Tips on How To Use Your Toilet Without Running Water

Many apartment complexes and homes have shut off the water in the Central Texas area to prevent pipes from bursting.

This means more of our living space is not livable and highly inconvenient, and sometimes life-threatening not to have running water.

Here are a few toilet tips to get you by until the water comes back on.

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The first thing you would want to do is fill your bathtub with water. If your water is cut off by now, you will have to use the cleanest snow you can get your hands on or catch dripping water. The bigger the bucket, the better. After you have filled your bucket, empty it in your bathtub.

You have two options once you have enough water (I would say between one and two gallons depending on the toilet): You can either dump the water straight into the bowl or dump it into the tank.

Dumping the water into the bowl uses less water, and you won't even need to use the handle to flush if you dump with enough force.

If you don't have a big enough bucket, though, there's a chance you won't be able to generate enough pressure to create a flush.

Going the tank route eliminates that concern but also takes around two gallons of water. Fill the tank to the water line marked on the pump.

Once you reach that line, you'll be good to flush.

A few more notes to consider:

If your water gets shut off, you should have enough water left in the toilet for one more flush. Use it wisely.

It's okay to leave number one in the toilet for a day. It's a much different story for number two.

Put toilet paper in the trash during situations like this, not the toilet. This will make sure the toilet doesn't clog unnecessarily. Empty the trash or use baking soda to cut down on the smell.

There you go, some tips to get through these trying times.