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degringolade) wrote2021-10-03 10:12 am
Essentials Revisited
Realism / Jean-Francois Millet/ Woman Hanging Her Laundry
Been pondering some odd things lately.
Until the rains came, we had been having a bit of an extended dry spell here on the land of soggy. The Willamette is as low as I can remember and the upstream is even dryer than it is here. So when Oregon/Washington and the Columbia drainage is seeing the effects of the drought that we are in the middle of, things must be pretty damn bad elsewhere.
Water use is a strange thing to discuss here in the USA. Wasting water is as essential to the currently approved lifestyle as wasting fossil fuels. I am (was) as bad at this as anyone. But considering the hoops that look to be ahead of us, I am thinking that our profligate use of water and energy will need to be curtailed in the near future. So I am working out the details now.
Outside of the foolishness of watering a lawn, the main uses for water are for cleaning self, cooking, and clothing. I would put in the water used to actually cook, but truthfully, that is pretty minimal. So I am pondering the water requirements needed for cleaning.
Washing dishes for me is the easiest call. Since the rental company just had a new dishwasher put in, a full load of dishes takes around four gallons and if I were to do them in the sink, it would probably take around twenty gallons (give or take). This is due to the ability of a dishwasher to hide dishes until it is full and that equals several loads of dishes done in the sink. I am not certain about the energy differential, but the water seems to pencil out pretty firmly on the side of the dishwasher. I am happy about this.
Washing clothes is more problematic. Best I can figure it is twenty gallons a load. I am thinking that this is where I can do a lot of damage to the water use numbers. I am over maintaining “good” clothes. I wear denim every day and t-shirts are de rigueur. I no longer dress for success. If TPTB don’t like it, I am officially at the “fuck you then” stage of my career.
So I think I will do a bit of study on handwashing clothes. T-shirts, socks, and levis shouldn’t be that hard to work out.
Last is personal hygiene. I am getting away from an extended shower every day as was my habit in the past. I am working toward a 2-day a week shower with a sink bath every day using good old Dr. Bronner’s and washcloths. I haven’t heard any complaints from the gallery (and my gallery is a rough crowd and would not hesitate even for a moment to inform me of my need to bathe).
3 showers a week