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Nobody likes a potty-mouth, so we'll get right to the point. You can make a couple of easy changes to your toilet and your flushing habits that will save a significant amount of water and paper—with no gross-out factor. No backtracking through tales of wiping comm-hando or $5,000 Japanese water-conserving toilets that play tunes while you do your business. This is a straight flush.
The business on your business:
- They call me mellow yellow. Yeah, it was a pretty smooth hit from Donovan back in the '60s, but it's an even better way of saving water without getting all stinky about it. If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down. Self-explanatory common sense.
- Dam it all. Your toilet doesn't need that much water to flush properly. Buy a toilet dam, or make one yourself with a plastic milk jug. You'll save up to a couple of gallons with every flush.
- And the winner is: over, not under. There really is a point to which way you hang your toilet paper (over vs. under), and there's a guy who's actually figured out which method saves TP.
- Packaging counts. Dodge packaging waste by buying toilet paper in bulk, no individually wrapped rolls, with as many squares per roll as possible.
- Don't toss the tubes. Stash TP tubes for crafts and repurposing (finally, an easy way to organize extension cords!).
How to green your detergent usage
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# 5 is sweet! finally a good idea for those pesky ubiquitous tubes!
"If it's yellow, let it mellow?"
Really? And how?
Way back when I repurposed TP tubes by covering with contact paper (you could skip that) and using to bundle small appliance cords in the kitchen. One lasted over 20 years.
What a cute idea! Sounds like a great option for a kid craft, too ... Sweet!
All good practices.
I know a fella whose grandmother had an even more extreme method... re-using the toilet paper by hanging it to dry between visits: http://zydecofish.blogspot.com/2005/07/12-random-facts-ab... -- I haven't managed to convince my wife to try that yet though :-(
Good to see you over here, Chris!
I don't know about reusing toilet paper -- but it's really not such a stretch to use cloth. Lots of families use cloth diapers on babies, and it's a natural enough step to use nice, soft cloth wipes too. I'm not quite sure why it's such a stretch for people to imagine using cloth as adults ...
We use cloth on our babes, including cloth wipes. I have wondered why I won't make that leap myself. Maybe one of these days I'll give it a shot... I do push the envelope in a lot of other ways.
This just reminded me of a piece in Time a few months back... http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1686805,00.html "there's one thing I won't give up. If he wants my toilet paper, Al Gore himself will have to pry it from my cold, biodegradable hands."