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December 31, 2016

Bucket

bucket-3.jpg

The 5-gallon plastic bucket is one of the finest inventions of our civilization.
Readily available, cheap, and almost indestructible. Not only can they be used to carry stuff – wet or dry – from place to place. But they can be re-purposed and up-cycled in an astonishing array of alternate uses. When you add human imagination and ingenuity to a 5 gallon bucket, the possibilities are infinite. Here are just some of the possibilities.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at December 31, 2016 8:36 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Every summer growing up and in college, I helped reglaze my Dad's greenhouses - one house every summer. We cleaned and saved all the five gallon steel buckets the putty and white lead (paint) came in. That was the sole source of buckets for the operation. The ones we added every summer just about replaced the ones that had rusted out during the previous year.

Posted by: BillH at December 31, 2016 10:00 AM

Mostly click bait.

Posted by: ghostsniper at December 31, 2016 2:06 PM

It also keeps your ass out of the snow when ice fishing.

Posted by: u.k(us) at December 31, 2016 3:06 PM

Here on the farm, they are not "mostly indestructible." My youngsters can destroy a used plastic five gallon bucket faster than you can take the lid off of one of a new one.

Handy, though. More store bought crap ought to be sold in plastic buckets because they are easily repurposed thus saving the need to recycle. Here in flyover country, we REALLY like those 1gal. plastic ice cream buckets. Man oh man, you can use those things for everything ... from storing leftovers to use as a wash bucket for mopping floors. The buckets are worth more than the ice cream.

It's like that pasta sauce you buy at Wal-Mart that comes in jars with the same thread as canning jars. Most people don't realize the threading is the same, but my wife figured it out and them are some mighty fine jars. Needless to say, we eat more pasta sauce-related items now. Basement larder's full of food canned in them jars.

Posted by: edaddy at December 31, 2016 6:24 PM

You Yanks are lucky. For you a 5 gallon bucket is a 5 gallon bucket.

Up here in soft metric Canada with you as our major trading, and dominant partner, our 5 gallon buckets are sometimes 5 US gallons (18.9271 litres), sometimes 20 litres (5.28344 us gals), sometimes 5 Imperial gallons (22.73045 litres, or 6.0047496275 US gallons).

And in each and every variation some civil servant or businessman screws us over on the tax or price.

Posted by: Fred Z at December 31, 2016 6:41 PM

Oh, stop complaining Fred. Bigger buckets are better ... who cares if they are a few cents more.

I'd say Canadians have it made, especially if the buckets are food grade. Whooyah! Food grade buckets larger than 5 gal. are the BEST for making sauerkraut. Here in the State we have to pay a premium for food grade buckets larger than 5 gal.

So, stop yer gripin'! Haha, you never had it so easy up North.

Posted by: edaddy at December 31, 2016 7:45 PM

I agree in principle but did you buy a 5 gallon bucket or a utility bucket with secondary mention of capacity?

Anyway, bitching because they are bigger is invalid but bitching because they are less is not.

My MIL once bitched that the milkshake she got at Steak n Shake was too big. I burped, scratched myself and left the building.

Posted by: ghostsniper at January 1, 2017 11:46 AM

Delightful. I gave my soni n law, a carpenter, a bucket and a device to fit on it that holds dozens of tools. Now I'm pretty sure I need one, too.

Posted by: Terry Kirkpatrick at January 2, 2017 4:58 AM

Drill holes in the bottom of the buckets and prep them with gravel and soil. Each one will hold one tomato plant. Easy to water, fertilize and light weeding. No insects in the soil so no insecticides. Been doing it for years. Two plants and you'll have all the tomatoes you can use.
I used mud buckets from the jobs. Tapers will give you a couple.

Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck at January 2, 2017 11:23 AM

@Terry, this one adds a blower and headers to any 5 gal bucket:
http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/mens/mens-workshop/35205.aspx?processor=content

@veedub, you're right. When my FL house was built I got 63 mud buckets out of the deal, still have about 13 of them in the workshop - use em for everything. You need to get em fast though before the residual mud sets up. Put a couple drops of Dawn in there and fill with HOT water and let sit all day in the sun, rinse, scrub, repeat.

Looking for 4 reasonably priced food grade buckets with lids for a rainwater reclamation project I've designed using high grade filters meant for 100,000+ gallons. I'm wanting to put the rain that seeks free temporary rent on the roof to work. It will all end up in a 400 gal cistern and solar pump.

Posted by: ghostsniper at January 3, 2017 6:32 AM

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