My Dad Swears By This Storage Gem — And Now I Have My Own Collection

When I was a kid, if I was looking for my dad I’d likely find him out in the garage. I can picture it now: He’s sitting on a five-gallon bucket that he flipped over into a makeshift chair. He’s tossing pieces of scrap metal into surrounding buckets to take to recycling. When he sees me, he’ll flip a bucket over and offer me a seat next to him.

He’s retired from plumbing now, but still has buckets at the ready. If I stop by my parents’ house in the warmer months, it’s likely that they’ll have a few filled with decorative rocks or black dirt that need to be moved from here to there. The scene is similar across town at my brother’s house. He even has a shelf lined with lidded buckets — the way some people might use cardboard boxes to store things in the garage. 

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I started my own bucket collection within days of buying my first house with a yard. I spotted two five-gallon buckets with a “for free” sign on them at the end of a neighbor’s driveway, and excitedly carried them home. That’s when I learned to appreciate buckets as much as my parents do. Now, my bucket collection continues to grow and comes out every spring.

My parents showed my siblings and me that buckets are the ultimate household tool. They’re inexpensive and widely available; plus, they’re durable and can be hosed off when they get grimy.

Another benefit? Unlike boxes, buckets can’t be chewed through by critters and can get wet or left outside in the elements without fear. I’m just careful not to leave them full of water or out in the rain, which could create a drowning hazard for small animals or children.

Buckets aren’t precious. They’re still useful when they’re splattered with paint or have a leaf stuck to the bottom. I reserve those ones for dirty jobs, such as becoming a temporary trash can in the garage. 

My buckets spend the winter stacked in the corner of the garage, but come yard cleanup time in the spring I bring them back out. Five-gallon buckets are the perfect size for tasks like pulling soggy leaves from the drains in front of the house and hauling them to the yard waste bin in the back alley. A bigger container would be too heavy; any smaller and I’d be making too many trips. 

Buckets are my go-to for landscaping projects too. When I pulled up dirt and mulch to plant a tulip trench in the backyard, where did the dirt and mulch sit until I was ready to put it back? In my buckets, of course. The job was easy because the opening is big enough that my aim doesn’t have to be great.

Even my youngest niece knows the value of a new bucket. When she was 3, I let her carry a bucket through the hardware store for me. After we checked out, I tried to take it from her, but she didn’t want to give it up. My husband joked that a Minnesotan will give you the shirt off their back, but not their brand-new bucket.