In the kitchen

Don’t use running water to defrost frozen food. Place the food in the refrigerator to defrost overnight.

When you’re boiling vegetables, use enough water to cover your veggies and keep the lid on the saucepan. You’ll save time, water and energy, and preserve vitamins in your food.

After boiling or steaming food, let the water cool and use it to water your plants or garden. Make the most of water that would otherwise go down the drain.

Collect water by washing your fruit and veggies in a tub in the sink, then use it to water your plants.

Before washing your dishes, scrape off any food scraps into the compost or a bin. Putting scraps into a composter or worm farm is a better option than clogging up the kitchen sink, and a garbage disposal unit can use around six litres of water a day.

If you need to run the tap to get hot or cold water, collect the water in a bottle or jug. You can store it in the fridge until it is cool enough to drink or use it to rinse dishes or wash fruit and vegetables.

Empty out school water bottles into indoor plants or the garden, rather than pouring them down the sink.

Use washing-up liquid sparingly, as it reduces the amount of rinsing required.

Don’t rinse dishes under a running tap. Use a plugged sink or a pan of water, rather than running the tap continuously.

If you have two sinks, fill the second one with rinsing water. If you have one sink, stack washed dishes in a dish rack and rinse them with a pan of hot water.

Only run the dishwasher when it’s full.

If you have a leaking tap, replace the washer or other components as required.

Don’t over-tighten taps. It can wear the washer and cause leaks.

Fit flow-controlled aerators to your taps – they are inexpensive and can reduce water flow by 50 per cent.

When you clean your fish tank, use the tank’s nitrogen and phosphorus-rich ‘old’ water on your plants.

When refreshing your pets’ drinking water, tip the old water on plants instead of in the sink.