Even though water makes up about 70% of the Earth it’s still a precious commodity. Not every country has enough clean drinking water to supply to its people. Here are a few tips to help you conserve water and cut your water bill several dollars per year.

Cut your shower 2 minutes short. The standard shower head produces 2.5 gallons of water per minute so 2 minutes would save 5 gallons of water per day or 730 gallons per year.

Use the dishwasher instead of hand washing but only when the dishwasher if completely full. I have found research that supports that the average dishwasher uses between 3 to 4.25 gallons of water to do a load of dishes. A typical hand wash can use up to 16 gallons of water! Let’s assume you do dishes 4 nights per week or about 200 days per year. Using 4 gallons in a dishwasher and 16 gallons by hand you will save 2400 gallons of water per year!

Keep drinking water in the fridge or use ice cubes. Running the water long enough to get the water cold in the tap can waste several gallons of water per day.

Turn the water off when brushing your teeth. It’s one of my pet peeves to watch the water flow from the sink the entire time someone brushes their teeth. Even if it’s 1 gallon per day that’s 365 gallons per year!

Skip the rinse. Instead of running water in the sink to get rid of dinner scraps scrape them off then put them in the dishwasher.

Throw food away in the trash instead of the sink. The garbage disposal requires water to work properly so avoid this to save a few more gallons.

With these simple tips you can easily save up to 3500 gallons of water per year!