Tip o’ the Day: Stop Being a Hoser
Whether it's your driveway, your patio, deck or sidewalk, give it a sweep before turning on the hose. You'll save a lot of water, especially during those drought prone summer months.
A free-flowing garden hose can flow at over twelve gallons a minute! Cut down on the amount of water used by getting a water spraying nozzle. This will give you more control of the flow and use the H2O more efficiently. Seal up any leaky connections, and hose down surfaces less often and for less time.
And before you think about spraying at all - sweep first. This may eliminate the need for hosing all together, and will cut down the amount of water needed. Any old broom will do, but if you want to opt for an eco-friendly broom check out Sweep Dreams, available at 3R Living.
Amy says: I live in NYC and it is a daily ritual for shopkeepers and maintenance guys to hose down the sidewalk in front of their building instead of just giving it a little sweep. The act is so prominent in the city it even made a Seinfeld episode:
ELAINE: Officer. Officer, is there some reason this man has to always be using a hose? I mean, he's flooding the sidewalk. It's a waste of water. Couldn't he just use a broom?
Can't we all just use a broom?
Thanks to GO's Philip Proefrock for the tip!
Tags: broom, Conservation, Daily Tips, Environment, Home and Garden, hose, Outdoors, spray, sweep, water
- Uncategorized
May 21st, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Ugh, I hate this subject. Here in Santa Monica, even though you are not supposed to use water to clean outside surfaces with, people do it anyway. I contacted the water conservation department of the city, and although they acted interested, they really weren’t. The guy told me to get the addresses of people breaking the law and he would send them a letter. I told him that was his job and not mine to walk around trying to find people. Then in the mail I got a package with citations in it, asking me to put them on people’s doors.
When I start getting a paycheck from the city I will start doing their job, but to have a department that acts like it cares but does nothing is so frustrating.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:30 am
While the tip was great, in and of itself, your title slayed me. If I’d been drinking milk, it would have come out of my nose.
May 29th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Oh my that must have been something to get a package in the mail like that. In my city we see the code enforcer drive around all the time, but they won’t do anything about the abuse of water. We can only water on certain days. They will get you if your fence line is wrong though.