Growing up in the South Eastern Inidan sub-continent, I am used to the concept of a ‘bucket’ bath’. Simply put, a ‘bucket bath’ is a way to bathe oneself using a bucketfull of water and a mug. Simple!
Having lived in the west and also tried showers, I recently found a way back to having bucket baths. Simply, buy a bucket that can hold about 10-20 litres of water and a mug.
How to bathe with a bucket bath?
Simple. Fill the bucket with water from the tap at the right temperature for your bath. Then use a mug to pour water over the body. Pause to use soap and then rinse with the mug and bucket water again. That’s it.
Advantages:
- Bucket baths reduce water wastage in many ways. Try turning off the shower portion and see just how much water comes out of the tap for a regular shower. Showers use a lot of water as compared to collecting water and using just that with a bucket.
- The hassle of resetting the temperature of water after using soap. If one ever paused the shower to use soap, then one knows that one has to reset the shower’s temperature yet again. With a bucket bath, one can just collect the water at the right temperature and not have to worry about it again. If one wants the water to be slightly warmer or colder later, it takes smaller adjustments and much less water to do the same.
- Mold and moisture: with a shower , there is a large spray of warm water and humidity on the bathroom walls, making it less likely that mold can grow. But with a bucket bath, the spread of moisture is greatly minimized.
- Feels good: the splash of a mug full of water on the skin feels quite good. This is especially so, when one is bathing with warm water on a cold day. The splash of a mug-full of water feels better, at least to me, than sprinkles of water from a shower.
If you want to start saving water, a bucket bath is a simple, quick and refreshing way to do so-one bucket at a time!
