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recycling water

Note: Once a week I share a popular post from the archives. This post was originally published in April 2013.
SchneiderPeeps - Recycling Gray Water is a great way to reuse laundry water.  Make this DIY project in just a few hours and for very little cash. When we first moved into this house we moved the washer and dryer out to the garage so we could covert the large mudroom/pantry into another bedroom for Christian and Josiah. Since this is really only a temporary situation we didn’t want to go through the expense to tie the washing machine into our septic system. Also, I don’t want to overload our septic. So, we’ve had a hose that drains our gray water on to the ground and I move it around some to water as much as I can.

It works ok, but it’s kind of ugly and the hose is only so long. So, I’ve been thinking about what to do that will fix both those problems and wouldn’t cost much. Here’s what I came up with for recycling water. …

SchneiderPeeps - Recycling Gray Water is a great way to reuse laundry water.  Make this DIY project in just a few hours and for very little cash. Total cost…$0.27 for everything but the water hose. The 100 foot hose was $28. I had everything else around the house, I just needed to convince Carl that I really did want this done.

  • A 55 gallon drum (we got this from a friend who has a petroleum products company. Now before I get any grief, let me just say that this actually held a soap, has been pressure washed out and has been on our property and empty for over 2 years.)
  • An outdoor water faucet (I found one in the garage – I think it’s one we replace because it wouldn’t shut off all the way)
  • A threaded pvc nut to screw onto the water faucet to keep it in the drum (I bought this a ReStore for $0.27 – I just happened to be there when I saw it but you can get it at any home improvement store)
  • Expandable foam (also called Great Stuff)
  • Spray Paint (to help with the ugly factor)
  • Wood Pallets (I have a couple of these kind from a tile company. I like them because they look more like a boardwalk than a pallet)
  • Waterhose ( I got a 100 foot one because I wanted it to be able to reach pretty far)
  • Drill and circle bit
SchneiderPeeps - Recycling Gray Water is a great way to reuse laundry water.  Make this DIY project in just a few hours and for very little cash.

Here’s what Carl did…

  • Drill a hole in the bottom of the drum
  • Put faucet in the hole (the part that usually screws into the pipe)
  • From inside attach pvc nut (it helps to have an 11yo boy around for this)
  • Put exandable foam around the faucet

SchneiderPeeps - Recycling Gray Water is a great way to reuse laundry water.  Make this DIY project in just a few hours and for very little cash. Here’s what it looked like from the inside. I thought about washing it the dirt out and then decided against it.

SchneiderPeeps - Recycling Gray Water is a great way to reuse laundry water.  Make this DIY project in just a few hours and for very little cash. Build a little platform for it to sit on.

SchneiderPeeps - Recycling Gray Water is a great way to reuse laundry water.  Make this DIY project in just a few hours and for very little cash. Here’s the front. I’ve sown some morning glory seeds in front of the pallet to grow up onto it. Because, it really is all about being cute.

I’m just leaving the faucet open all the time so the drum won’t actually hold the water for very long. With the longer hose I can water all the citrus orchard, the side yard and a part of the front yard. We do an average of 3 loads of laundry a day, 5 days a week so that’s quite a bit of watering. I also use a homemade laundry soap.

Have you ever used a gray water recapturing system?

This post is shared at Barn Hop, Tuesday Garden Party, The Backyard Farming Connection, Small Footprint Fridays, Little House in the Suburbs,

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Thanks for sharing with your friends!

Emily Davis

Wednesday 29th of October 2014

What would you do when the temps get to freezing? Is there a way to switch the system back during times the hose would freeze? Also, there are mesh filters that could go on the end of the hoses which could help with the unwanted guests. :)

Angi Schneider

Wednesday 29th of October 2014

Great questions, Emily. I live where the winters are mild so I've never had the hose freeze. I'm guessing if you live where it freezes you would need to set your system up in such a way that you could switch it back, or make sure the hose is completely empty after using it. I'm sure you could put a mesh filter on the end, we've not had a problem with anything crawling up it.

Taylor-Made Ranch

Tuesday 14th of May 2013

Great article and helpful instructions. I've been interested in water conservation for quite some time and have many things in place to conserve water here on the ranch. I've heard about capturing washer gray water but could never really figure out how to make it apply here. The instructions you've shown here are very detailed. Thanks for sharing!

~Taylor-Made Ranch~Wolfe City, Texas

Gretchen Stuppy Carlson

Tuesday 16th of April 2013

Wow - this is inspiring and creative. I would love to try this sometime.

April

Wednesday 10th of April 2013

Hello, I just found your blog. We save our laundry water, also. Almost the same way, only we just put our drain hose out our dryer vent, since it's still in the house. We use homemade soap during the winter when we are not saving our grey water, but then we use Biokleen during the times we are using our water. We use ours to water our garden and fruit trees. I just did a post about soaps for grey water you might be interested in. http://5kidsonanacre.blogspot.com/2013/04/laundry-soap-grey-water.html Now I'm off to check out your blog, it looks awesome :)

Angel

Wednesday 27th of May 2015

I'm just now seeing this article but I'm glad you posted something about soaps. That would be my main concern with using gray water is the soap harming my plants.

NIcole

Tuesday 4th of February 2014

Out the dryer vent is a brilliant idea!

Angi Schneider

Friday 12th of April 2013

Thanks, April. I actually read that article, it was super helpful. That's cool that you can drain it out your dryer vent.

daisy

Wednesday 10th of April 2013

I WANNA DO THIS!!!Great job!

Angi Schneider

Friday 12th of April 2013

Thanks, Daisy. You should do it. The hardest part was convincing my husband.