Mother's going GREEN Day 16 - The 3 Minute Shower

Yes, it is possible. A 3 minute shower. After all I have read on water consumption I figured I could aim for a 3 minute shower. Now you may ask how is this possible? Well, I enjoy the warm water for a minute and a half, I also wash my face during this time. I then turn the shower off and soap up and wash my hair, then I turn the shower back on and rinse off for another minute and a half. Technically a little longer than 3 minutes but I only use 3 minutes worth of water.

Since I had children I have never had the luxury of anything more than 5 minutes in the shower always a baby crying or a child interrupting so a 5 minute shower for me has always been sort of the norm. That is why I challenged myself to use even less water by turning off the water while I washed. It seems to work great and now I am in the habit of doing it everyday. Not sure how I will feel about the cutback in the winter when you will get a little chilly - but perhaps I will appreciate the water even more when I get to turn it back on. In case you are wondering we have a clock in the shower which I use to time my showers.

When it comes to bathing the children, I bath the infant first in her little bathtub. I then dump her water into the big bath tub where I bath my other 2 children together. I fill there tub up with 3 inches of water. I measure this by putting my hand in the tub and when the water reaches my palm it is 3 inches deep (the length of my fingers). When I first did this my son exclaimed: "Mom, how are we supposed to bath in such a little bit of water?" It has since become the norm.

Based on some figures from my green friends at "Our Green Year" http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-26-of-our-green-year-limiting-our.html ,

I am only using 45 liters of water per day on my shower, 315 liters per week or 16380 litres per year rather than the average North American who showers for 15 minutes using 81900 litres per year.

An interesting sites to visit regarding Canadian water consumption: http://www.environmentalindicators.com/htdocs/indicators/6wate.htm

The average water consumed in a household in Canada is 125 000 litres per person per day to see how your household compares to this average visit: http://goblue.zerofootprint.net/