We all want to save money, of course. And saving the environment surely isn't a bad thing either, but would you go as far as flushing your toilets less frequently to save water?
I remember the first time I was invited to spend the night in a European's home. I was studying abroad and some friends of friends who lived a fair distance outside the city were hosting a party. Because they lived in such an inconvenient location, they were nice enough to let a few of us crash at their place for the night. After everyone else had cleared out, our host brought me a clean towel, showed me which door had the big dog behind it, and other such things. Among them was the house rule: If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow let it mellow. Actually, that's a pretty American way of saying it. When they said it, I think it came out more like, "Only flush it if it's solid."
It took me a minute to comprehend what they were saying, and I sincerely hope that my face did not reflect this or whatever was going on in my head. I was raised on penny-pinching, waste-not-want-not frugality but this blew my mind. As it was, I'd only just begun to think of the two-buttoned toilets I found in Europe, with a big-flush for solids and little-flush for liquids, as commonplace. The idea that there were actually people in this world who didn't flush their toilets every time in order to save water was still a little beyond me.
It's been many years since then, and I realize now that somewhere along the way I adopted a version of this rule, though saving water wasn't always the main reason. Maybe I didn't want to wake my sleeping puppy. Maybe I was just too lazy to pull the lid off the toilet and manually flush the thing because we still hadn't gotten it fixed. Maybe it's because I'm in a long-term, committed relationship with a man from that same country so all sorts of weird things don't seem weird to me any more. Whatever the reason was, I adopted it.
Would, or have, you? Would it make a difference if I told you that the average person flushes about 18.5 gallons of water a day and that those 18.5 gallons make up just over 30% of that person's indoor water use each day?
Vote in the poll to your right to find out how mellow we really are.
I remember the first time I was invited to spend the night in a European's home. I was studying abroad and some friends of friends who lived a fair distance outside the city were hosting a party. Because they lived in such an inconvenient location, they were nice enough to let a few of us crash at their place for the night. After everyone else had cleared out, our host brought me a clean towel, showed me which door had the big dog behind it, and other such things. Among them was the house rule: If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow let it mellow. Actually, that's a pretty American way of saying it. When they said it, I think it came out more like, "Only flush it if it's solid."
It took me a minute to comprehend what they were saying, and I sincerely hope that my face did not reflect this or whatever was going on in my head. I was raised on penny-pinching, waste-not-want-not frugality but this blew my mind. As it was, I'd only just begun to think of the two-buttoned toilets I found in Europe, with a big-flush for solids and little-flush for liquids, as commonplace. The idea that there were actually people in this world who didn't flush their toilets every time in order to save water was still a little beyond me.
It's been many years since then, and I realize now that somewhere along the way I adopted a version of this rule, though saving water wasn't always the main reason. Maybe I didn't want to wake my sleeping puppy. Maybe I was just too lazy to pull the lid off the toilet and manually flush the thing because we still hadn't gotten it fixed. Maybe it's because I'm in a long-term, committed relationship with a man from that same country so all sorts of weird things don't seem weird to me any more. Whatever the reason was, I adopted it.
Would, or have, you? Would it make a difference if I told you that the average person flushes about 18.5 gallons of water a day and that those 18.5 gallons make up just over 30% of that person's indoor water use each day?
Vote in the poll to your right to find out how mellow we really are.
All of my past entries, arranged in reverse chronological order. Click on the black triangles to view the hidden post titles for a particular month/year.
1 comment:
I do this sometimes in my own personal bathroom in the back of the house. If you have been drinking enough water, there's no smell or anything. I don't even pay for water, but there is a drought where I live, and I don't like to waste water.
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