Up until now, county-by-county water restrictions have made residents of Fulton and Cobb quite envious of DeKalb’s more lenient 3 days a week schedule. Well all that changed yesterday! Residents of Fulton and Cobb rejoice! We are now all in the same metaphorical, dry-docked boat.

According to this morning’s AJC, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division has banned all outdoor water use in rain deprived North Georgia.

To be honest, I’m surprised it’s taken this long. As we’ve heard over the past couple weeks, this drought is now termed “exceptional” by state officials, which means it should only come around once a century. For now, commercial business water use hasn’t been curtailed. However, rumblings around the state suggest that the situation has become so dire that even businesses that rely on a steady flow from the tap may also soon be facing restrictions.

Yet another stark reminder that we are still very much dependent on Mother Nature to provide us with all the things that we normally take for granted.

Here’s a list of 49 ways to save water indoors too. One we’ve struggled with over the past few months is trying to breakout of the habit of prewashing our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. If you can’t stand the smell, use the quick rinse cycle on most dishwashers, it still uses less water than “prewashing”.