Those Funny Things in our Kitchen

Without fail, the one thing I am most asked about is tucked in the far corner of our kitchen above the sink.

kitchen-completed

Yep.  It’s our water meters, the one thing that has made me more conscious of just how many resources I use every day.  The $9/gallon gas and electricity that costs 3x as much as I paid in the US don’t affect my subconscious near as much as these meters.  They measure my hot and cold water use To The Liter.

apartment-water-meter

I don’t know about the rest of you, but in the US, Martin and I paid a flat fee of around 35 bucks a month for unlimited water.  Now there is no faster way to drive ourselves crazy than watching these German water meters run.  A liter is 4.2 cups.  We drink that much water in one sitting.  With a little Q&A, let me see if I can answer the questions I’m most often asked by many of you.

Do you cook differently, like using less water with your pasta?

At first I did.  I would let the water trickle while I tried to wash something, and it was impossible.  I’d skimp on water in our noodles, which made them cook unevenly.  Now we keep filling our pots just as full as we did in the US.  If the water doesn’t need to be turned on all the way (like to wash hands), we keep it lower.  Some of our water goes to the plants, though we usually put them outside in the rain for a free drink.


Do you brush your teeth with the water running?

Do people actually do this?  (Confession:  no one actually asked this question.)

Do you take faster showers?

I really tried; I failed.  Now I play with the shower nozzle so the shower is off when I don’t need water.  Some people call them Navy showers.  They’re probably also American expat showers.  It’s what a lot of expats seem to be doing.  Then we go and compare water usage notes with one another.  The best things you can do are get a low-flow shower head and take fewer showers.  We don’t have a bathtub.  As nice as a bath is every once and a while, they’re huge wastes of water.

What about toilets?

Well they don’t use very much water.  Newer toilets have features where you push the small flush button when you’re flushing small things, and you push the big button for, well, the bigger things that need more water to get going.

Do you worry about how much water your appliances use?

We really tried to find the best appliances we could while keeping to our budget.  We’ve compared washing machines that are top-loaders versus front-loaders (and chose a half-size machine so we’d always wash full loads).  Then I scoped out the dishwashing versus hand washing conundrum, though I admit it was really because I was hoping that being lazy (ie dishwasher!) meant I could save water.

Do those meters drive you nuts?

Yep.  They also remind me of just how lucky I am.  Every time I see that meter, I think of all the people who don’t even have access to water like me.  Things could always be worse.

What about you?  Any tricks that you have to cut down on your water usage?  I just looked at our meters, and I know we could do better.  So do share!  And while you’re at it, let me know if you have more questions about our little German life.  Thanks for the ones you’ve asked so far.