Think Tank

I know I've mentioned this before, but I really have to do something about my toilets. (Admit it, you were just saying the same thing, right?) Did you know that your toilet guzzles the most water out of any appliance in your house? I didn't until recently. My toilets are in mint condition, but they were built before Fred Flintstone met Wilma. You know, back when people didn't use "water" and "world war three" in the same sentence. Anyway, every now and then I've come across this trick of putting a brick in the toilet tank so that it fills with less water, but I thought I would read a bit more about it before running to Home Depot. In doing so, I came across this great site that lists 10 ways to reuse plastic bottles (thx CM!)

Here's number six:

6. Toilet Tank Trick: Skip the brick in your toilet tank -- they can disintegrate and damage plumbing. Instead, drop a plastic bottle or two filled with water into your tank, and you'll displace enough water to save a half gallon to a gallon with every flush. Most toilets flush just fine with a little less water. Savings: Based on FPP ("Flushes Per Person"), a family of four might save 16 gallons of water a day with this little trick, which should save you about $90 a year on your water bill.

Now come on, this seems like a really easy thing to do that requires little to no effort, so I hope some people join in giving this a try (not the garbage picking part). The water you save could be filling your bathtub, tea pot or your glass. Of course, now that I do not buy bottled water anymore, I have to seek out plastic bottles for this. Of course, we all know that I slip up every now and then (in fact, I had another farmer's market incident again and had to buy water to go with my kids tomale. But that's glass, which wouldn't work). But if you see someone bent over with her head in a public garbage can, it might be me looking for plastic bottles. Hey, it's for a good cause!