Water Challenge #2: Oops I Used Water

Since Monday, my resolve has lessened and I was not an active participant in the water challenge, although I did maintain a few of the easier categories:

Toilet
I used the ones in my dorm, for health reasons.

Hand-washing
I continued using hand-sanitizer after using the restroom to reduce water.

Teeth-brushing
On Monday night I had forgotten to refill my water bottle that I used for brushing my teeth, so I used the tap water and then never went back to the bottle.

Shower
Since I didn't shower on Tuesday (sorry, people in close proximity to me) I used the shower in my dorm twice between last time I posted and now. However, I timed my showers to see how much water I used. The first one lasted 9 minutes, and the second one lasted 4 minutes, since I didn't wash my hair. Total gallons used:

13 minutes x 5 gallons/minute = 65 gallons

Drinking Water
I continued carrying a water bottle that I filled up at dining halls.

Laundry
No laundry this time. Thank you, jeans, for being so unnecessary to wash.
____________________________________________________________________________
On Sunday I joined the Facebook group that Olin created for this challenge. The site wasn't as active as I had hoped, but when I asked the group why they were participating, Alison Shin responded with the following (shared with her permission):

"My motivation has changed over the past week. I chose to participate this year because last year, I didn't even try to take on the challenge due to some personal inconveniences, like the frisbee tournament that was going on that week, but after talking to people who actually completed the challenge, I felt like I was just making up excuses. And this year, when I started the challenge, I realized how wasteful I had been with my water, so I was motivated to actually finish the challenge to get into a more minimal and aware mindset."

I'm really happy to see that she felt more of a commitment during her second time, and that she was motivated beyond a class requirement. If I were to participate in this challenge again, I would try harder. I was very surprised on Thursday when Amy announced that as soon as we left class we couldn't poop in our own dorms. Perhaps with a week of emotional and practical preparation I would have been more willing to put time and effort into garnering an emotional response that this challenge so clearly is meant to elicit.