Reuse Water From a Shower - PEP BB greywillow.sand.showerwater

So as I'm posting this, I realise that a bath holds a LOT of water. It is for 4 people to use but considering we all get a very quick shower too before getting in, it probably is very very wasteful. However its a cultural thing here and something that is nonnegotiable to my husband and many other Japanese so I do the best I can. I have got him to agree to baths every other day in winter which is a big win! No products at all go into the bath. No soap, nothing.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) my washer is efficient and doesn't use much so doesn't make much of a dent in the amount of water in the bath (and our bath is actually one that was designed to hold less water because of the added seat inside. All baths are deep, filled to the top and usually hold 210L of water. Ours is 140L.

Of course this doesn't fit the description at all so i'll leave it up to your discretion.

Here is my submission for the Greywater & Willow Feeder - Sand - Use Water from a Shower BB.

A little context: my sister's water comes from a community well and a few days ago we were informed that they would be shutting the water off for about six hours for repairs.  I decided it was a great time to tackle this BB.  I am about 75% down the path of poo-less-ness and decided to remove the last remaining products for a few days. There are two buckets in the shower: one was collected per the instructions of this BB and the second was filled as insurance.  The water was turned off a bit later than advertised but has not been turned back on yet (almost 20 hours)  and I expect the second bucket to be empty soon.  Also, I decided to refill the tank after flushing since I think the design of the toilet is more efficient than pouring water in the bowl.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided a 2-minute video of me filling the toilet tank from collected shower water that's poo-less and at least three gallons of water (these are 4-gallon buckets).  I was able to fill the toilet tank twice with one bucket so there are some stills after/in the video showing the use of more than 3 gallons.

I am not in this for the badge bit, but South Africa is a water scarce country and even when the water storage dams are full (as they are at present due to unprecedentedly persistent and heavy rains) water restrictions remain in force.  My wife and I - pensioners thus cost conscious - have a large basin in our shower in which we stand, thus collecting as much water as possible.  Soap, shampoo etc. doesn't matter, the collected water either used directly in the toilet bowl or is kept in a large 25 litre drum for future use.  Have done so now for several years.  Works well.  Kind regards to everyone.    North Riding, Randburg, Johannesburg.

These pics were taken in December but I forgot to post them! Been pooless since.

The plants on our balcony benefited from our shower water.

watered my walnut trees with shower water. I use goats milk soap and no shampoo

Can you give me some additional advice then? I practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu every day and if I don't use soap I will get ringworm which can be deadly.

Ok, i think I found a way I can get this. I've been filling up the bucket while the water is warming up and then putting the lid on while I showered. This took way longer though.

I keep a plastic tote in the shower, and it fills both from the initial warming up water (where I can lean over and still wash my short hair without freezing) and then as I do the rotisserie dance to get the rest of me wet, a lot splashes into the tote as well. I then take it out to fill a 5 gallon bucket which has 3-4 holes in the bottom, and let that slowly dribble into the soil by a fruit tree (usually takes 15-20 minutes, so there's no surface runoff). I thought the requirement was 5 gallons so I took pics for two mornings as each was 3-4 gallons. If only I could read instructions, I could save myself some extra work!

I recently added a drip irrigation system to the front and back to keep things watered while I was away, so I checked my water use for the last month and alas! water use doubled in June compared to May! So then I checked my water use relative to my neighborhood, and I'm averaging about 15% of the typical household water use, so I think it's going rather well regardless.

I used water from the Fisher Price bathroom to flush the toilet.  I've found that if you don't use enough it seems like the toilet is plugged.  So don't attempt with less than 2 gallons.  The purple tub is 4 or so gallons.

For this BB I placed a mop bucket in my shower for a week. Each time I showered some of the run-off was collected in the bucket, filling the bucket about a quarter full each time I showered. I collected a quarter of a bucket and then used this to flush the toilet with (it was the perfect quantity). I then collected another quarter bucket when I showered the next day and did the same. I then left the bucket for a further 3 days and, with my partner and I both showering, we managed to fill it. This has now been used to flush the toilet several more times. I will continue to do this as it seems like a great re-use of water.

We usually use 100% olive oil soap to wash ourselves which contains no nasties. I don't use shampoo. For the duration of this BB, as per the requirement, no soap or shampoo was used.

I used this calculator to work out the volume of the bucket.

I was conservative with my readings of the measurements for two reasons:

a) I didn't fill the bucket all the way to the top and it tapers ever so slightly
b) It means I can be more sure that I exceeded the 3 gallon limit

I measured the length as a little over 11" (and used 11" in my calculations). I measured the width as 9.5" (and used 9" in my calculations). The height to the line is 9". This gives a total volume of 713.93 cubic inches or just over 3 gallons.

As I filled the bucket once completely and then twice more, around one quarter each time, I estimate that I collected 4.5 gallons.

I used a bucket of water from the shower shack at wheaton labs to water some plants. It was rather difficult to get a picture while watering but I managed it.