Our summers here in Frankfurt have been extremely dry the last couple of years. When it rains, it may drizzle for a couple days but we generally go several weeks with no rain at all. As a matter of fact, it’s raining now but unfortunately we don’t have all our new tanks set up yet to start receiving water from our gutters already.  But at least we have them cleaned out.

We just bought 3 1000 liter IBC containers on ebay for 185 euros including delivery. There is no cheaper way to store that much water here in Germany. One of the containers will sit here at the back of our courtyard. Another is going to go into our garden and the third will find its way to our new property, now referred to as “The Orchard.” It’s just a small little piece of land we aquired with fruit trees on it…but I’ll get to those juicy details later.

rain container 00

The containers were used for things like shampoo and what we think was hair gel so we had to do a lot of flushing to get the rest of that junk out.

rain container 01

Thankfully we were able to hook our pump up to the underground well and don’t have to pay for all that water! Each tank took almost an hour to flush completely. Not a thrilling job. Since the containers are about a meter high, we had to stand on a cinderblock so we could see what was going on inside. But we got the job done.

rain container 02

Now we just need to get them placed. The courtyard one is ready to be filled…we just need to modify our downspout a bit. We’re still planning logistics to get the container into the garden. The barn door in the back is a bit too small to fit the thing through as 1 piece (and too heavy) but they come apart so we may be able to work it out without lifting the pieces over the wall. And then there’s the task of getting the last one out to the garden…might have to elicit the help out of our neighbor with a trailer…because that thing is never going to fit in my Defender!

Do you collect your rain water for the dry months? What system works best for you?