*Manual Toilet Flushing*

By Jaden

05 March 2004

Your power is out. From the reports you’ve heard it’s expected to be out for a couple of days. You have water stores so cooking is no problem. Then it hits you….how am I gonna flush the toilet?

It’s quite simple actually.

You’ll need a bucket that’s at least 2-gallon capacity. A 5-gallon bucket works great.

Of course you’ll need water too. Think first. Where can you get water w/o using up your stores? Is there a lake, pond, stream or ocean nearby? Is it raining outside? Is it wintertime? If there’s snow on the ground you’ve got it made. Go out and scoop up some snow…about ½- ¾ of a bucket. When it melts you’ll have enough to flush with.

Nearly full 5- gallon bucket

Hold it about 1 foot above the toilet bowl and start pouring. Don’t dump too much at once or you might have a really nasty splash back. Once the bowl starts to fill it’ll flush like normal. Keep pouring. Once the nasty stuff goes down the drain slow the pour down and fill the bowl up to it’s normal standing capacity.

If you do it right you’ll only use 2- 2.5 gallons.

Half bucket remaining

Sounds pretty dumb huh…really simple…but would YOU think of it when needed?

Jaden