We all know the easy ways to conserve water–turn off the faucet while brushing our teeth, wash dishes in the dishwasher instead of by hand, run only full loads of laundry and dishes, use rain barrels to capture water for gardening.  Enviro Girl assumes no readers have leaky faucets because that would be a silly way to waste water.  But if your house is more than 10 years old, you might not have the most water-efficient faucet.   Fortunately, it’s cheap and easy to make your faucets  greener!

You can attach a faucet aerator to any standard faucet for $3.00 or less.  If you can twist a lid off a jar, you can screw on a faucet attachment that pumps air into the water, reducing the amount of water used.  Using the same technology as a pressure washer, an aerator adds air, eliminating the need to run the tap at full blast to get a heavy stream of water to create suds or rinse the bottom of a crusty pan.  Check out energyfederation.org to find great deals on faucet aerators.

Similarly, aerating showerheads can save about 2,500 gallons of water per person per year.  The pressure stays the same when using an aerating showerhead, but you’ll use less water.  You’ll also use less energy to heat less water–adding up to even more savings!  You can also look for showerheads using fewer gallons per minute (gpm) and significantly decrease your water consumption.  Enviro Girl has water-efficient showerheads in both bathrooms and she’s a huge fan of lots of water pressure in her shower.  She assures you that a new showerhead makes a world of difference.  Energyfederation.org offers a range of styles from $30 and under.  Like the faucet attachments, attaching a new showerhead is so easy even Enviro Girl or a monkey can do it!

Reader, have you attached faucet aerators or new showerheads to your plumbing fixtures?  If you haven’t, what’s holding you back?