I remember the first time a shower was installed in our bathrooms. We kids were quite excited about it as showers were not that popular in small cities back then. Before that, we had to use a bucket for bathing, tediously pouring mug after mug on our bodies. But once we had showers, I completely abandoned the bucket. That is until one incident brought me back to it again. This article is about that incident and how it made me rethink our water consumption.

What made me realize that buckets are saviors?

Around 4 years ago, the shower in our bathroom got broken. We needed to get a new one installed, but decided to postpone it until the start of next month (because hey, middle class habits die hard 😀). So I had to get back to the good ol’ bucket. That’s all great but I still had not realized how amazing bucket-bathing is just yet. It took something drastic, but it sure left a lasting impact on me.

Okay, so what happened was four days later, the main water supply pipe of our area got broken. The authorities told all of us that it could take days to fix it, so we better use our remaining water judiciously and save some for our daily necessities. And that’s exactly what we did.

A day later, my friend — who happens to be a huge shower fan , no kidding— knocked on our door. His family had fancy bathing tubs and handheld showers at their place, and he used to shower for 10–15 minutes everyday. I guess you can guess where this is going. He came to me and asked me if he could use our shower as they had run out of water.

Already?!! After one day?

“How? Didn’t you guys hear the PSA about rationing it for a few days?” I asked him. He said, “We did, bro. But the tank’s already empty, I don’t know how.” I was stunned and couldn’t figure out a reason how that had happened. A couple days later, almost half the neighborhood had run out of water. Authorities had to send water tankers for them, it was that bad. But the only question in my mind was how? How could my friend’s water tank — which was the same capacity as ours — run out of water so quickly?

I saw the broken shower head lying on our table and I knew. That was the moment it all clicked. I was suddenly very aware of just how much water a person wastes while showering, and after that, I just couldn’t go back to bathing with a shower anymore.

How the bucket is far better than the shower 🚿

This is a know fact that most major cities all over the world are running out of water. Looking at the facts, it’s easy to see why. According to an independent survey, out of total consumption, 35–40% of water is used in bathing.

8 minutes of showering uses up to 80 liters (~21 gallons) of water!

It’s even worse if you use a bathing tub, which uses 160 liters of water per bath on an average. On the other hand, a bucket uses less than one-fourth of that!

One bucket uses only 18 liters (~5 gallons) of water on average.

And believe me, that’s sufficient for one person. I’ve been doing it for four years, I should know.

How to start bucket bathing? 😎

Okay, now that you understand the importance of bucket bathing and want to start bucket bathing yourself, how do you start? Of course by buying a bucket first. You can easily find one at your local convenience store or a supermarket. If not, there’s always Amazon, although we don’t recommend it. Then once you have it, learn how to use it well. There are tons of video tutorials out there, but I’ll save you the trouble of looking them up. Here’s one, simple and straightforward.

Conclusion

There are always a few little things that become big problems when ignored. Bathing is just one of those small things, but there might be a thousand other ways you could be wasting water. We all could learn to be more conscious in that department. Water is extremely important for our survival as we all know, so please, from today onwards, whenever you use water, think about how you could use less. The planet will thank you.

If you care enough, I recommend checking your water footprint here. You may find other cool ways to save water, and if you do, please share it with me on twitter @Sarthology.