# Storing water in milk jugs?



## Guest (Jan 14, 2010)

My Dh has an idea that would save us recycling trips and money. 

We have 6 kids and we've discovered that the power company likes to conserve energy and let the power go out every once in a while. In the 9 months we've been here the power has gone off from a few minutes to 2 days something like 6 times. 

When the power goes out, we can't flush the toilet. With 6 kids, the toilet gets used a lot. My Dh's idea is to save water in milk jug and when the power goes out we can use that water for the toilet. We would NOT be drinking this water as we have a bunch of store bought water. 

Is this feasible? Should I put a few drops of bleach in the jug before we store it or would that ruin the integrity of the plastic? 

Can I have your thoughts please?


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## maclinda (Jan 3, 2010)

I think it could work, especially with a bit of bleach in the jugs. I don't know why, but I can never seem to get every.single.bit of milk cleaned out of mine ;-)


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

If you won't be drinking it, then no bleach will be needed.


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## hsmom2four (Oct 13, 2008)

I would do it if you aren't going to be drinking it. Why bother with the bleach if its just going down the toilet? Better mark the jugs as such though to keep the kids from accidently drinking it.


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## NamasteMama (Jul 24, 2009)

Nope, never use milk jugs the plastic is designed to biodegrade quickly and you will have a leaky mess on your hands very quickly. Ask me how i know, LOL!


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## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

NamasteMama said:


> Nope, never use milk jugs the plastic is designed to biodegrade quickly and you will have a leaky mess on your hands very quickly. Ask me how i know, LOL!


Takes about a year~~~
Ours got leaky too.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

try 2 qt soda bottles
or just buy the 4-5 gallon jugs of water for use in office coolers - I got ours at lowe's for $5 each.


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

If you are only using it for the toilet why not have a few plasticd rain barrels outside with a little bleach in them and let them sit there. You could then fill a few jugs or buckets of water to flush with and no need to have milk jugs sitting around unused for months. Also..just flush when necessary too. I would "sneak" an outhouse somewhere on my property if I were you. A neat little "garden shed" wouldn't draw any attention and tell the kids.."mums the word"..


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2010)

Helena...I wish I could, but we're on the 400 block of SOuth Main Street. We live right next door to a school, too. Putting in a little garden shed/outhouse would be difficult. Everyone would be by asking what we're doing and why we're putting up another building when we don't use 2 that we have! Gotta love life in a small town! LOL

Two litre soda bottles? That would mean we'd have to buy soda, right?!


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## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

Get a couple extra buckets and fashion a toilet in one of those unused sheds---just for emergencies of course.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Bleach bottles, laundry soap bottles, 2 liter bottles - all will last longer. Or - cut the breaker to your water heater, open a hot water tap, and use the drain valve at the bottom of the heater to get water.


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## NamasteMama (Jul 24, 2009)

Tonya said:


> Two litre soda bottles? That would mean we'd have to buy soda, right?!


 We don't drink soda either, but we hve friends and family who do. Just ask them to save them for you and wash them out realy good. ;0)


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Tonya said:


> Helena...I wish I could, but we're on the 400 block of SOuth Main Street. We live right next door to a school, too. Putting in a little garden shed/outhouse would be difficult. Everyone would be by asking what we're doing and why we're putting up another building when we don't use 2 that we have! Gotta love life in a small town! LOL
> 
> Two litre soda bottles? That would mean we'd have to buy soda, right?!


That would be my suggestion...or just send the kids outside!:banana02:


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## KansasBead (Feb 18, 2006)

I had 22 milk jugs stored with water, um they leak, BAD! Try Bleach jugs


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## Ode (Sep 20, 2006)

I haveemergency flushing water stored in empty liquid laundry detergent containers. I used to buy All Free and Clear from Sam's Club in their large containers...about 2.5 gallons. When empty, they were rinsed well to clear out all soap residue and filled with water and stored in the bathrooms for emergency use. I stopped when I had 5 for each bathroom.

They work well and store neatly, being square in shape. They also have another use for hand washing, since they have a spigot. I wouldn't drink the water inside but it is perfectly fine for cleaning and flushing when your water supply is out. They can be taken camping too, for washing up.

For more than a few flushes, I second the rain barrel idea for additional water supply. And if you don't have empty detergent containers, you could always go to a paint store, or home improvement place and buy some 5 gallon buckets and lids for water storage.

You may want to consider a waterless method as a backup, such as kitty litter in bags placed in buckets with a portable seat (found in many camping stores, the lid seats are meant to fit on standard buckets found everywhere), or sawdust (which can be composted safely) or some other absorbent material. My husband and I have several boxes of bags filled with highly absorbent crystals that is sold in camping supply stores. The bags fit in buckets and hold quite a bit of liquid, plus they have a deodorizer in them. When you have saturated the crystals, you fold down the bag into an outer bag and zip it shut. The bag and contents can be safely buried and composted, which makes them very useful for us when we go hiking and camping. They are a little pricey compared to the kitty litter or sawdust method though.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

If you live on Main St and don't have utility supplied water ? Or does it quit too when the power goes out even for a short time ?


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

Tonya said:


> Helena...I wish I could, but we're on the 400 block of SOuth Main Street. We live right next door to a school, too. Putting in a little garden shed/outhouse would be difficult. Everyone would be by asking what we're doing and why we're putting up another building when we don't use 2 that we have! Gotta love life in a small town! LOL
> 
> Two litre soda bottles? That would mean we'd have to buy soda, right?!


First, no you don't have to buy soda bottles. We don't buy 2 & 3 liter soda. Maybe a single serve one from time to time. When I need those bottles, I just raid the convenience center when we take off the trash. Have one of those grip extenders so i can reach them without "dumpster diving". Bring home wash with hot soapy water, then sanitize in a bleach solution. Then, can use for whatever use comes along. 

Unused buildings...... uhmm, wonder if you have one that you can cut through the floor, dig a hole, then, put a 2 holer seat on top. If only used once in a while, it would last for years. No one needs to know what you're doing in the shed. 

Agree that another possibility is a 5 gallon bucket, topped with a toilet seat from Lowes. Line with a heavy duty garbage bag. Add a little peat moss, kitty litter, sawdust, what ever you have. Cover deposits with more of the same. BTW, if you restrict use of the regular toilet to just pee, add a little Clorox to keep the odor down, you won't have to flush very often. Use the sawdust bucket for "deposits". Later, double bag the deposits and put in the trash. 

When we're on liquids for the tiolet only, used TP goes into a lined trash can. That also cuts down on the flushing needed and prevents the pipes from being clogged. The contents of the trashcan are also double bagged for the trash. 

As to water storage, don't ever use milk jugs for long term storage. I, also learned the hardway that they leak. For flushing water only, consider a kid's wading pool in the backyard. The best, IMHO, is a rain water collection system. However, if you can't do that, those kid sized pools can hold enough to tide you over for a while. Can even fill them, via the rain by diverting a gutter downspout or simply placing the pool under the eves of the house. Cover with screen wire, if you want to keep cats, dogs, and kids out of it.

Lee


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

There is a 7 gallon Blue water jug at Wal Mart/Academy Sports/ Cabellas/The Bass Pro Shop etc for sale. It takes about a gallon per flush. I paid around 5.00 for them a couple of years ago as we did not have running water to this place for several years while we first moved in and we hauled water in them daily for everything from bathing to cooking to laundry...and they worked great under those extreme conditions.. in fact we were without water from this past Sat to yesterday ( 5 days) this week..due to the freeze and all the community busted pipes. We reverted to our water storage systyem and didn't even miss a beat. They hold up really well and the blue is great to deter the green yukiness.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

tallpines said:


> Get a couple extra buckets and fashion a toilet in one of those unused sheds---just for emergencies of course.


That's what we have as our backup toilet. A 5 gallon bucket with a seat I got online, and plastic liners. You can either dump (gradually) in the toilet when the power comes back on, or dig a hole and bury it. Only for emergencies, since human waste isn't a good thing to live with in your yard.

If we have an ice storm coming or a bad electrical storm that might knock out the power, I fill a five gallon bucket with water for for each toilet. Five gallons gives us about three flushes, but we don't flush after every use.


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## NJ Rich (Dec 14, 2005)

I drink BJ's cranberry juice every morning. It comes in heavy duty food grade three quart jugs. I save every one I empty. I must have over 40 by now. I rinse them out with hot water and fully dry them before losely putting the cap back on. I save them to fill if a storm is coming. That water would be used to flush the toilet, wash dishes, and be used for cleaning. The ones I want to use the water to cook or drink from would be treated with some bleach. We do have many gallons of spring water we rotate regularly. Yes, the recommendation is to rotate your water stocks.

If it isn't frozen as it is now I can use pool water for cleaning and flushing. I have a brook at the back of the property I can get water from to flush the toilet if need be.


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## jadedhkr (Oct 25, 2004)

You know, I use the milk jugs, mainly because we go through so many. I rotate them though and use the older ones to water plants etc. with. I've never had one sit long enough to leak. I usually start my tomato plants in them every spring, so they get used a third time. I also use the heavier juice jugs, those I leave stored longer.


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## Win07_351 (Dec 7, 2008)

I re-use the 2 qt. plastic containers that fruit juice come in. They're very sturdy.

Walmart has 6 gal water storage jugs reasonably priced.


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## didaho (Jan 22, 2008)

I have 20 milk jugs in the garage with water in them. Yes you do have to check on them every few months. I also have 5 gal. soap buckets filled (8 of them), 4 - 3 gal. buckets filled and if calling for bad weather I fill the bath tub.-


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

TONYA where does your water come from 

if the power goes out and you loose your water you A) have a well or B) a really bad water utility

so that leads to question C) do you have a septic or mound system D)do you have a city sewer bill


cause if you loose water then the sanitary lift a block or 2 away probably doesn't work either if to many people flush before it starts pumping you get a backup

besides those questions , how often would you like to flush the toilet it takes almost 2 gallons a flush that is a lot of water to store.
my suggestion is to 
pick yourself up 2 bails of wood shaving animal bedding or collect some from a woodworking freind i liek the luggable loo buckets the seat is moded to the bucket cover but it works fine to build a box to mount the seat on and house the bucket 
put down a layer of shavings then go then cover with more shavings then go again and so on 

dump in the compost bin and cover with more shavings 

for additional reading on this you may want to read the hand book avalable for free down load here 
http://humanurehandbook.com/contents.html


but in short a bale of animal bedding wood shavings lasts a week or so 2 would give you 2 weeks that store for a very long time and don't take much room and there is no water to store


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2010)

TnAndy said:


> If you live on Main St and don't have utility supplied water ? Or does it quit too when the power goes out even for a short time ?


We have 2 wells on our property. One is for livestock and one is for the house. We thought about going on to City water, but we found out that the elderly couple 2 doors down spends about $40 a month on their water bill. WE have 8 people here. At one time I will have 5 teens in the house. Can you imagine what that bill would be?! Instead we opted for a Rainsoft system. The water tested potable and safe. We'll own that system in a few payments. Lot better than paying $200 a month for the rest of our live! 

And yes, it's a small town. The 400 block of North Main has livestock, too! :rock:


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2010)

GREENCOUNTYPETE...we have wells, but public sewer.

I'm thinking I need to invest in a dedicated 5 gallon pail and a toilet seat! I have tons of brown garbage bags and kitty litter around here. 

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR RESPONSES!


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

What Helena and Greencountrypete said.

If you have a hot water heater, you've got at least 30 gallons right there. There's a valve at the bottom.

If your dependent on city water, you've got more problems than just possible loss of toilet flushing.

I'd get a couple water barrels and put em out of sight somewhere.

Life isn't compatible with no water.

Quite a few Haitians are going to be dying in the next few days cause of lack of water.

I'd dearly hate to be thinking about you and others stuck in the cities without any water at all to drink, if the shtf. Prepare now. I wouldn't care what the neighbors thought. I would care if they wanted my stored water if there wasn't any available elsewhere. Good fences make good neighbors.


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## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

As others have said, milk bottles don't last long, and you don't really know how quickly they'll break down. They don't _*have*_ to last any longer than it would take for the milk to go bad.

Catching rainwater to use can be useful. Don't bother about bleach though - without a lid all the chlorine will be gone - evaporated - in less than a day. Just put a teaspoonful of kerosene or cooking oil in the drum to kill any mosquito larvae. If you do use outside water for flushing, take the lid off the toilet cistern, pour it in, then flush normally. It's designed to work that way, and it works properly that way. Just pouring water into the bowl will *NOT* flush properly, even if you use four times as much.


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## MattPA (Apr 9, 2009)

'When the power goes out, we can't flush the toilet.'

Oh it is your well pump that doesn't work. Get a solar panel as backup power for the pump. At least that way you still get water.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

wogglebug said:


> If you do use outside water for flushing, take the lid off the toilet cistern, pour it in, then flush normally. It's designed to work that way, and it works properly that way. Just pouring water into the bowl will *NOT* flush properly, even if you use four times as much.


Why is that? We've often poured water into the bowl to flush and it seems to work fine. Not arguing with you, just wondering what I've missed.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

As mentioned;
Save all your bleach bottles. Tear off the label, use marker and write
NON DRINK WATER

on the white plastic.

Repeat with plastic laundry detergent bottles.
or
square cat litter plastic 4-5 gal containers.

Don't need to spend any money for the 6 gal plastic water jugs from Walmart or anywhere else.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> Why is that? We've often poured water into the bowl to flush and it seems to work fine. Not arguing with you, just wondering what I've missed.


There are several different water paths from the tank into the bowl that promote a clean flushing action that cleans the whole bowl.
It just works better to use it as it was designed to be used


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## Zipporah (Jul 30, 2006)

I did this and the plastic didn't hold up.I use milk jugs for beans but not water.Soda bottles work better if you use soda we don't so I bought so some giant blue water jugs from Walmart pretty cheap that are really thick plastic from the camping area.


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