You might try posting under 'Wanted' on Craigs list. I see lots of stuff on there all the time. Be sure and list your town and how far you would be willing to drive to get them.
If you have never been on Craigs list before, be sure to get on the one for your area. Hope this helps.

Piper

We use 55 gal. plastic drums for rainwater collection. The local water treatment plant has them for free (chlorine comes in them, so rinse them thoroughly before use). We also have had luck with car washes, who get soap in the drums. Some fast food restaurants get supplies in the drums, and will give them away or sell them at a very reasonable price. Of course, the 55 gal. drums are not transportable, but you can dip and carry the water to where it is needed.
Good luck on your hunt, and congratulations for wanting to use "gray water."

Thanks for the tips. Didn't even think about those kinds of places!

We've been collecting the a/c run off into a bucket for years, but it's not so much that it's difficult to dump the bucket 2x/day. Now though I connected a hose so it goes directly to my yard.

I've only recently started collecting the washing machine water (I did collect tub water and bucket it outside, but that's a pain). I am just filling the buckets so much and constantly draining, it's exhausting. It'd be nice to store it for a while! I don't mind carrying it, just not all on the same day.

ditto on craigslist - we purchased our blue barrels (yet-to-be converted rainbarrels) from someone off of craigslist

you may want to specify a few things when talking:
a) food-grade barrels have had things like cooking oil while other barrels have chemicals such as cleaning agents for a carwash or pesticides - *** get food-grade ***
b) i don't remember the terminology, but they come with lids that come off & lids that don't - it might be something simple like "open" & "closed" - anyway, after considering the two, you might find that you'd prefer one over the other

also, do a google search and check out the many websites that discuss converting barrels for rainwater collection - the methods are relatively simple, so you should be able to adapt their instruction to give you an efficient collection route from the machine, as well as a spigot for easy access, so "dip & carry" will no longer be an issue

~ freshair

If the water can be piped outside you can also build a simple raised platform and use drip tubing to gravity feed to desired watering areas. Happy watering David

Sams has water barrels for around $90, they are easy to move, thick heavy duty plastic, spigot. We're going to pick up a couple if the house ever gets done.
Tally HO!

I got mine from a guy beside the road out on North 281, past the U-haul place, before Bulverde Rd. This was about 8 months ago, so I don't know if he is there on a regular basis. It was a Sunday and they were $25 for the plastic 50 gal. drums.

There is a guy on Craigslist who has a wharehouse full of them and sells them on Craigslist from his DFW wharehouse. Inexpensive. I go some from a feed store in Dallas - under $20 a piece.

LC

There's a place out on Jacksboro highway north of Azle and before Springtown that has the 55 gallon blue barrels for &12 each, no spigots though. They also have those squarish 250 gallon containers inside a metal cage for $125. All were food grade, I forget what was in them exactly.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I got one from Dave the Barrel Man in San Antonio - on Roosevelt near I-10 - very close to home, so rather convenient. Paid $25/55 gal barrel. Decided not to search too much more as that was convenient enough for a reasonable price.

Right now I'm just collecting the water and using it within a few days by bucketing it around. Eventually I'll attach a spigot and hose to move around. The problem is that anywhere in the near vicinity of the laundry room is not an area where I *need* water, so I need a very long hose.

Thanks again!

cjra, for future reference, you can use any very sturdy can or barrel. Two of ours are the Brute cans sold at Home Depot

Here are instructions for leveling and piping them up

Here is a link that might be useful: setting up rain barrels

I tried one of those barrels - well, it wasn't Brute, but it was a fairly good quality sturdy barrel and it split on a rock pretty quickly. Maybe it had been sitting in the sun too long (it was formerly our trash can).

Yes, we tried others before too, lol Even some of the new ones weren't sturdy enough
One of my SILs got one of those heavy duty garden wagons and mounted one barrel on that so my dd can pull it around to water. She waters what is near first and then pulls it around.

Of course this year there hasn't been rain in any of our barrels

Oooh, the wagon sounds a good idea!

I had considered buying one of the huge trashcans that the city uses now for the automated trash program, but they're kind of expensive. And ugly. A wagon could work!

Yes, no rain water I'm afraid. Right now it's being used just for washing machine water.

Seriously considering this, so some questions. When you run the hose from the washing machine, does it need to be higher than the barrel or can you make it go up and in? How far away can the barrel be? Unless I run the hose out the dryer vent, I would need a new hole in the side of the house which would show from the street so would want to get this right the first time. Is this water okay for oak trees?

My washing machine is near a door (we have a ridiculous # of doors in our old house!), so I run the hose out the door. The house is raised a few feet over the ground, so the hose is draining downward for the most part, however I don't have it attached to anything so there are places it droops and yes the water pools there, until another rush of water forces it through. That said, when I had the hose going to the regular sewer outlet, that hole was the height of the washer and the hose is attached at the bottom, so it was already going up and over.

The barrel can be as far as your hose reaches, I'd guess :). Ours is about 10 feet away (well, the hose is 10 feet long, it's probably more like 7 ft away from the machine, a foot or so from the actual house, and the extra is the lead.

My only issue is leaving the door open.I used to set the timer on the machine to run it just before I got home or early in the am before I woke up. I can't do that now since I need to leave the door open to run the hose. I may make it go through the window, but that'll require some other efforts.

Thanks, there's a lot more to this than it might seem like at first. I figured out the hose might go through the garage but would still be lower than a barrel. Anyway, will make sure this can work before doing anything permanent.

Another source in San Antonio...here it is:
http://www.northerntool.com/
Search for "rain barrel". I don't know if the sale price is just online or not, but if necessary you can order online and tell them you'll pick it up at the local store. We might get it from them, seems like it's pretty much already ready to connect up.

I make rain barrels. Shoot me an email if you want to find out more.

Mike

confused: why are y'all wheeling the full barrel around the yard? - what size "yard" or acreage are you watering?

its been my understanding that a 55gal barrel full of water can weigh in the 100s of pounds

~ freshair

I don't wheel the full 55gal barrel around the yard, but I have about 1/2 acre to cover, so I capture the water into the barrel, then put it into smaller buckets which gets wheeled around the yard in a wagon. The area where the washing machine is, happens to be the one area of the yard where I don't *need* water, so I move it to more useful places.

I like the idea of a wagon that's large and sealed to put the water in for moving.

My initial trash can/barrel broke because I tried to move it about 2 inches when it was 1/3 full....

oops, that should say 1/4 acre. I don't water every inch of it, but the plants are scattered throughout the area.

a) when you do get your new barrel, give it *two* spigots: one for pouring such as filling a watering can or rinsing your hands, another dedicated to a connected water hose (or short hose segment)
b) buy mucho soaker hoses & place in your various beds
c) attach quick-connect thingies to your hoses so you can pop them on & off each other quickly (and also your spinklers and sprayers)
d) drag the main hose instead of dragging the barrel/bucket everywhere

our lot is approx 1/5 acre, so we're not too much smaller than you

also consider mucho barrels - the barrels (where trash cans or blue barrels) can be spraypainted or hidden behind plantings so they're not to visually distracting/offensive - anyway, you can devise a way to have one in the front & one in the back for convenience - i know you don't have washing machines on every corner of your house, but you probably have rain runoff

other possibility (i'm trying to redesign my backyard with this in mind): consider making your drainage area a "wet zone" with more thirsty plants, then place your more xeric plants the furthest from the water source

~ freshair

Yes, I plan to put a spigot in. For now I'm using a bucket until we get around to it. Five bazillion other things on the "must do now" list ;)

I'll likely buy more barrels for other locations, but given that we have ZERO rainwater these days, is not a big deal right now. Will get round to it soon - maybe before these supposed El Nino rains come this autumn?

There's a limit to how much I can re-design the yard. Things are based mostly on what type of sun they will get. The area where the washer is will become a raised garden probably next spring, but for now I'd like to kill what dregs of grass are still there.... My backyard will be more of a "work zone" - clothesline, raised garden beds, driveway. The side yard (it's a double lot) is the "play zone" - lots of grass/shade trees, playhouse, sand box, small simple bistro-type patio. We've got two downspouts on this side where I'll probably put the barrels in.
The opposite side - nearer to the street, is going to have one raised bed, the rest of the area has large crepe myrtles. I may be putting in a xeriscape type garden outside the fence line (for now it's dead St. Augustine and some Bermuda). There's another downspout here where I may put a smaller barrel, a big one would be harder to disguise in this location. The front is the "showy" side - grass + lots of native plants. I probably won't put any barrels in front. We do have a downspout, but it gets directed into a garden bed already - mostly cana lillies but will eventually have something else.

We're on a corner lot, the entire yard is exposed, and we've worked a TON at trying to restore this house to its former glory (1880s pseudo-victorian in an historic district), so I am balancing visual aesthetics with practicality. Or at least trying to :)

Oh, and because it's pier/beam foundation, the goal with the downspouts is to direct the water AWAY from the house (we've put in a slope as well) to minimize shifting. For this reason I don't want to have any plants too close to the house, since I don't want to put water there.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Money Pit

Wow, good job on that wonderful porch. Thanks for sharing your blog and the work you are doing on such a great house.

Thanks! It's been a very long process.....my husband has taken over the house, I've taken over the landscaping :)

ooooh-weee - we honeymooned at a b&b in your neighborhood & loved it!

all my lantana are in full sun, so i don't know about that - there is a wide variety of salvia & some of them prefer partial shade

great blog

~ freshair