A toilet hack

This post has absolutely nothing to do with potty training, though I'm sure I could find a way to tie it in (I'll spare you.)  I can also guarantee that this will be the last time I show you photos of our toilet.  You're welcome.

So I had read somewhere about a dual-flush (you know, one that uses less water for liquid waste) kit that you can easily retrofit to your toilet in under ten minutes.  No tools required!  It seemed too good to be true, but honestly I wasn't sure if we should get one since we rent and don't pay for our water.  Well, when we happened to walk by them at Home Depot on a paint run, Kraig could not resist.  He seriously was not going to walk away from them without one in his hand, despite my argument that it wouldn't save us money.  Obviously, Kraig is more of a tree-hugging hippie than I am because the water savings was enough to convince him.  Such a good man.

He was almost too excited about this kit.  Seriously.

So here he is getting all set up.

And a before shot of the throne before he fixed it up.

Buh-bye old flusher handle!

 I really meant to take more photos of the process, but he was done with it so quickly that I missed the whole thing!  Anyway, here is the brand.  It's only $20!  Supposedly it will save 15,000 gallons of water a year for a family of four, and save on average $100 a year.  Hey, we're about to have a family of 3 boys, if you know what I mean...

In under ten minutes- with no tools!- it was finished.  We let Owen have the first flush.  

Top button is for liquid waste, bottom button is a regular-powered flush.
The low-powered flush uses less than a gallon (.79 to be exact) per flush- half of a regular low-flow toilet which is 1.6 gallons.

It was really as easy as they said it would be.  Kraig is still really excited to show it off to visitors.  

Other water-saving ideas:

Drop a water bottle or quart-sized milk jug filled with stones or water into the tank of the toilet.  It will offset enough water to save a few gallons a day!  

Flush less.  Yup, you know the old saying. 

Don't use the toilet as a trash can (i.e. used kleenexes, etc).  This goes along with flushing less :)

Check for leaks or "running" frequently.