Saving Water Despite My Listens-to-Nobody Sister

[mel_pa]

My state is in a severe drought and our household's water bill is still high and we have been trying to save water, I'm working on reusing water and using a cup to scrub myself before rinsing off in the shower. One of our problems is my mentally ill sister's not listening to us when we tell her to save water. Like she stubbornly washes dishes

Comments

[rosewein]

Would she listen to an athority figure? Or is it part of her illness? Like a compulsive thing? In which case could yoi get a doctors note, so show to authoritities when the fines come in?

Discussing Getting Doctor's Note

[mel_pa]

I'm thinking of discussing how to get a doctor's note with my own counselor at the LGBT center I go to, of course I don't mean the note would come my counselor, just asking for information about the process.

Funny thing to mention here: in my experience many times I say I reuse water counselors react as if I'm doing something unnecessary, extreme, gross and unsanitary. I guess counselors can be just as uninformed regarding the many ways to save water as anyone else.

[anais_pf]

I'm thinking some kind of padlock or other keyed device that would limit her access to faucets so that someone with a key would have to be there to let her turn on the water. You could have a water pitcher available so that she does have access to a small amount of water.

[noveldevice]

You would need to check to make sure that's legal. It might open the family up to charges of adult abuse and neglect.

[disgruntledgrrl]

Putting a towel over the dishes that are drying might help. Out of sight, out of mind.

Putting a change jar next to the faucets might help - put in a dollar to run the water.

Save your sink water for flushing the toilet. Wash everything in a collander in a deep pot. The food stays in the collander, the water is strained out.
kinda like this

here's the image

[disgruntledgrrl]

[hikerpoet]

Not to get too personal, but it may be helpful which parts of her illness may be contributing to this, even if it is not directly behavior. Does it exhibit in compulsion and/or germophobia? Does she have an extremely high need for routine? How else is she oppositional? Have you touched base with her doctor(s) on it yet? How old is she? Obviously our advice may be different if she's 9 versus 40. ;)

How does she deal with other finable offenses? things like littering, noise ordinances, parking tickets? Could explaining it may start to be comparable to that make it make sense to her? Good luck!