Flush with Shower Water

Benefits

Environmental Benefit: ★★★☆☆
Conserves several gallons of water per shower.

Money Saved: ★★☆☆☆
The small amount of water saved won't amount to much, but your bill for water and wastewater treatment will be reduced a little!

Lifestyle Benefit: ★☆☆☆☆
It's a bit of a pain - not so much collecting the water as using it to flush with. No real benefit I see here.

What We’re Doing
Unless you've got one of those nice instant tankless water heaters in your bathroom, you are probably like us and prefer to let the shower water run for a minute or so to let the hot water reach it before "climbing in"! This sends 2-4 gallons of clean water down-the-drain. Shannon got a bucket which we keep on the floor in the shower, and direct the shower water toward the bucket during that first warm-up period. When the bathroom toilet needs flushed, we check to see if there's water in bucket to use instead of flushing with the toilet tank. You just pour the water in the bowl - wait for the contents to "disappear" - and then pour a little more in to bring the water up to it's usual level. Also, if the kids have taken a bath then we'll usually leave the water in the tub. After flushing with the bucket of water, we quickly drag the flat-sided bucket through the tub to mostly refill it and put it back in the shower to "drip dry". That way it's ready to handle another flush next time. Note that in the summer, if the temperature and humidity are high, it sometimes isn't worth leaving a bathtub full of warm water sitting out (just makes the humidity worse!).

A Little Humor

"Why should I care about future generations? What have they ever done for me?"
— Groucho Marx