Wondering how to cut back on your energy and water consumption during your daily shower? You might be surprised at how much you´re using - and how much you can save.

Taking an eco-friendly shower is actually a lot easier than you may think. The average person my use up to 30 gallons of water every day in the shower. By putting a little bit of time and effort into your morning routine, you can save gallons of water and hundreds on your bill.

Take Shorter Showers

Although it may feel good, there is no need to spend 25 or even 15 minutes under scalding hot water. Timers can be placed in the shower to remind you to keep it short and if you have kids in the house, make it a competition: who can take the shortest shower? Showers serve the sole purpose of washing your body and getting clean. If you´re using your shower to wake you up in the morning, consider instead having an apple or going for a short run when you first wake up (both more effective than showers or coffee for waking up and getting energized in the morning).

Turn the Water Off

Rinse your body. Turn the water off. Lather with soap. Turn water on and rinse off. Repeat with shampoo and conditioner. Seem strange? This small change (which is daily habit for Europeans) can cut your showers in half.

Take a Warm Shower

Scorching hot water does nothing good. It wastes energy above all else, and while it may feel good, a warm shower feels just as good and once you get used to turning that water down a few degrees in the morning, you´ll wonder why you didn´t do it sooner.

Get a Low Flow Shower Head

Purchasing something somewhat negates the purpose of trying to go greener in most aspects, but in this case it´s worth it. Low flow shower heads drastically cut back on the use of water in the shower by regulating the flow. For example, a low flow shower head may run at 2.2 gallons of water per minute, while a low flow model averages at 1.2 gpm. They´re also relatively inexpensive. You can usually find them at your local hardware store, or even Wal-Mart.

Save Unused Water

This is another strange idea, but nonetheless effective. Place a bowl under the faucet to collective unused, dripping water. After your shower you can use the bowl of water you´ve collected to water house plants of small gardens. It may not be much but over the course of a year, that savings is quite significant.

These are all relatively small changes you can make in to your morning shower to cut back on your water consumption. You´ll feel great about reducing the unnecessary water usage and you´ll certainly notice the difference when you get your water bill.