First of all, let me apologize for not printing this sooner – and say Happy Halloween, as well!
I have been wanting to do some challenges on this blog for a while now, but never followed through because I know with my tiny blog, I will be lucky to get one person to join me, LOL. But…what the heck! Why not?
I have been talking to people about showering a lot lately – it is just one of those subjects that seems to come up a lot. There have been so many conversations about the American proclivity for taking two showers a day. In fact, I even ran across this article recently about Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey showering twice a day (under not one, but TWO shower heads). Now I know two people who are entertainers have no need to shower that often. Even Jennifer Aniston supposedly only showers for three minutes in order to conserve our resources.
So here it is – we are entering November, a cold month, in which most of us won’t be sweating that much (presumably). I’m not going to propose specific numbers here – just a percentage. Though, admittedly, a large one. Fifty percent. Yep, fifty percent less. If you shower twice a day, then cut back to once a day. If you shower daily, cut back to every other day. Believe me, this isn’t as hard as you may think. If you are cutting back to showering once a day, you won’t even notice the difference. If you are cutting back to once every other day, you will barely notice. Just use a little dry shampoo if your hair feels dirty and feel free to do a little soapy action with a washcloth in certain areas (like the armpits, crotch and feet) that you want to stay fresh.
If this is way too far past your comfort zone, then you have one other option. Time your next shower, and for the rest of the month, commit to finishing each shower in half the time. Fifty percent less time in the shower if you can’t fathom taking 50% fewer showers.
Are you in? If so, please sign up here in the comments by stating your 50% less showering goal. I’ll do a couple updates over the month – even if no one signs up, LOL! And if you just see this post a week or two into November, you can still sign up – go for it! Even if you are only involved for a week, please join in.
As for me, I already only shower every other day, and since I have yet to have success showering every FOURTH day (even I have some limits!), I’m showering every third day. But I do intend to cut my shower time in half, as I tend to take very long showers.
If you decide to join in, please remember to compare November’s water bill to your previous bill to see how much less water you used. You may not save much money (water is cheap), but you might be surprised at how much water you can save by simply showering less. Also, take note of how much more time you have on mornings you don’t shower – you may not want to go back to your old routine!
So come on! Join in!
We share a bath between the three of us; most days our small girl (who will be two and a half on December 1) does need a rather good wash-down, but we only wash hair about every four days, and one bath between three, by my reckoning, is probably within spitting distance of three showers. Since the small girl has been a bit older, too, we’ve found she is becoming increasingly flexible with her expectations of what bedtime holds; this has meant missing the odd bath here and there, which, oddly, is quite freeing. I love baths, but it’s also nice to… not. Anyway, good post, good idea, and yes, count me in.
But yeah, like you, I want to try shorter showers. It will definitely be hard for me – the colder it is, the more I want to linger in the steam!
