Failing Miserably

Things NOT To Do When Using Less Hot Water Is One's Weekly Goal

1. Have house guests 4 of the 7 nights of the week. With my cousin here Sunday and Monday night, and my sister here tonight and tomorrow, that makes for a minimum of 4 extra showers. And, since I would never ask my guests to curb their bathing time that means 4 normal to long showers.

2. Allow house guests to do the dishes. Don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciated the help cleaning up after dinner. However, my cousin let the water run full blast on the hottest setting the entire time she was hand washing all the serving plates, pans, and baby bottles. And since we were gabbing away, this took longer than if she had just been washing dishes alone. But hey, as they say, don't kick a gift horse in the mouth--I wasn't going to critique someone's water-saving skills while that someone was washing my dishes!

3. Decide to do a load of pure whites for the first time in about 2 years. I'm generally laundry-challenged, and I can afford to be thanks to having a newer, higher-tech washer and dryer. I usually just separate "dark" clothes (i.e. navy, black, red, etc) from "light" clothes (i.e. any color that won't bleed into the whites I throw in with them.) But every once in a great while I have a complete load of solid whites and, well, I kind of like the smell of them being washed in hot water with a little bleach. So sue me.

I'm not sure that I will even continue with this goal, though at least I learned that running the hot water prior to running the dishwasher is economical, and that hand washing dishes from breakfast and lunch was probably not saving me shit. Other goals are on track--exercising, water intake, and less dryer usage, so the week isn't a total bust so far.

Better planning next time!