How can I survive in my house a few days with no running water. Any tips?

Question

There is a spicket outside I can use to bring water up, and I can buy some water at the store. I just can't afford to get my water turned back on yet without starving! :)

Any tips? Can anyone tell me very step by step how to flush a toilet with no running water, just pouring?

Thanks!

Answer 1

To flush the toilet, you make sure the tank is full of water (you can pour some in there after each time you flush), and just flush like normal.  Basically when you push down on the toilet k**b, it opens a flap in the bottom of the toilet tank, which releases the water from the tank into the toilet bowl, flushing the contents of the bowl.  You just need to make sure you have water in your tank, and it will work fine.  If you have too little water in there, using the k**b might not work, so you can just manually pull up the flap chain with your hand.

Bathing is kind of a pain, but you'll be fine for a couple of days.

Answer 2

If you have a small trash recepticle, lots of small bags that won't leak, and great aim, then you might try using it in the bathroom for solid waste or at least toilet paper.  You would need to remember to replace the bag every time it is used for the solid waste though.  Also, if anyone will see you carry the bag to the large outside trash, make sure that it is dark (like black) and tied up.  Alternately you could use a paper bag but at a minimum, put something (maybe newspaper) on the bag bottom before using it.  Consider though that outside trash recepticles have been known to blow over and the contents have been known to blow away.  If you cannot find where it blew to, someone might run over it with a car by mistake, and hopefully no one will know how it got there.

Your toilet can be flushed by pouring in water quickly but unfortunately it takes a lot of water.  For drinking, maybe get spring water from the store, and for washing hands, label one of the empty spring water containers TAP and fill it outside.  Liquid soap seems to rinse off more easily (good with less water) but it also seems to be worse for the eyes.

Sometimes you might try a good public restroom of a large retail company.  It's likely that you will be left alone there and they can be pretty nice.  Home Depot worked great for me when I traveled alone on a trip that took somewhere around 26 hours driving time.  I even washed my hair there and luckily no one walked in.  Then again, I will probably never enter that exact store again in my life, so probably if anyone had seen me, they wouldn't see me again anyway.  It's a good place to be because it also has a sink to use afterwards.

It's easier for a guy to be without water because we can have almost all of our hair shaved off, making washing with a sink much quicker and easier.

I hope some of what I wrote helped at least a little.

Answer 3

Flushing the toilet does not need water in the tank. A bucket of water poured directly in the toilet will flush it.