to an irrigation pipe for the back lawn, but because the whole pipe was lower than the washing machine, apparently it siphons out extra water during the rinse cycle. So now he's got it hooked over the tap then out to the irrigation pipe.
we only wash weekly here - i figure that way we can make up full loads from the weeks clothes - i am really picky about washing stuff in certain loads, and hate doing half loads - work stuff might not get washed for three weeks til i have a decent load full of stuff! haven't noticed what is happening with our water bill - i'm just peeved that, over THREE years, they're raising charges by over SEVENTY PERCENT!
i try not to give them any more money than i need to anyway - bloody water board flog us over $100 a quarter as we own two blocks of land (under one title) and because they were too slack to hook the house into the exisiting water when the house was built on the opposite block, we have to pay for the "annoyance" of having a meter (not even a TAP) on the bottom block... grrrr bitter lady!
I did five loads of washing yesterday. I think that will make a difference. But its not often that happens. There will be one load of nappies in a few days, and one load of clothes the same day. Generally 2-4 loads a week.
Washing every day and water usage
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