Designer uses ingenuity, rocks and shopping bags to fight the drought

Cheryl Livingston has long known that sometimes the simplest items can solve the most troubling household problems.

In the 1980s, she managed to fit a pesky candle taper that wouldn’t stand straight into a candle holder by using a small piece of foam. She called it Candle Sox, packaged it and shortly after stores across Orange County began carrying it.

Now, she’s figured out a way to fight back against the drought while still keeping her expansive garden alive.

With two plastic reusable shopping bags, a few rocks from her garden and a knack for inventing, Livingston captured roughly 100 gallons of rainwater streaming off the roof of her Corona del Mar home during Tuesday’s rainstorm.

The water, which she saved in a variety of containers — from trash cans to metal mixing bowls from the kitchen — was still sitting on her patio days after the rain dispersed, waiting to be used to quench the never-ending thirst of the tropical plants in her garden.

The 14-year CdM resident, an interior designer, came up with the idea when she was walking from her front door to her garage during an unexpected summer storm in July. She heard the rushing sound of rainwater streaming from the roof into the dirt and grew frustrated.

“I thought it was such a waste,” she said. “It was like someone had placed a hose on my roof and was letting it run. I figured there had to be a way to save some of that water.”

After a pause, she came up with a plan. She grabbed a plasticized, reusable shopping bag, three rocks from the dirt and a step stool.

In the pouring rain, she placed the rocks in the bottom of the bag, climbed up and placed the bottom of the bag in the gutter, letting the top of the bag and the straps hang off the side of the house. She grabbed an empty container and the rain falling from the roof bypassed the gutter, streamed over the bag and began flowing into the container.

She snatched every empty container she could think of to capture the rainwater. In the weeks that followed, she used the saved water to nourish the plants in her garden, which encompasses nearly every outdoor area of her home.

After her initial attempt, Livingston tried the same experiment with metal cookie sheets and fiberboard, but the $1 reusable bag worked the best.

“It was a total lark,” she said.

Livingston said it’s been a struggle to keep her lush, tropical garden healthy during the drought. Shortly after the city began cracking down on residential water use, she received a note on her water bill that said she was using slightly more water than she should.

In response, she stripped out the grass on the patch adjacent to her driveway and replaced it with drought-tolerant plants and rocks. She cut back on washing dishes and clothing and began taking showers at the gym after she swam. When she cleans her dishes, she uses biodegradable soap and saves the water to use for her plants.

She’s managed to slash her water use from 44 units to 17 units on her monthly bill.

But she believes saving the rainwater has been her most successful conservation measure.

“It’s so simple and inexpensive that anyone can do it,” she said. “We all need to be proactive in this.”