[My shower bucket, ready to water our container garden!]

Here in Atlanta, it seems like we're constantly under some sort of watering restrictions or facing yet another drought condition. One of the big lessons I learned from Atlanta's drought was little changes that can help me save water, and the shower bucket is one of my favorites.

Sure, guests sometimes ask why I have a five gallon bucket in the bathroom next to the tub, but it's totally worth a few awkward questions for the water savings. And really, if I wanted to stop the questions I could just stash the bucket in the shower behind the curtain when folks were coming over. Secretly, I sort of like the chance to spread the word about how useful that little bucket can be!

Saving Water with a Shower Bucket

The shower bucket idea is certainly nothing new, but it's such a simple water-saving technique that I think it bears repeating. Are you ready? Here's a step-by-step:

1. Acquire a large bucket.
2. Place bucket under faucet when you first turn on the water for your shower.
3. When water is hot, remove bucket, then shower as usual.
4. Use collected water to water your plants, wash the car, wash the windows, or just pour it into your rain barrel if you don't need it right away.

That little bucket might not seem like it's saving much water, but when you do the math it really adds up. The average faucet uses two gallons of water per minute. If it takes two minutes to heat the water, that's four gallons per day. For a person who showers daily that adds up to almost 1500 gallons in water savings per person each year. Not too shabby!

Do you have any quickie water-saving tips? I'd love to hear them in the comments!