It’s never been more important to be wise about water, as it’s quickly becoming a scarce resource. Bathrooms account for over 60% of the average household’s indoor water use and over 1,300 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from hot water heating. According to the EPA, if every U.S. household installed one low-flow sink faucet or aerator, it would save more than 60 billion gallons of water annually. Here are some easy tips on water conservation:

Install Faucet Aerators on Bathroom Sinks
When installed, each aerator will save 500-2,000 gallons of water a year.

Toilet Leak Detection
Use toilet dye strips to detect leaks that may be wasting over 200 gallons of water a day.

Toilet Water Flow
If you have an older toilet (built before 1980), you could be wasting up to 5 gallons of water every time you flush, compared to modern low-flow toilets. To check the date of your toilet, lift up the lid on the tank. The date is normally stamped on the underside of the lid.

You can reduce water usage on older toilets by adding a filled 1-liter bottle in the toilet tank. This will reduce typical water consumption by 500 gallons per toilet per year.

Brushing Teeth
Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth to save more than 1,200 gallons of water a year.

Shaving
Turn off the water while shaving. Fill the bottom of the sink with a few inches of water to rinse your razor, rather than running the tap and save about 1,000 gallons of water a year.

Shower Time
If you reduce your average shower time from 10 minutes to 5, you can save more than 4,200 gallons of water each year and cut your utility bills. You would also eliminate an extra 300 pounds of CO2 emissions just from the energy used to heat the water.

Low-Flow Showerhead
Standard showerheads made before 1994 use about twice the water used by newer, energy-efficient models. Maintaining ample water pressure, the most efficient showerheads use as little as 1.5 gallons of water per minute, saving 7,300 gallons of water and $30 to $100 a year, compared to 2.5 gpm models.

To check whether you can save money with a low-flow showerhead, check your current showerhead’s flow rate which may be written directly on it. Another way to check the flow is to hold an empty half-gallon milk carton under your showerhead, turn on the water and use a clock to time how long it takes to fill the carton. If it takes less than ten seconds to fill it, you should consider changing the showerhead to a more efficient model. Look for models with the EPA’s WaterSense label.