Reuse those Old 5 Gallon Buckets

Think about those old Buckets...... Save Your Joint- -Compound buckets, that is. Seriously, those extremely common, ubiquitous, you could say, 5-gallon polyethylene buckets are IDEAL for landscape and gardening work. Thick-walled, heavy duty buckets are worth at least 6 dollars apiece. Save your lid. Another pun, but seriously, don't only save the pail, save the container's lid too. At least, try to save some lids. You'll be glad you did too when toting water and when you want to seal a container on occasion. Watch for what gets left as residue. We're being too "punny" yet again, right? But this is important when you consider the cleanup. Find any five gallon bucket when you can and consider what material was inside originally and how readily you can clean out the residue. Joint compound has such poor adhesion to the polyethylene plastic it scrapes away easily when dry. It's also very water soluble too. In short your cleanup with joint compound will be a snap, that's why we're recommending it first. Okay, that and the chance to make humorous puns,. Many materials come in 5-gallon plastic buckets today. While roofing tar won't make a good container to save unless you want a disposable one-time- use garbage can, latex-based driveway sealer and commercial-sized latex-based paint rinse out as easily as joint compound. Over time build up a collection, maybe a dozen or so of these buckets. If you're not getting 'em from "new" from work at your house, stop by where you see construction and ask if you can have any "empties," or check the trash dumpster. One DON'T is when storing the containers, DON'T PUT ONE DIRECTLY INSIDE THE NEXT. DON'T STACK THEM. The slightly tapered smooth walls and static electricity of the polyethylene will almost weld the buckets together. Drop a scrap of 2 x 4 wood, a small rock or two, you get the idea, in the bottom of each bucket as you place them one into another. Good luck.