Our DIY Rain Barrel

It's been a few weeks and I'm not sure where the receipt from home depot went-- but it cost under $30 and took about 15 minutes to make (and then had to cure overnight).



It's just a trashcan with a lid, a brass faucet, some caulk, a drain pipe extender, and a length of hose. Since we put it in (a few weeks ago) I haven't had to use tap water once. The drawbacks of it are-- it's on the first floor and 2/3 of my watering is on the 2nd floor, it's only 30 gallons, so it's overflowed a few times (which is really no big deal, but if it were bigger, then we could store more), and the flow from the hose is really slow. We're not sure how safe the water coming out of it is....but we figure that the water from the tap is coming through ancient pipes...so it's probably about 6 of one, half dozen of another. It's also not like we're drinking the rain water, we're just watering with it.