What can you do in your garden, kitchen and bathroom to save water?
Answers:
Only run your dishwashers / washing machines with full loads, to minimise water usage. As stated previously, try to hand-wash whereever practical, because this saves water.
In the bathroom, reduce the capacity of the toilet cistern by putting in a brick / plactic bottle filled with water. An ordinary shower uses less water than a bath, and a bath uses less water than a power-shower, so bear this in mind.
If you can, change your washing-up liquid to a biodegradable one (eg Ecover [in the UK, not sure if this exists in the states]). What this means, is that you can use your spent washing-up water in the garden to water plants. You can also fit a water butt in the garden... I have a tiny garden so I just leave my watering can in a corner and collect rainwater this way.
Don't use a hosepipe or sprinklers! Use a bucket when you're washing the car or your windows, and use a watering can on the garden. It takes longer, but it's also good exercise trekking backwards and forwards to refill it :-)
Other answers:
don't turn the tap on
don't turn the tap on
In the garden, only water as needed. In the kitchen and bathroom make sure the faucets are turned off all the way and not dripping. In the bathroom, you can put a brick or two in the tank and that will save water when flushing.
Garden:
Get a rain barrel of some sort, gardening supply sells em, use that to water your grass, plants, etc.
turn the tap off and..
turn ALL plugs off?
Garden - Collect rain water from your down spouts in a rain barrel to use at a later time.
Bathroom - low flow toilets or put bricks in the tanks of an old larger toilet.
Kitchen - Do not use the dishwasher. Washing by hand uses only about 4 gallons of water, where most dishwashers use about 20 gal.
Laundry - High efficiency washing machines (front loader) uses about 15 gal of water vs the standard 40 gal.
you can plant native species of plants. They will survive without getting hosed after they are established. I don't understand this love affair with weed-free green grass lawns, it takes a tremendous amount of water to keep a lawn green and it's just a waste if you ask me.