TRUST ME, I’m a Designer!
Tuesday, October 15. I’m realizing that this challenge is stimulating my product designer soul even more than my attention to the environment.
A soul always looking for solutions to make objects more functional and targeted to the user’s need, in this case, to me and my goal to reduce my daily water consume.
In fact, in the last few days I have introduced and adopted three new homemade solutions to save water in three different daily activities:
1.
In order to describe the first, I don’t think there is a more professional way than- from Saturday I brush my teeth, face, and hands using a 200ml spray like a water dispenser, yes, like those for watering plants on a terrace…
It is quite funny and in terms of saving-water is super-efficient, even if, to be honest, after the first use I realized that at the end of the teeth-brushing it was necessary a 40ml shot glass, so as to limit consumption to a minimum while keeping the process easy to follow.
This spray method allowed me to use only 550ml for my daily basic cleaning activities, a huge reduction considering that before starting the challenge I consumed almost 12L!!!!
2.
The second is a further change to the way I wash dishes. The solution of the bottles as far as allowing me to control the water was not so functional in terms of the power of the water flow, which made me use much more water than necessary.
The breakthrough was noticing that the soap bottle had a cap that would allow a more controlled and powerful flow.
Unfortunately, the bottle was full, and I could not afford to empty it, so in its place, I used an almost empty 750ml Vetril bottle, which I filled with water and replaced the cap with the soap one.
This new alternative has a huge impact on my consumption, indeed it allowed me to improve the efficiency of the old solution by 200%, guaranteeing me a consumption not exceeding 2 liters, every time I wash the dishes.
I’m really proud of myself.
3.
The third and last way concerns the possibility of recycling part of the water used during the shower for other activities such as flushing the toilet or cleaning the house.
I placed the basin I use to clean the house inside the shower so that it can collect some of the water I use.
Over the 30L of water, I use every day in the shower with this spartan recycling system on Sunday, I recovered 5L which was enough to clean my house. Fortunately, it is only 42m squared. I’m starting to think about how useful it would be to really design a system that recycles the water used in the home.
Thanks to all those improvements I was able to close the last day of the week with a total consumption of 58L, and so, finally, I knocked down the wall of the 60!
I repeated these three new solutions on Monday, October 14, when because I didn’t have to clean the house I could take advantage of the recycled 5L in the shower to drain the liquids from the toilet.
Reporting the following consumptions:
Wash dishes: 2 L (two times a day)
Shower: 30 L (once a day)
Cleaning Hands: 100ml (three times a day)
Face: 100ml (once a day)
Teeth: 50ml (three times a day)
Flushing Toilet: 15L
Daily Goal: 50 L
Daily Consumption: 47.5 L
Yes, yesterday finally I achieved my goal! I consumed no more than 50L.
As every competitive person I feel really proud of myself at the moment, I accepted the challenged, I defined my goal and I achieved it; but at the same time, I know that this save-water challenge is not about just a number. It is about becoming aware, about change habits, it is about sharing ideas, it is about Design…
See you on Friday for the conclusions.
The journey starts now.
