Don't let the water run. Minimize water use while brushing teeth, shaving, and washing hands in bathroom sinks.
Fix drippy faucets. A faucet that leaks one drip per second can waste 400 gallons of water in a year. If the water is hot, that 400 gallons will cost you about $8 if you heat the water with electricity or $4 if you heat water with gas, plus the cost of the water itself.
Turn down your water heater. Ouch, not so hot! Lower the temperature of your water heater. This not only saves energy, but it reduces the chance of scalding. A 10° F reduction in temperature saves about 13% of your water heating costs. For an average family, this amounts to savings of $30 if you heat water with gas or $60 with electricity. A temperature setting of 120° F is fine, unless your dishwasher doesn't have a booster heater.
Rinse with cold water. Use a suds-saver option (if you have one) when washing lightly soiled clothes. This saves the rinse water for the next load. Most people in the appliance industry agree that cold water washes just as effectively as warm. By eliminating warm rinse cycles, the average consumer will save about $25 per year with electric hot water, or $10 with gas.
Soak your clothes first. Soak cycles can allow for shorter wash times. For heavily soiled clothes, instead of heavy wash cycle, try soaking and then using a shorter wash cycle.
Use shorter washing cycles. Sort clothes by degree of dirtiness. Use shorter wash cycles for lightly soiled clothes.
Adjust your load setting. Match the load setting to the size of the load. The load setting on your washer determines how much water is used. Smaller sized loads require less water.
Eliminate small loads. Your clothes washer uses just about the same amount of energy regardless of how much clothing is being washed. Washing two small loads uses approximately twice as much energy as combining them into one full load. By combining loads together you reduce the number of loads you wash which in turn reduces your energy use.
Don't overload the dryer. Overloading makes the dryer work harder and may cause excessive lint and wrinkling.
Clean the lint filter after every load. Lint on the filter reduces air flow and makes the dryer work harder.
Dry like weight items together. Lightweight items take less time to dry than heavier items like towels.
Dry loads consecutively. This will take advantage of heat build-up in your dryer.
Remove clothes right away. Removing clothes as soon as the cycle is complete not only saves energy but also prevents wrinkling.
Your dryer is most efficient when fully loaded. Combine smaller loads of wash into one dryer load, but be careful not to overload.
Line dry clothes during periods of nice weather.