Plastic blue barrels are popular with preppers and survivalists for one very big reason: they are one of the most effective means for storing water and other liquids. They are a common sight on off-grid homestead properties for that reason.
But almost all preppers and homesteaders use blue barrels for their intended purpose of water storage.
That’s totally fine, but as we’ll soon see, these same blue barrels can also serve a number of other important uses as well that go beyond water storage.
Here are blue barrel uses you may have never thought of:
Rainwater Harvesting
This is arguably the most obvious use for blue barrels that go beyond simply storing water in them.
You can create a rainwater harvesting system by attaching pipes between your gutters on your roof and your rainwater barrels.
This way, the water that is gathered by your rainwater catchment system will then travel down into the barrels.
Just make sure the gutters stay clean so the collected water will be clean too.
You can also learn here how to create an ingenious rainwater harvesting and purification system. This system is designed to store an impressive 165 gallons of water that might otherwise be lost, offering a valuable resource for obtaining clean drinking water in times of crisis.
Water Trough For Animals
Cut a barrel in two right down the middle from one end to the other. Then turn the two now cut-in-half barrel so that the open side is facing up, and fill it up with water.
This will serve as as a water trough for your livestock, such as chickens, rabbits, goats, or pigs.
Hay Feeder
As an alternative to water from the above example, you can fill up a blue barrel with hay (or other kind of feed) as well.
All you’ll need is one barrel, and you can use one half for water and the other for hay.
Planter or Raised Garden Bed
After cutting the barrel in half, you can alternatively fill it up with soil. Plant vegetable seeds or medicinal herb seeds, and you’ll have a garden going.
You can also use the half of the barrel as part of a raised garden bed by attaching it to wooden poles or legs in order to create a table-like structure.
Tree Swing
Cut a large enough hole into the blue barrel to turn it into a seat, and then add padding around the sharp or rough edges for comfort.
Then you can drill holes into the ends of the barrel and attach hooks into those holes, you can attach paracord or rope to the hooks.
Then attach the hooks to the strong enough branches of a tree, and you have a makeshift tree swing! This may not be a serious survival use, but it will still be a fun project.
Heat Up Your Greenhouse
If you have a greenhouse, blue barrels can serve as a means to provide warmth and heat to your greenhouse.
Related: Couple Builds Greenhouse Around Home to Stay Warm and Grow Food All Year Long
This is because the water that collects in your blue barrels will then warm up if the barrels are stored under the sun. This heat will then be slowly released out of the barrels, which will help provide warmth to the inside of your greenhouse.
Composting
Turn a blue barrel into a compost bin for a simple and effective way to recycle kitchen and yard waste.
Drill holes for airflow, toss in compostable materials, and turn the barrel regularly.
The closed design speeds up composting by trapping heat and keeps pests out.
Use the nutrient-rich compost to boost your garden’s soil health naturally, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
Composting Toilet
Create a self-contained composting toilet using a blue barrel. This eco-friendly solution not only promotes waste reduction but also ensures a hygienic and odor-free alternative when traditional plumbing systems may not be available.
Additionally, the compost generated can be used as a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Food Storage
Blue barrels can be used for food storage as well, especially if you have a cellar in your home. Cut a hole into your barrel and then fill it up with the season’s gathering of potatoes, fruits, and vegetables. Just make sure that the barrel is safe to use for food.
Place the barrel downstairs in your root cellar, and it will keep your fruits and vegetables cool enough throughout the winter so you can continue to enjoy your homegrown fruits and vegetables off-season.
If you don’t have a root cellar, learn here how to build your own root cellar for cheap, ensuring a long shelf life for all your supplies and homegrown produce throughout the winter months.
Create A Grey Water System
Grey water refers to water that you use for purposes other than drinking purposes, such as wastewater from sinks, showers, bathtubs, and so on.
Too many preppers make the mistake of wasting their grey water by disposing of it. Instead, you should be repurposing this grey water if at all possible.
Specifically, you can use grey water to flush the toilet and water plants. Lightly soiled gray water is also quite good for fruit or similar trees as it’s more nutrient-rich than clean water. The blue barrels can be used for storing this water before distributing it to the plants.
Make a Dog or Cat House
Cut out one of the sides of the barrel so it’s completely open. Then fill up the interior of the barrel with blankets or hay or other comforting bedding materials.
Secure the barrel to the ground so it won’t move, and just like that, it can now be a house and place to sleep for your outdoor dogs and cats.
Floating Dock
Make sure you use barrels that are completely sealed off with no holes for this one. If you build a DIY dock out of wooden boards, you can secure the dock to the top of the barrels.
Then slide the dock over the water, and secure it to the shoreline. The barrels will ensure that the boards stay floating to act as an actual dock.
If you haven’t started stockpiling blue barrels yet, you may want to.
Look for blue barrels at yard sales or online sites such as Craigslist if you don’t want to pay full price for new ones.
If you do purchase old blue barrels, however, confirm that they are in good condition with no holes or other wear and tear over them.
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DO NOT USE HUMAN WASTE FOR COMPOST!
Composting Human Waste: Our Complete GuideIt can be done with proper procedures followed but not probably in a blue barrel.
Can you explain why not? I’m very interested in your concerns. Thanks!
HepC, hiv, parasites, pharmaceutical components etc.
“The Humanure Handbook”. PROPERLY done, human waste CAN be composted.
If a person only uses their own, and they don’t have HIV, Hepatitis, parasites, use any pharmaceuticals, or have any other disease, does this make it safe to use? The guy in the movie the Martian did and that film was praised for being so accurate.
The guy in the movie the Martian didn’t have anything else available.
Sure it can be done but why bother? Human crap belongs in the septic tank or sewer.!! When I was a kid we had a large cement block pit.. Old basement after building burned down.. All the kitchen waste, leaves, weeds from the garden and planters and yard went into it.. Every few years we would clean the pit out and the compost would be roto-tilled into the garden. Everybody was wondering why our garden did so well compared to others.. One person asked if he could take a soil sample to the lab.. It was found that the soil was 100% good and lacked nothing so why would you crap in it if you don’t need to.
Or any carnivore
Maybe those blue barrels are very cheap where your at to cut up for a dog, cat house, they ain’t, plastic is expensive. There are better structures to use, cheaper. Use the blue barrel for water storage.
Can you tell me where to find these barrels? The only ones I have seen were used with chemicals. Thank you
Used one cut down to half height for storing kids sports equipment in the garage, then years later use it to store bulk bags of bird seed… mice have yet to get into it
Blue barrels are funny items, if you need one today they can be pricey, but tomorrow someone will give it to you for just hauling away ?
Very versatile …..
Haaa, i’d like to find a few of those to haul away barrels!!!
I’ve paid between $10 and $20 each for blue barrels. They have become water storage, grain storage – I have a flour mill, storage for grain for my chickens and rabbit pellets. A top opening blue barrel stores my seeds and small pots ect for the next years gardening. Smaller plastic – 35 gallon barrels store pasta, dry beans, flour ect for a year supply in a cool dry place. 3 gallon buckets the held bakery frostings are my pantry storage containers for beans, rice, flour, pastas, ect. 2 fiberboard 10 falling barrels hold dry mixes ect and with a cloth cover are also my end tables in the living room. The frosting buckets were free. The rest were $5 each. A 5 gallon cheap drink container with a faucet is an activated charcoal, clean sand. Pea gravel water filter. Containers are well worth seeking them out. Even at $20 a blue barrel they are a long lasting strong container. I’ve even made garden grow containers with half round barrels. I prettied my half barrels up with glued on pallet boards with a Brad at each end of each wood slat. I’m doing another one from an old unsightly barrel cut in half. I’m covering the sides with long paint stir sticks. We’ve been completely redoing a 3/2 rental and I can get a few extra stir sticks every time we pick up another calling of paint. I always ask for the longer ones.
I also bought half a dozen 370 gallons metal caged liquid containers. One had held liquid fertilizer. I cleaned it well several times but only use it for rabbit poop tea for the non edible areas of my property. The others had held food grade additives for a commercial food prep company. I paid $75@ but they are now $150@ . They hold water for gravity fed soaker hoses in the garden and gravity fed drip irrigation for my 50+ tree orchard. I can fill them from rain water or a well as available seasonally.
The free frosting buckets are really handy. I’ve added chicken watering cups to one, 3” and 4” pvc elbos to make chicken feeders, and a gravity filled watering system for the rabbits using cheap chicken watering cups. Those save a lot of time and labor. At 76 that is becoming a necessity for me to keep animals, grow a large garden, and care for my year old new orchard.
If completed properly and the right way
Compost is a process of decay and waste is a process like that but with toxic consequence s for not doing it right
1st kill the bacterias with organisms witch eat the enzimes
Then after a process you can spread it in, mixing it in a small amt
germany has been doing this for year s and farmers have been doing this same thing.
MOST important to research, document, and process the right way
dont just cr*p in a bucket, dump in a pile and throw on the garden
YOU will get sick
mix with other minerals, chemicals, charcol, potash, lime, Research
Some countries do use human waste for fertilizer of crops.
Thank GOD in the USA we use cattle manure for fertilizer of crops.
Screw the GD vegan nutjobs who think eating veggies is a one size fits all diet. You notice shopping at health food stores those vegans are not happy, they are missing some vitamin or mineral in their religious food cult.
Veggie eaters seem to more likely be the ones to adopt eating insects as future mandates from the United Nations Overlords want.
Sue the UN and terminate their land lease, move out of America, now!
The UN is part of antichrist anarchy on earth, many support the terrorist.
Those pro-Muslim-radical terrorist groups must go.
The Thanksgiving Parade radicals should have been terminated on the spot, no exceptions needed.
“Vegan” – Old Indian word, meaning “bad hunter”…
I guess you didn’t get the memo years ago that cities are giving or selling sewage to farmers to spray, with no processing whatever, on crops? It’s been going on a long time. I read one account where tampons and condoms were in the rows of vegetables. The U S is now more third world than some former third world upcoming countries.
Many folks in certain areas also store medical Marijuana in Blue Barrels… Just saying
Many folks in certain areas also store pounds of medical Marijuana in Blue Barrels… Just saying