re: cost/savings with grey water and rain barrels- i don't do as many things as cheap yankee does, but combined with rain barrels for outside watering, i pay only the minimun charge for city water.  i have septic, so no sewer charge.  also, you get a discount if you pay early, so you know i get that!

Since the garden is done for the year, I'm working on using up the rainwater we've stored . Some of it will go to indoor plants; used some of it to wash out the cats' litter boxes.

    I keep an old pitcher next to the sink ... extra cooking water, water from the cats' bowls go in there to be used on indoor plants.  I put a bucket in the shower to catch water till it warms up ... that and the water from the dehumidifer go in the toilet tank.  (Some of the water from the cats' bowls now goes in the toilet tank, too.)

LWolfT:

I keep an old pitcher next to the sink

 

Good idea!  I canned apples last night, so saved the water & let it cool off in the canner ( helped heat the house).  This morning I poured it on the fruit trees.

Has anybody ever come across any free build-it-yourself web articles on how to route water from your washing machine out into a drywell, garden or fruit trees? I know of quite a few people who simply ran a pipe out of the house into a ditch, but since we use very little (and always phosphate free) laundry detergent and almost no bleach, I'm wondering when it would be safe to use it to irrigate fruit trees or when it should be used for something non-edible and ornamental. I don't want to spend $30,000 for some fancy engineered greywater system, but I'd like to build something a little better than a pipe-into-a-ditch.

cheap_yankee:

Has anybody ever come across any free build-it-yourself web articles on how to route water from your washing machine out into a drywell, garden or fruit trees?

 

You might want to check your local restrictions before you do this.  Some municipalities do not allow grey water use from washing machines, & if they catch you, the fine wipes out any savings.

 

cheap_yankee:

I'm wondering when it would be safe to use it to irrigate fruit trees or when it should be used for something non-edible and ornamental. I

If you use it right away, it's completely safe. The ground filters it naturally. The problem with gray water comes when it's allowed to sit and then things start to grow in it, just like any other thing that has a mixture of bacteria and particles in it.

I try to use it as much as possible. If I'm watching it go down the drain, I'm thinking "I could have used that..."