26 September 08 - 10:47
Two Quart Showers
Our RV carries a total of 35 gallons of water including the 6 gallons in the hot water tank. That means all the water we need for cooking, cleaning, and flushing comes from that 35 gallons. We'd like to be able to camp without hookups for at least a week. Thus, ends the luxury of standing under flowing water while taking a shower.So, here's my new process. First, I only shower every other day. On the in between days I do what my high school gym teacher called a wash-up using a disposable, antibacterial cloth. On shower days, I put a 2-quart pitcher in the shower before I begin.
When I turn on the hot water it, of course, comes out cold. I put that water in the pitcher. As soon as it starts to warm up, I thoroughly wet my washcloth then turn off the water. I now have less than one quart of water in the pitcher.
Then I soap my washcloth and use it to wash me from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. No, you don't have to wet your body first. Plus, I have short hair that doesn't really require conditioning so I can use the washcloth to wash my hair. Besides, I tell myself, the pioneer women used worse soap than mine on their hair.
Then, I hang up the still soapy washcloth to use another day. Why would I need to rinse out the soap if I'm just going to apply it again later? Then I stick my hands in the pitcher to remove the soap from them before handling the faucets again and pour the rest of the water in the pitcher on me to begin the rinse process.
When I turn the hot water back on it is not cold because I did not turned on the cold water earlier. So it only takes about another quart of water in the pitcher for it to get to a comfortable rinse temperature. I rinse quickly with the flowing water and I am done.
Once I am dry, I take a clean, dry washcloth and use it to wipe down the shower. I wring it into the pitcher. The water from the pitcher gets poured into a bottle we use to flush the toilet.
So, I put about two quarts of water into the pitcher which I then reuse. I know, I know. You are saying but what about the rinse water that went down the drain. I think that was less that two quarts, also, so that's covered by the day I washed-up instead of showering, right?
TTYL,
Linda
one comment
Way to go!! I found that I sometimes would fill need to dump the black tank and wouldn’t have enough in the gray, thanks to the type of conservation you’re talking about. LOL!
Thanks for the recycling photo the other day….that blog has fallen by the wayside…love to add you as an author if you’re interested!!!
Froggi Donna () - 26 09 08
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