A reader wrote in last week asking for some tips on how to reuse shower water. What a great question!

When the weather gets cold, it can take the shower even longer to heat up. It's also awfully tempting to languish under that steady stream of hot water rather than face the cold, isn't it? Here are some ideas to help you use less water in the shower and reclaim the water that you do end up using.

1. The Shower Bucket - It is what it says it is! You can get more details about how I use a shower bucket to conserve water here! This is probably the cheapest way to reuse some of that shower water. There's nothing to install or maintain.

2. Use a timer. How effective this is really depends on how many people are showering and for how long, but try setting an egg timer for 3-5 minutes when you hop in the shower, and try to get out of there before it dings.

3. Install a low-flow shower head or aerator. You can find these at most home improvement stores, and they're not too hard to install. My husband installed both of our low-flow shower heads, and it seemed pretty painless. An aerator uses air to help push the water out of the head, so you don't feel like you're losing as much pressure. I'd recommend looking for an aerater, because otherwise the flow can get pretty pitiful when you turn it down.

4. Try greywater reclamation. Grey water refers to water that's been used but is not toxic. So, water from the shower is grey water, water from flushing the toilet is not. Putting in a greywater system is a little trickier - and not legal in all places -  but if you're handy with plumbing, you can try re-routing your shower drain through a filtering system, and use that grey water elsewhere, like to water the garden or flush the toilet. Here's a good resource with more information about greywater.

What about you guys? Have you used any creative solutions to reclaim shower water or reduce the amount of water you use in the shower? I'd love to hear your conservation ideas in the comments!

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by stevendepolo

Redoing your kitchen can be a pretty high-impact endeavor. From countertops to cabinets, we're talking about a lot of wood and if you're getting your cabinets from a big box store, chances are it's really pressboard coated in plastic. It might look sleek and modern, but underneath it's a low-quality solution with a pretty short lifespan.

Instead of going for a store-bought solution, designer Rupert Blanchard created the kitchen photographed above using reclaimed tea crates for the cabinet doors and even to cover the outside of the dishwasher. He finished off the look with antique hardware.

This would be a great way to update your ugly, existing kitchen cabinets on the cheap, wouldn't it? Or, if your kitchen needs new cabinets you could pick something up second hand at the thrift store or Restore and give it a new life. If you don't have tea crates handy, you could also start collecting old wine boxes or pretty much any sort of wooden shipping crates for the same effect.

For folks who are into cross-stitch or weaving, the texture of a wire waste basket begs to be fancied up with stitched or woven fiber, and Poppytalk did an awesome job transforming a wire waste basket into a lamp! They used strips of fabric, but you could also use yarn or grouped strands of embroidery thread - this is a great project for busting that fiber stash. You can check out the full instructions on how to do it over on Poppytalk!

The folks at Poppytalk used a new waste basket, but you can hunt at thrift stores for a second hand one to make this an upcycled project! The trick is cleaning that waste basket well because, well...it's a waste basket!

How to Clean Your Waste Basket

Wire mesh is not a joy to clean, but with the right tools on hand, you can make it easier on yourself. Here's how!

1. Get scrubby. Use a scrubby brush and hot, soapy water to get any gunk off of your basket.
2. Rinse. Rinse it out under running water. Your bathtub is a good place to do this, if you don't have a hose in your back yard.
3. Soak that sucker (optional). If you feel like it's still not totally clean, grab a bucket that's larger than your basket, fill it up with water, add a generous squirt of dish soap, and submerge. If your basket wants to float, use a brick to weigh it down. Soak for around 30 minutes, then rinse.
4. Dry. Set your basket out to dry. You can dry it in the sun, if it's warm and clear out or just set it upside down on a clean towel to drip dry on the bathroom or kitchen counter.

Ta-da! Easy peasy, and you're ready to make an upcycled lamp!

There are numerous benefits that come with heating your home with wood, some of which are obvious, and some not quite as prominent. This is especially true if you have never had the joy of sitting next to a toasty wood stove as you warm yourself up after a trip out into the cold.

Today's wood stoves are much more energy-efficient that those of yesteryear, and they now maintain efficiency of 70 percent or more. Here are the most important reasons you might consider a wood stove for your home heating needs:

1. Self Reliance

Using a wood stove is a step in the direction of self-reliance. Heating choices like coal, oil or gas are non-renewable and beyond a person’s control. However, a sustainably maintained forest is a renewable, healthy, and self-propagating alternative.

Home owners can cut and manage their own firewood and know exactly where it came from. With other heating options, you have no clue how it is handled and are at the mercy of the large utility companies. Well-maintained forests can be a source of heat practically forever.

2. Get in Shape

Taking a dip into the wood heat pool comes with the added benefit of gym-free, vigorous exercise. After all, wood doesn’t cut, split, stack and move itself, does it?

The winter months offer a great opportunity to feel some invigorating fresh air as you work up a sweat splitting your wood. By the time you're done stacking your wood inside the garage door, you may be warm enough that you won’t need to burn as many logs to feel warm in your house.

3. Save Money

In general, heating with wood is cheaper than fossil fuel. If you can gather your own wood, then it can be as cheap as the tools to chop it.

Even having wood for our stove delivered still cost under 100 bucks a cord. That is a significant savings over typical heating costs through the major utility companies. Even better is that your money spent on firewood is money invested into your local community.

4. Heat More Efficiently

With typical heating setups, a large amount of energy goes to waste. Do you really need a baseboard heater in the bathroom when the door is open 95% of the time? Do the bedrooms need to be the same temperature as the rest of the house? Of course not, and with a wood stove you can directly heat the areas that you want to be the warmest, such as your living room or kitchen. Heating only the spaces where you need it is good for your wallet, and our natural resources.

These are just a few of the many benefits to using a wood stove to heat your home. Besides the obvious, a fire just warms a home, both literally and figuratively.

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by Kentishman

Everything has a computer these days, even simple household appliances. Some wonder whether our homes will soon become giant computerized environments as well.

In an era of technological innovation, we’re seeing more and more infiltration of high tech gadgets into the home. These new technologies promise to make our home lives easier, more comfortable, safer, more energy efficient, and even more fun.

Although it might feel like we're being taken over by Big Brother (don't worry, it's just Google), building more intelligent homes can actually help save energy and reduce environmental impact.

Instead of just being able to program your HVAC system or appliance to switch on and off at certain times, these systems may soon be able to sense human presence, and determined whether or not they need to be ready to serve.

The following infographic explores some of the potential technological possibilities we may see in our homes over the next decade.

Brought to you by The House Designers, offering a wide selection of quality house plans

Image Credit: Flickr - Howard Dickins

Despite the fact that we had new snow less than a week ago, the weather in Colorado is slowly beginning to look and feel more like spring. Soon, all that cold and wind will be just a distant memory as we look for ways to escape the dry, persistent heat of the Rocky Mountain West.

It's estimated that the average American home uses over $2,000 of energy every year. Almost half of this amount is spent on heating and cooling costs alone.

Understanding the ins and outs of your home’s heating and cooling equipment can be an essential part of helping to insure your home is operating at maximum energy efficiency.

This WellHome graphic shows how HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems heat and cool your home so you can achieve a comfortable temperature without wasting too much energy.

Image Created by Wellhome.com Insulation and Energy Audits

Top Image: Flickr - nblumhardt