Green Daily

Here at Green Daily, we've covered the topic of saving water with the installation of rain barrels on your home's gutters. This is something I've always been interested in trying, but just never got around to doing, until last month when I saw these simple instructions from Bill Volk, at our sister site, DIY Life.

So I built one for myself, stretching a bit from Bill's plans for the sake of budget. I used a fairly new 32-gallon plastic trash can that I had already. I figured it would be good to experiment a bit with what I had, before committing to any major purchases. In retrospect, the garbage can is not thick enough for this project, but it was worth a try. I didn't add the spout at the bottom of the can because I figured it would not hold up well, so I'm happy I made that choice. Overall though, I'm very excited and surprised at how easy it was to construct and how quickly the 32 gallons fill up! I now plan to make more of these at different locations around the house, complete with better overflow systems that store the extra water. Once I realized just how much water is collected, even during a light rainfall, I feel like I'm wasting the rest that just flows out of the downspout!