I purchased a rectangle dish to put in my sink bowl. Each time I wash fruit or vegetables or rinse my dish cloth I do so over this dish. Then, when I have cooking pots or bowls that need to be soaked for efficient washing, I use this water instead of getting water from the tap. I would estimate that I am saving several litres of tap water per day by doing this.

Bernadette Duffy - South Caulfield

My water saving methods work well. My current water bill says I average 91 litres a day. For starters, I have a garden which I don't water, except for the Golden Elm and the Silver Birch - in summer. All other plants are hardy and tough: Callistemon, Hibiscus, Azania, Bougainvillea, Rosemary, Wisteria, Potatoes. I collect 3-5 litres while waiting for hot water to come through... kitchen sink dishes.  I use this water for cooking and hot drinks. I do not have a dishwasher. I wash my clothes by hand - in a bucket... and only use the washing machine once a week for towels and sheets.  

Evelyn Lawson - Karingal

We find that a lot of water is wasted whilst waiting for the hot tap to run warm/ hot so we have several buckets on standby ready to catch the water that normally runs away. This is then either used to wash vegetables, rinse dishes, and then used on the garden to water the vegetables. It is surprising how much water we are able to reuse by adopting this simple measure, as I do not use any other water source for watering the garden. My family enjoy thinking of ways to conserve water, as we as a nation, are very wasteful.

Jan Okill - Mornington

Save your dirty dishes for when you have a cuppa. Boil a full kettle of water and then with the left over boiling water, use to do the dishes. I find that we can waste a lot of water waiting for hot water at the kitchen sink (as the hot water service is a long way from the kitchen) - so this tip works well for us.

Liz Wills - Frankston South

Our tips are:

* We put three buckets under us when we have a shower

* That water is used to flush the toilet when there is No2 (heavy business) there.

* If it's yellow we let it mellow

* We do not flush the toilet anymore, just use the three buckets of water from the shower to flush

* We use environmentally friendly dishwashing liquid so when we rinse the dishes, we collect that and it goes in the bucket

* Even my glass of water I take to bed each night, if I do not drink it at all, it goes in the bucket

Carole Goldsmith and Serge Orsor - Gardenvale