Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.

[TheRepublician]

Matt, I'm with you on enjoying the long, hot showers. But having said that, I might suggest you try some of the newer low flow shower heads. I use the Evolve Roadrunner and you save almost a gal/min. Assuming you don't double the length of your shower, at least you woud cut your water usage by 36%. You don't even realize with many of the newer showerheads that they're water savers.

[Matt Johnson]

Thanks. I'll look into that.

[ACB123]

From what I've read so far, it's astounding how much of an impact just by tweaking our own personal habits here or there.

Great information.

[FruGalGreen]

I use an ordinary razor for shaving and it is also impotant of course to turn the water on and off when doing it. But here's a question: Do you think that shaving with a good electric shaver is environmentally more friendly than shaving with a razor? I imagine that electricity usad by the shaver is (at least potentially) less eco-damage than using much water for shaving. It depends of course on how much water one uses for shaving and on the efficiency of the electric shaver.

I think it is difficult to compare electrical usage against water usage. Depends how your electricity is generated (green power, perhaps?)

Someone else tackled a response to this issue, and according to Umbra, Umbra on shaving | Grist, the least-impact option is an old-fashioned straight razor that you can sharpen. Next best would be replacement of blades, then the electric razor. You can make those replacement blades last at least 3 times longer by drying and adding mineral oil to the blade before storage. (See my signature for a link to a website that has a compact, convenient product to do just this).

Julie

[jimmyloveslisa]

I'm not sure if you have seen this toothbrush it's called ecofly. It's a kid's toothbrush that's made out of recycled plastic. It raps while you brush about saving the enviroment and turning the tap off. Apparently the song is 60seconds so the kids know how long to brush while getting reminded to save water. I thought it was pretty cool, my sister in law picked this up for my boys, and they also like it! I have no idea where she bought them but they do have a website www.ecoflytoothbrush.com

[martina_green]

As Matt I love to shower!! With hot water! But I limit those long showers on one (sometimes two) days per week. On the other days, 5 minutes are enough.
And it has another advantage than saving water: you save time! My boyfriend's very happy about this
Have you already checked

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[shiela_robins]

Apparently some households who don't have the luxury of having a shower installed in their bathroom (or perhaps broken and not yet fixed) take a bath with a bucket, or two, of water. Yes this might sound strange but it is true. Lol!

[thegreenlivingplace]

Living on a houseboat we take water conservation to it's limits, espically if you want to take your boat out for 3 or 4 weeks at a time and not have to return back to the marina to take on water.

The shower head and all the water outlets on my boat are equiped with a kill or toggel switch. To allow the water to be turned off when lathering up, or brushing or shaving or... The best thing about these type shower heads are that you don't have to ever readjust the temp of the water, the water is simply shut off while retaining your settings.

I have never been able to find these type heads at regular home supply places. But you can stop by any boating supply place and pick them up. The one I am us is 1.7 gpm.

[shiela_robins]

Now if more and more people used this type of shower heads and/or water outlets in their homes imagine how much water you can save.

[roystonparera]

I think that this is right, many people do not turn off the water at the time to brushing their teeth, this causes wastage of water, so we all have to turn off water at the time of brushing our teeth. Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface, water us used without risk of immediate or long term harm.