Use the water left over from boiling to water your plants – just let it cool down first!

Put your vegetable steamer right on top of the rice, potatoes or pasta you’re boiling to steam the veggies. You’ll save water and have fewer dishes to wash later.

Learn about creating a sustainable kitchen from Sustainable Table.

Doing Dishes

Get a dishwasher. They almost always use less water than washing dishes by hand, especially with water- and energy-efficient models (just make sure to only run the dishwasher when it’s full). Hand washing one load of dishes can use 20 gallons of water, whereas water- and energy-efficient dishwaters use as little as 4.5 gallons. That’s a big difference if you wash a lot of dishes.