Toilets are the main source of water use in a home, taking up almost a third of residential indoor water consuption. Due to leaks and inefficiency they are also a major source of wasted water. By checking your toilet for leaks annually and upgrading your old toilet to a newer WaterSense model, you can save thousands of gallons of water a year.

To check your toilet for leaks, place a few drops of food coloring into the tank, wait for 15 minutes and see if any of it has seeped into the bowl. If so, take the old flapper to a hardware store and get a replacement for it.

When replacing a toilet, get a WaterSense model that performs just as well or even better but uses 20 percent less water and thus is greener than your old toilet. Considering that the water you flush is perfectly good drinking water, it makes a lot of sense to try to save as much of it as you can.