We have Buckets in the showers that hold 1-2 gallons only. More than that and you won't want to carry it very far. I only capture clean water during warm-up. We do have the fancy thermal shutoff valves (Evolve brand) so the water goes 'off' automatically when it gets to hot. Anyways I am not saving the soapy water at this time, so no standing in a bucket for me.

5 gallon bucket in shower to capture warm up water. My shower stall is tiny, tiny, so that bucket goes out when I go in (disclaimer: In NM, not Calif)

eloise, DH has looked in to them, but he's not sure of the expense and is too busy selling our other house to deal with it now. It's in the back of my brain. Nag Nag. LOL!

If you have a bathtub with a shower you could shower with the drain closed and pump the water via garden hose out the bathroom window.

I got a small Craftsman utility pump that a garden hose attaches to. I use it for rainwater also. Very handy.

I've been collecting the washing machine water by draining it into a trash barrel and pumping that to my trees.

Lucky you hoovb! This is a 2 story and the huge shower window doesn't open. There is a fan, and a door leading to an outside deck, but below the deck is another concrete deck overlooking the pool. No way to reach the gardens. Never seen the washing machine drain. It all goes into the septic, so I guess the stone fruit trees get it somehow.

Water into a bucket. Then with my new Delta shower head I press a button and the water throttles way back until I need a rinse and then push the button again.

Suzi, I don't know how much it costs but didn't think it could have been much. It was included in the repiping he did of my home. I just googled and saw a Watts, which is the brand attached to my hot water heater, and it is $200. Maybe your hubby was looking for something more expensive and elaborate.

We've always had a circulating pump for the master bathroom, so there is no water loss when waiting.

I have a 5 gallon bucket with wheels in the shower. It's easy to bring gray water out to the yard. The house is one story, hardwood floor.

The collecting of used shower water is a bit unconventional. I sit on a teak shower bench, facing the water wall with feet in the bucket, use a handheld shower. By doing so I get to collect about 3-4 gallons of water for each shower.

When the water is cool I roll the bucket to the front yard to water my fruit tress. So far I haven't seen any signs of complaints.

I can't convince the hubby to do the same.

Please end the drought soon!

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Quickie-5-gal-EZ-Glide-Bucket-with-Wheels-4-Pack-20000/100464874

I decided a while ago it is easier for me to just do navy showers (turn the water off when you are soaping up) than doing anything fancy with reclaiming shower gray water.

I do save water in the kitchen sink, although it is only a gallon or two here or there. I usually wash dishes while I am cooking dinner and I noticed I was constantly running the tap to heat the water to wash a dish or my hands, or cool the water to fill up a pot or drinking glass. Now I keep a couple old milk jugs under the sink and fill them up when changing the water temp. Originally the plan was to use these for watering plants, but half the time now I just use that water to soak pots and pans. Either way it is water that is being used that I would normally have just wasted.

Just had a horrible thought. Our home has a whole house water softener. The dishwasher was etching all the printing on our dishes and glassware off due to the hardness of it. So now, can I even save water and put outside on my plants? Outside water isn't softened. Just in house.

Drought, please end. Just walked outside. Grass fire in the distance. Smoky. Smells like someone is BBQing, but that isn't it. Wind whipping it up.

Don't use the water run through a water softener for your plants. Bad for the plants.

I was afraid of that. Even our laundry uses soft water, so I guess my gray water collection would only be good for washing the cars.

Suzi, you can check with your water softner installer about switching over to potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride if you want to use softened greywater on plants.

I'll do that. Thanks! Now this gives DH something to do. Is one less efficient than the other? Our water is really HARD! DH never goes down the hill without emitters in his pockets. Our hard water clogs our drip system regularly.

I cannot collect our shower gray water; I do what sf_rhino does (never knew it was called a "navy shower" LOL). We collect the cold, pre-shower water into a 5-gal bucket to water the yard.

If our kids take a bath, we've been limiting their use of soap; then then we bale the water out into the 5-gal bucket and use that to water the yard.

In the kitchen, I have a large watering can by the sink; I dump all the leftover water from cups into that watering can. I keep a dishpan in the sink to collect any rinse water (from washing hands or rinsing out the washcloth etc). When it gets full I pour it into the 5-gal bucket or I use it to soak dishes.

Nil13, you can't imagine how grateful I am to you for pointing out that we may be able to use potassium chloride. Our softener was installed a year ago so it's new enough to accept both solutions. Now hubby has to figure out how to extract the old salt pellets from the unit. They told him that's all he has to do, and replace them with Potassium Chloride. He found the Potassium Chloride at HD. It is more expensive, but so much healthier for both us and the plants. I'll be able now to save our graywater and use it on the plants. There is still salt in the pipes, so going to give it 3 months prior to watering plants. Thanks so much! :-)

5 gallon bucket in shower to capture warm up water.

Same here.

Laundry room is on the second floor, and I haven't figured out how to collect the gray water.

All my shower water goes to my citrus grove. The difficulty comes in making sure that I don't use any soaps or cleaners that would cause a problem. That would be easy if I could just keep it spotlessly clean every day. Since I manage IT for a number of companies and stuff regularly hits the fan, I have to deal with reality and understand that I have to let it go for a week or two at a time sometimes and clean it up later. I use a pressure washer instead of chemicals so that the drain still can be run to the grove 24x7x365.

When I finish my grove, I think I will build an outdoor shower in the middle to make it easier to get the water to the grove. This only works easily with a very level lot, where your neighbors can't see into your property.

So you going to make a solar shower? Pretty cool!

I will start using the collected shower water to flush the toilet. There's a window in the bathroom with a climbing rose right outside the window that I can water, but can't do that daily.

Not a happy camper with all this water conserving stuff. I didn't water the lawn but once and my bill is over $56 more than the previous bill, really sucks!

Same here with a tiny shower..bucket as water warms...then out. And the same for sink when running out the cold for the hot water. I find that if you use that on your one prized water needy plant,it really helps. No way it waters the yard or is even enough for all the one plants needs...but seems to always keep it from wilting between normal yard watering. That's a good thing,Martha.

I've now made it a two buckets in a shower routine. I try to get all the shower water I can. I figure the soap is so diluted,why waste that water too?

You could actually dip a spray bottle in that soapy shower water, add a little neem oil and it will free your trees or beloved plants of bugs!

If you just collect greywater with a bucket in the shower, it's not that much water compared to what is necessary for a yard, Stanofh. However, if you divert all the shower water it adds up pretty fast. One 10 minute shower every day for a year ends up being over 9000 gallons. That may not work for a lawn, but it sure is a great insurance policy for trees. Considering the diverter valves are like $40, you can really get access to that water pretty inexpensively. Beware of ghe greywater specialist selling $8k systems.

I'll ask DH about diverter valves. Do they work with septic? I guess the septic leaches a lot of water into the yard. Not everywhere, but the fruit trees near it thrive.

Diverting the water going down the shower drain is diverting it before that water goes to a septic system or the city sewer system. You just change the water flow from the traditional system to your gray water recovery system.

This is similar to what I use to collect water during warm-up: Safety Shower Test Sock

Just make it smaller at the end and a smaller bucket and it funnels the water well.

Greywater recovery system sounds expensive and if you call up a company to install one it sure will be. Really all a greywater recovery system needs to be it a mulch filled hole with 1-1/2" abs drain pipe leading to it.

Hoovb, what does your graywater go in when you pump it out? I have a window but nothing growing in that area.

The water goes where ever my hose takes it. The pump in the tub with hose attached. The hose goes out the window, down to the ground, then anywhere on the property. Sometimes I have two hoses connected to reach where I want it to reach. That is for the rare bath for a sore back. Showers are "navy" style and take less than 5 gallons.

Thank you Hoovb