This water year has been amazing for the state of Utah! With a record-breaking snowpack, we’ve enjoyed significant advancements in resolving the drought conditions the Western United States have been experiencing. But none of that will matter if we don’t do our part to conserve as much water from this amazing snow year as possible. Buying your new Utah home from Garbett Homes is a great first step thanks to our Localscapes landscaping, tankless water heaters, and low flow sinks and toilets. But you can always go further, here are a few low costs tricks to help with your water conservation efforts.
1. Monitor Your Plants
Localscapes landscaping utilizes climate adapted plants throughout the garden areas of landscaping. Meaning they are very good at sipping water and doing more with less. Take an active role in learning about your plant’s water needs, and what properly watered soil around the plants look like. This will help you avoid overwatering, which saves money and precious water. Not to mention keeping our beautiful state healthier thanks to the cleaner air they help make. If you’re gadget oriented you can also pick up a moisture meter to monitor water content that way, but keep in mind that these gadgets can cost between a few hundred to a thousand dollars. Don't buy them if you won't use them.
2. Maintain Your Mulch
While this tip might sound obvious, sometimes it’s good to repeat the obvious. Mulch helps in moisture retention which reduces how much water you need to use on your plants. Time, however, reduces the effectiveness of your mulch due to various factors. Work to ensure that the mulch for your landscaping has a depth of 2-4 inches. This will keep your plants healthier, happier and sipping instead of gulping water.
3. Don’t Spray! Sweep!
Taking a broom to your driveway and sidewalk can handle most of your cleaning needs just as well if not better than spraying it down with a hose. Not to mention the hidden benefits! Looking for some time to listen to that audiobook or enjoy a podcast? Great news! Sweeping your driveway will not only give you time but is also quiet enough that you won’t need to crank the volume up to enjoy your audio entertainment. Protecting your ears in the process! Hate weeds in your driveway? Can’t grow weeds where they struggle to get water! Sweeping whenever possible is just more effective and enjoyable in the long run than spraying.
4. Be Efficient with Hygiene
When you brush your teeth do you let the sink run? There’s no judgement here if that’s the case. Humans have task-oriented brains. It’s very easy for brushing your teeth to consist of the mental steps, get out toothbrush, turn on sink, wet toothbrush, put toothpaste on toothbrush, brush teeth, rinse. Or basically the most efficient steps to complete the task quickly. But if you add the step “turn off sink” after “wet toothbrush”, you can save two minutes (the amount of time you should be brushing) worth of running water every time you brush. Do the math and that’s 1,460 minutes of saved water per person per day! That’s a lot of water saved!
5. Be Efficient with Laundry and the Dishes
Washing machines and dishwashers are miracles of modern living! If you doubt that statement handwash all your dishes for a month and get back to us. The drawback is that they don’t adjust water consumption based on load size. Making it important to get the most use out of them each time you run them. What that means will vary from household to household, but a good rule of thumb is to only to run them at full capacity. When you’re efficient with your water use you get more for less.
We here at Garbett Homes always build with the future in mind. The future of the cities we build in, the future of our state, the future of our homebuyers and their families. All of that is taken into consideration from planning to the last home sold. It’s why our homes lead the state in energy efficiency and water conservation. If you’re looking for the home of your future why not consider reaching out to our new home specialist and find the Garbett Homes community that’s right for you!
