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For those in drought affected areas, do you actually manage to do the recommended 4 minute shower? I find it impossible- not because I dawdle, but because it seems to take ages to wash and condition my hair and do the whole soap thing....hm, now that I type it, it sounds ridiculous, but seriously I am applying myself fully to shower business and I cannot get it to 4 minutes.
These days I only shower every second day and have a longer shower!
If there is no hair wash and shave I can manage a four minute shower especially if I am running late for work in the mornings, but with hair and legs no way can I do under four... And on the weekends, when I have time I like a long shower.... :redface: but I try to limit them, as I know how bad the water sitch is...
I have a good water saving shower head, so does that mean I could do more than the 4 minutes, a little less guiltily????
I'm trying atm to limit my shower time and I bought one of those shower timer/clock things that beeps when the times up. I find 4min impossible though :redface: 5mins I can do no worries but it does take a bit longer if I'm washing my hair which I only really do once a week. I'm hoping to get better with practice.
yes because any longer and the horrid little hot water service runs out :rofl: ............
Or the baby gets bored of staring at the shower curtain and screams
If i have a shower during the day (which rarely happens because i can't shower without ava touching EVERYTHING) I will have like a 2 minute shower. But if I have a shower once she's gone to bed.. well lets just say I flip the timer a few times :) but hey.. it's the only time I can enjoy some peace and bloody quiet.
I try REALLY hard but don't always manage it, esp with the washing hair routine. :wall:
Hmm, if its just me and I don't have to wash my hair (I only shave in the bath, same with Shel) or destress (!), then yes I can do 4 minutes. If I shower with Jazz, which I do most nights, or I have to wash my hair, which I do terribley infrequently, or it's a destress/cry-in-the-shower shower, then I'd hate to time it..... But does that count lol, since its two people, do I get double time? LOL!
I can't do it. I love long hot showers and when it comes to living in a socially/environmentally responsible way the shower is my biggest downfall :redface:
I really need to get some water tanks.
ahhhh Yeahh that's the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
I love long hot showers
Were not a drought area but I do the 4 minute shower thing. Is that weird?
Two minutes for most showers.
Four minutes twice a week, on conditioning days
I don't use hot water from October - March, which helps to keep them short, and keeps electricity usage low.
(Hand me my cape! I'm such a friggin hero...)
BUT I exercise a fair bit so sometimes have two showers in one day.
My feelings exactly! I like to think I am quite environmentally responsible, but...long hot showers are my weakness! I hate it when I've got nothing left to do (I've washed hair, cleansed, shaved, exfoliated, etc) but the hot water is so good and it's so cold outside of the shower that I just don't want to turn it off and get out!! :redface: So NO - I don't think I manage 4 minutes! Possibly double that :hide::
I can do a 4 min shower with washing hair, I do less than 4 minutes for a normal shower - unless RG is in there with me and then .... ummmm ... we're bad and we do take much longer than that.
The only time I can manage a 4 minute shower is if I am called out in the middle of the night for a birth and even then I don't feel really clean.
Usually I try to stick to 4 mins. Hubby mainly does, though he has 2x4 min showers a day. And the kids do 90% of the time. But I find -particularly at the pointy end - in pregnancy, I have longer and more frequent showers to stay fresh, relieve pain etc. So at the moment the 4 mins is a bit of a non-event :doh::D
Not weird babe, your doing your bit for the rest of us IN drought places who can't manage 4 minutes lol:
Were not a drought area but I do the 4 minute shower thing. Is that weird?
4 mins doesn't feel like long enough @ the best of times especially when you've had a tantruming toddler all day. Takes more than 4 mins to wash off that stress! lol
I shave my legs in the lounge room when the kids have gone to bed..lol over a layed out towel and a jug or hot water.
Im not a long shower person....im out sometimes before the 4 mins is up...butif the kids join me :rolleyes: it can end up being 10 mins.
DO we really use less water in the bath then shower??? and how can people shower with buckets around their feet...man ive tried it and BLAH to it
ewww to baths.. If I have a bath then I will have to have a shower straight after. It's just yuck! Like you wash yourself and then sit in your own filth :dunno:
Tank water here, so we are watching water all the time. I do struggle though to keep showers short (especially with hair washing), but to offset that I leave the plug in the bath and bucket that into the washing machine. Most nights though I bath with the girls, it is just easier, saves a fair bit of water and I save my showers for when my hair needs washing.
At the moment it has been raining a lot and the tanks have been overflowing, so I have been indulging and having very long showers.
FYI. There is a downside to all the reduced water usage. The sewer network in Aus relies on a certain level of water going through it to keep work properly. Less water = more blockages. Also all the grey water on the garden is a soil disaster waiting to happen.
:yeahthat::
I save my longer showers for hair washing days twice a week. Other days 2 mins is fine. I have a basin in the bottom to catch the cold water at the start and I use it to rinse out bathers or the nappy bucket.
I use an Emjoy thingy for de-hairing so it uses no water.
(I'm a cape wearing friggen super hero too :p )
There is a thing I saw on the New Inventors that stops the flow of water while you lather, condition or shave and then you can flick it back on and the water stays the same temp (not sure what it is called but I think it costs about $50)
DH just turns the tap off while he lathers and he uses cold water all summer.
I guess he deserves a cape too except I've used it to dry myself so it's a bit damp.
DH just turns the tap off while he lathers and he uses cold water all summer.
I guess he deserves a cape too except I've used it to dry myself so it's a bit damp.
Oh but I do use a bucket at the beginning to catch the water until it's the right temp...that's good right?? :redface:
I too always rinse off with a shower after having a bath...lol!
Nope I take as long a shower as I need, BUT we have our own water supply as we do not have town connection for anything other than phone and electricity. In Summer our showers are shorter than in the Winter. We have a 30,000lt well, a 23,000 tank all which supply the house and a smaller 12,000ish liter water tank for drinking water. Worst case scenario we can pump dam water to the house but that always really stinks.
:yeahthat::
Go you cape wearing shower heros! A couple of you mentioned not using hot water in spring/summer. Wow, is all I can say. I still steam up the bathroom in summer and have my electric blanket on 90% of the year.
Astrid, just out of interest, how is gray water going to cause a soil disaster?
Yeah, but Amber, did you see where those cold-shower people live??? Not in Melbourne!!!!! :lol: I don't think anyone living here would routinely shower in cold water, only on our really hot days.
:rofl: Pony!
We are both really bad at short showers :redface:. When I'm not washing my hair and/or shaving, then I can manage a quick one, easy. But I have to wash my hair three times a week, and it's so thick it takes FOREVER! I try not to dawdle though. And DH gets so filthy at work some days, it takes him ages to scrub it all off. So we're not standing there doing nothing (I wish! Can't do that anymore without feeling guilty) but we're not having four minute showers either. It doesn't help that DH works in an industry where he is required to flush thousands of litres of drinking water down the drain every day. So he is of the opinion that the government needs to do more than guilt the nation into stopping their taps from leaking ;).
We don't live in Melbourne anymore, that's how. One of the trade-offs, I guess. You give up living in a bicycle friendly city to live in a cold-water friendly city. From Dec-Jan our cold water runs at about 30 degrees.:
I live in Melbourne.
We have one of those timer clocks on the shower wall - cept its flat batteries right now...
I have tried but 4 minutes is not enough for washing my hair and shaving and everything else. I have started having a bath once a week to do a really good soak, scrub and shave. Other days I shower and only tend to wash my hair twice a week - though it really needs to be three times. My legs just stay hairier than Id like.:rolleyes:
Grey water contains bacteria, so short term is should not be used on any edible crop, in particular plants like lettuce. Well there are some that can tolerate it, but you would need to keep those separate. Washing powders have a salt based filler, so you could be loading your soil up with salt, salt can kill plants and if you are on top of a water table, the salt will work its way through. Chemicals in detergents can change the PH level of the soil and some plants will just not survive it. Chemicals can also build up and kill off the good stuff in the soil, like worms. It is preferable if using grey water to not always water the one spot and preferably use some fresh water in between. Also to be concious of any run off onto someone else's property.: