Your water bill doesn't have to creep up every year. A handful of small habit changes and one or two cheap upgrades can meaningfully cut both your usage and your bill.
1. Fix Leaks Fast
A small drip looks harmless, but it adds up to real gallons (and real dollars) over weeks and months. Most minor leaks — a dripping faucet, a running toilet — are DIY-fixable with a wrench and a fifteen-minute YouTube tutorial. Catching these early is one of the highest-value, lowest-effort water-saving moves available.
2. Switch to a Low-Flow Showerhead
EPA WaterSense-certified showerheads use no more than 2.0 gallons per minute, a 20% cut from the standard 2.5 GPM fixture, without sacrificing water pressure thanks to better nozzle design (EPA). High Sierra is one well-regarded brand that makes WaterSense-certified low-flow showerheads if you're shopping for one.
3. Reuse Cooking and Aquarium Water for Plants
Leftover pasta water (once cooled) or water from an aquarium water change often carries nutrients your plants can use, so pour it on houseplants instead of down the drain. One caveat: skip this if your aquarium has recently been treated with medication or chemicals, since those aren't great for soil or plants.
4. Upgrade to a Low-Flow Toilet (or Use a Safe Displacement Method)
Toilets are typically the single biggest water user in a home. If replacing yours with a low-flow model isn't an option right now, skip the old "brick in the tank" trick — plumbers now widely advise against it, since bricks break down over time and the resulting debris can clog the flapper valve, damage internal components, or even crack the tank (House Digest). A sealed, weighted plastic bottle or a purpose-built toilet tank displacement bag does the same job without the risk.
5. Give Half-Finished Water Bottles a Second Life
Instead of pouring out water you didn't finish, use it for dishes, cleaning, or watering plants. Small habit, but it adds up the same way the leak-fixing does.
6. Keep Showers Short
Aiming for around 5 minutes noticeably cuts water use without making showers feel rushed. Pairing a shorter shower with a low-flow showerhead compounds the savings, and some water utilities offer rebates for WaterSense-certified fixtures — worth checking your provider's site before you buy.
7. Turn Off the Tap While Brushing or Scrubbing
Running the tap the entire time you brush your teeth wastes water for no reason. The EPA estimates this single habit saves about 8 gallons a day for someone who brushes twice daily — nearly 3,000 gallons a year for one person alone (EPA).
8. Repurpose Extra Ice
If your ice maker overflows, don't just dump the extra cubes — use them to cool a pet's water bowl or melt them onto a lawn or garden bed instead of running a hose.
9. Catch Shower Warm-Up Water
Keep a bucket under the showerhead while you wait for the water to heat up, and use that collected water for cleaning, watering plants, or flushing the toilet manually.
10. Get the Whole Household on Board
None of this works as well solo. Share these habits with roommates or family so the savings compound across everyone's usage, and if you're due for a new washing machine, a water-efficient model further cuts overall household consumption.
Small changes add up faster than people expect — a fixed leak here, a shorter shower there, and your water bill (and your footprint) both shrink without much sacrifice.
Living in an apartment doesn’t mean you can’t save water and reduce your bills. In this article, we’ll show you effective ways for saving water in an apartment. From fixing leaks to using low-flow fixtures, these tips are easy to implement and can make a big difference. Start saving water today!
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