Less than 24 hours after I’d decided to write a post about showering with my Shower Buddy, Buddy died. At some point during the day on Friday, Buddy’s suction cup slipped its grip on the tiled wall and crashed upon the bathtub floor.
Buddy broke into pieces — a bright blue round plastic shell emblazoned “5 Minute Shower. City of Durham Department of Water Resources” with suction cup still attached, plastic hourglass protector still in one piece, and the hourglass that nestled inside the shell shattered into tiny shards, white sand pointing toward the drain.
What will showering be like without my buddy? What will showering be like without a gentle reminder to keep things to within 5 minutes, to lather up quickly, and to jump under the flow with minimal warm up time, all the while wondering how water saving efforts are going down in Tar Heel country?
R.I.P. Shower Buddy.
Are you mindful of how much water you use in the shower? Do you shower with a buddy? How is it going?
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October 18, 2012 at 3:07 pm
To save even more water, you can do what some of Mrs. Green’s followers do–put a bucket in your shower to catch some of the water and use it to water your plants.
October 21, 2012 at 9:32 pm
I’ve always prided myself on short shower time. A couple of my favorite songs will usually suffice. As I like to remind family members who think I’m TOO speedy, I don’t earn my living rolling in mud, and I rarely work up a sweat in front of the computer.
You’ll be happy to know that replacements for your Shower Buddy are available. Here’s one. [http://www.amazon.com/Minute-Shower-Timer-Clock/dp/B002GPUXM2] And this site has tips and other shower timer models.
[http://www.greenyour.com/home/bathroom/shower/tips/use-a-shower-timer]
October 31, 2012 at 6:55 pm
So sorry to hear about your Shower Buddy, Jacquie! Sounds like Buddy lived a happy, conservative life. (Get it, water conservation?)
Anyways, bad joke aside, here are a few tips from Water – Use It Wisely that might help:
-Shorten your shower by a minute or two and you’ll save up to 150 gallons per month.
-Use a water-efficient showerhead. They’re inexpensive, easy to install, and can save you up to 750 gallons a month.
Find more water-saving tips, here: http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php
November 13, 2012 at 7:57 pm
I am definitely conscious of how much time I spend in the shower. For me, it starts with doing everything I can to reduce my carbon footprint, but it ends with making me a more efficient person overall. Training myself to take quick showers makes me never relish taking them, even when I’d rather stay in bed for an extra 10 minutes. My rule of thumb is to be in the shower for about a song and a half. Since I play music while I shower, I make sure that the water is off and I am drying my body by the time the second song is ending. That ensures my efficiency and ensures my saving of the planet, little by little.
Also, I am sorry to hear about your shower buddy Jacquie. But now that you have trained yourself so well on the 5-minute shower, I’m sure that you can turn anything into your new shower buddy, and still remember to keep it to 5 minutes!
And going off of Cindy’s comment, my family has been filling up buckets of water from warming up the shower for years. We use it for watering plants as well as providing all of the drinking water my two dogs will ever need!
November 14, 2012 at 1:03 am
Josh, the song approach is a great idea for keeping time! And the bucket concept was something I adopted while out in India. It’s wonderful!
What I have done with my siblings or friends is have them plug the tub as they take a shower to show how much water they have used. Sometimes they feel a sense of urgency when the water starts going past their ankles because they never assumed they used that much. It helped them visualize how much they waste and made them re-evaluate their habits.
January 31, 2013 at 10:39 am
I have to say, I am quite mindful of how much water I use in the shower. For all of those men and women who consider showering nearly a varsity sport involving shampooing, deep conditioning hair treatments, shaving your legs, exfoliating with a salt scrub, and having to step out for a second to grab that special cleanser for your face, the solution is Navy showers. Turning the water off for all of these necessities will save water and give you more room to maneuver without washing away that shaving cream and hair treatment. You can be in the shower for 20 minutes and still use 5 minutes of water.