Nearly one-quarter of homes in America use a septic system. If your home is one of them, then you need to make sure you’re taking proper care of it. It may seem overwhelming if you’ve never had a septic system before, but there are a few simple tricks to best take care of your system.

Conserve water use

On average, a single family home uses 70 gallons of water per person per day. If you have some kind of leak in your home, you could be wasting up to 200 gallons per day. Make sure to inspect your toilets and faucets for leaks, use high-efficiency toilets, choose the right size load when you do laundry, take shorter showers, and watch your water use everywhere else. You can also update your appliances like the washing machine and dishwasher to be as energy efficient as possible.

Don’t flush certain things

There are many substances that you should not be pouring down your drains or flushing down your toilets. These items include things like floss, hygiene products, diapers, cigarette butts, cat litter, tissues, cotton swabs, coffee grounds, paper towels, household chemicals, gasoline, grease, paint, bleach, egg shells, or condoms. They can clog up your system and even cause a failure.

Check around the septic tank

Make sure you check outside around your tank regularly. Septic tanks need to be clear of roots because they can get into the tank and damage the pipes and the tank itself. Additionally, if the leach field is near the rain fall-off from the roof, make sure to install gutters to divert the water away from the drain field.

Get your tank cleaned regularly

Finally, septic tanks need to be cleaned on a regular basis. Call a professional for septic cleaning as well as regular septic tank pumping. This should be done on average every one to five years. The number of people in your house, the amount of wastewater generated, the volume of solids in wastewater, and the size of your septic tank will help determine how often should need to get your tank pumped and cleaned.

If you live in a home with a septic system, make sure you’re taking proper care of it. For any service or maintenance needs you might have, you can rely on the professionals at Ron’s Tidy Tank to get the job done.