i've totally become my mother. i'm using a homemade "suds saver" while washing laundry.

some of you might say "eww gross" but as our planet dries up i think this will become commonplace. it's something i grew up with though as we were short of water. you wash your very lightly worn clothing first and save the wash water. it's rinsed as normal but after it's done you bail the wash water back in for your next load.

i discovered that a large rubbermaid container holds one wash load perfectly so i'm giving it a go here at home. the items i'm washing aren't dirty exactly... more dusty from lying around.

i've heard of ideas to use your grey water from your bathroom sink to flush the toilet. and i believe there are communities that have outlawed garden watering. so you collect your household grey water for that too.

any other practises/ideas you know about?

man, i don't know. that's a little grungy hippie for me.

Or you could just have a front-loading washer (they hardly use any water, at all) and wait 'til the clothes are really dirty before washing them.

Anxiety said:

you are one of the ones i thought would say ewww gross

i just read somewhere that only 10% of the water we take from the tap is used for drinking or cooking

i havent seen a water shortage any where this year thus far.

emm said:

well, if it helps matters, i don't use a sprinkler in the yard. we do use a hose, but we spray everything down for about 2 minutes and that's that.

but yeah...grey water? um, no. that's not recyclable in my world.

Genesia said:

love the front loaders! but until i can afford one...

horatio said:

i think it's one of those things we won't see till it hits us in the face though.
where i live water is always an issue. when you live in the city you are sheltered from the reality. just turn on the tap and voila. the small community i am from was warned before the snow had melted that there would be water restrictions this summer due to the low levels of the reservoir. my father debated on whether he should plant his large garden as the level of our private water source was extremely low. groundwater is out of sight, out of mind... but what do we do if we mismanage it?

lol still giggling at the notion of being a grungy hippie

emm said:

so riddle me this...
if you wash two loads of lightly worn clothing in the same wash water

or

one load of heavily dirty clothes as you normally would
aren't both scenarios going to result in clean clothes?



this hippie chick just totally hung her laundry out on the line to dry

emm said:

line dried clothes are delightful

i just don't see the logic in washing clothes in dirty water. how can you "lightly soil" your clothes? that's the point of washing them! it makes no sense!

i'm gonna go sit by the composting bin and ruminate on this. the fumes get me high enough to think about these heady topics.

I'm going to start showering fully clothed. Two birds with one stone!

emm, I'll still hug you even if you're a grungy hippie.

WillyWonka said:

you better!!

Anxiety said:

thanks for indulging me anyway anx.
my idea of lightly soiled clothing... that towel that hangs in the bathroom just for looks. it never gets used but it still has to get washed sometime! or you get dressed for work and spill a tiny bit of coffee on your shirt. into the laundry bin it goes but it's not like you've sweated in it all day. lightly soiled! or maybe you are in a rush getting dressed to go out. you change your mind and wear something else but the previous shirt lies in a heap on the floor. it's not going to go back into the closet is it? or maybe your grandmother comes to stay overnight. the sheets have been slept in for one night.

emm said:

i guess i'm like ike and tina with the laundry. i never ever soil anything nice and easy.

Grungy hippie chicks!

ThreadBare said:

lmao! you are just humoring me... really under your breath you are saying eww gross



:it'sshortsseasonican'tgowithoutshaving:

Anxiety said:

Lentil soup

emm said:

Steadwood said:

yeah, let's all make teepees out of our desks and listen to cliff richard, really groovy

i bet the australians and new zealanders know all about grey water

Anxiety said:

Yeah Maaaaan ... and make reeeally far out bangles from pasta and coloured beads...

... farrrrr out maaaaan

Hippies only wash their clothes in rivers, preferably Reggae-on-the rivers.

Save water Shower with a friend

My half aunt and her husband recycle the water from the sink and washing machine and useit to water their garden. They made this water purification system that is out in their backyard, it removes all the soap and other impurities and then stores the water until it's time to water the garden.

I thought that was pretty cool and I wish I could make one.

However, using dirty water to wash my clothes in is something that I cannot knowingly do. It sounds too much like reusing bath water.

All our water is grey, straight out the tap.

Fauxie said:

PLAY FAIIIRRRRR!!!!!

Emm, I ain't mad at you. It'd take significant personal work for me to become so disciplined (and psychologically ready) that I could recycle my laundry water, but I do applaud you.

I'm working on not flushing the toilet after merely urinating. I have to confess I'm having trouble with that.