Pearly Whites, Smooth Cheeks and Water Conservation.

A rather cryptic title, but knowing that this blog is all about making green choices, you’ve gotta guess where I’m going with this entry. Yep, it’s all about water conservation and turning off the faucet in the morning when you brush your teeth and/or shave.

I’m not going to spout statistics of how many gallons of water you waste if you leave the faucet running while you brush and shave. No rant or tirade about water conservation. I’d like for you to see for yourself how much water you’re using and then you decide what to do.

Here’s a two-day experiment:

Day 1: Put a large bowl in your sink to catch all of the running water you normally use when you brush your teeth and shave. Don’t scrimp. Follow your usual water consumption pattern.

When you’re done, measure how much water you used. If you’re having a difficult time determining how much water you’ve used, pour the accumulated water into an old gallon-sized milk container or some other container that will give you a true idea of how much water you use.

Day 2: Using the same large bowl you used on day one (after you’ve cleaned it out of course), brush your pearly whites and shave, but this time, only use the water when necessary. Don’t keep the water running while you’re doing your usual morning face check (you know the one where you check for wrinkles, moles and test out your latest top fashion model moves).

Just like on day 1, measure the amount of water you used.

The fun part

Ready for a little fun? Take the water measurement from day 1 and multiply it by 365. Do the same thing for day 2’s water measurement (in case you didn’t guess, 365 is for your morning water consumption each day of a non-leap year).

Subtract day 2’s water usage total from day 1’s total usage. The resulting number will give you the amount of water you will conserve each year by shutting off the water when you brush and shave. See, water conservation isn’t so difficult. All you have to do is continue to brush and shave as you did on day 2 of the experiment.

A phrase that I’ve come to love and hate is: “When you know better, you do better.”