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Part 2: Plastic Buckets and Water storage


Part 2: Plastic Buckets and Water storage
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Added January 1, 2018
Updated July 16, 2025

5 minute read

Let's pick a believable scenario. A natural disaster hits your town and suddenly the public water system is contaminated. Or even an unbelievable one, like your house being the last bastion of humanity while the rest of the world runs headlong into a post-apocalyptic state where roving gangs of anthropomorphic mutant lobsters ride motorcycles from place to place. In either situation you're going to need the cornerstone of life as we know it. No, not Lifetime original movies! I'm talking about water.

Water is likely the most overlooked item in your food storage, but without contest, the most important. We use water for everything: cooking, bathing, drinking, cleaning and making emphatic statements before throwing it in someone's face. It's so important that about 50-65% of our body is water.

So it goes without saying that having a clean and secure source of water is pretty important. And how you store it can make a difference, should you find yourself in need.

There are a wide variety of options here. Generally it will depend on how you can store your water. If you don't have a lot of storage area, using gallon containers like dairy jugs, cubetainters or jerry cans (aka. F-style containers) will work out well. But, if you have some good storage area you may even consider a 55 gallon drum. generally plastic buckets would be better used for dry goods.

Some will worry about pre-treating the water. Tap water in the United States and Canada has already been treated and can go straight into your storage containers. When you use your water reserves, sometimes the water can taste stale. This is just a lack of oxygen in the water and can be remedied by pouring the water between pitchers before drinking to make it taste fresh again.

Continue to part 3

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