Cleaning out drywall compound buckets for reuse

[JRC3]

If you don't have one of these...Then get one. I use them for compound and thinset.

Menards has one for $6.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Start using them for stuff. The mud will break up and fall out before long. Once that happens you can use them for "clean" stuff.

Never throw out a good bucket. The best is if you can find ones used for food service. If you know the right guy you can usually get stacks of 5 gal buckets.

I’m a,so with Bert on this one.

 

[mmb617]

I find this thread amusing as I have the opposite problem. I buy kitty litter in nice plastic buckets with lids that are already clean when empty. It seems a shame to throw them away but I have far more than I'll ever use stashed overhead in the garage so what else can I do with them?

With that being the case I of course would never spend the time to clean a drywall or paint bucket, they go straight to the trash.

 

[JRC3]

I find this thread amusing as I have the opposite problem. I buy kitty litter in nice plastic buckets with lids that are already clean when empty. It seems a shame to throw them away but I have far more than I'll ever use stashed overhead in the garage so what else can I do with them?

With that being the case I of course would never spend the time to clean a drywall or paint bucket, they go straight to the trash.

Put them on FB Marketplace or CL, or just out by the curb. Last time I was at the county recycle center emptying mine, I noticed a big stack of the yellow litter pails with lids...Of course I grabbed them. Those things are great. And with that style lid they are awesome for dog kibble, winter salt, oil dry, etc. And for stuff like tools or extra plumbing and electrical stuff the stack and fit more efficiently than a regular bucket.

 

[engineer2]

I've been using the kitty litter buckets too:
Carrying tools and supplies for projects.
Storage: sand, kindling wood, shims, metal framing brackets, knee pads, work gloves
Separating scrap metal

 

[branimal]

I left a couple buckets filled with water overnight and the compound cleans out with abrasive sponge in less than a minute. Dirty water transferred to the next bucket. Great tips guys.

Now I'm going to clean my empty 5 gallon paint buckets out by leaving them to dry for a week and peeling the paint out.

No more $4 buckets from HD.

 

[KansasArt]

If you’re in need of buckets but don’t wanna spend $5 at big box stores, check out your hometown burger joint. They get their burger pickles in them. My son works at one, they sell them for $2 a piece. I bet I’ve got 15-20 around here. The pickle smell in them stays for a long time!

 

[Showkey]

Water is cheap and plentiful in the mid Atlantic, this is a non-issue in MA, or anywhere in the US as water is cheap. If it were scarce, the price would reflect it.

I clean buckets with water and an old drywall knife then get the last of it with a sponge, rag, scotch brite, or whatever similar item is handy. Quick and easy. Just let the mud soak up some water and it washes off.

Not sure about MA, AZ or CA.

Same here...........actually free and have too much.
Have so much this time of year the sump pump runs every 3 minutes.

As far as waste full:
My bet those buckets would be good as new after 50 years in a land fill.

 

[GMCGarage]

40 gallons of water wasted

Set them outside in the rain if you are worried about the water usage. 40 gallons is not alot of water

 

[nadogail]

The rectangular kitty litter buckets, with a coat of gray paint, become catchalls between the seats in my van. The gray paint matches the partition, bins and shelves in the back.

 

[Super Mech]

One of my best friends is a retired taper. We had tons of buckets that came off of jobs. He was able to get 99 percent of the compound out of them with his taping knives. We would fill them with water and leave them for a few days. The remains would comes right off.
I swear, we had more than we knew what to do with.

 

[Terry D]

Water and a scotch brite pad

 

[mike93lx]

Set them outside in the rain if you are worried about the water usage. 40 gallons is not alot of water

good idea.

I am no tree hugger, but we have had our share of droughts around here and the amount of people thinking that they are immune because they have a well is nauseating. My family's drinking water comes from the same aquifer that is watering their lawn.

wasting water to clean drywall compound is just silly, IMO. has nothing to do with the cost of the water.

i bet people in Norcal and Australia would have loved 40 gallons of clean water not that long ago.

 

[paredown]

I'd rather waste a little water (and at least for us it goes back into the ground water from septic)--and put the clean buckets at the curb for recycling. Paint buckets, drywall buckets and kitty litter--use them multiple times and/or recycle the surplus. Plastic in the land fills is pretty much forever.

Takes a few minutes--with paint I typically have one five full of water to do first rinse on rollers and brushes anyways, so it is trivial to continue the cleaning

Doesn't everyone have curbside or drop off recycling?

 

[JRC3]

I'd rather waste a little water (and at least for us it goes back into the ground water from septic)--and put the clean buckets at the curb for recycling. Paint buckets, drywall buckets and kitty litter--use them multiple times and/or recycle the surplus. Plastic in the land fills is pretty much forever.

Takes a few minutes--with paint I typically have one five full of water to do first rinse on rollers and brushes anyways, so it is trivial to continue the cleaning

I hope you're not putting paint down the drain to the septic.

 

[Kev442]

I really gotta scratch my head about "wasting 40 gallons of water" which goes back into the aquifer eventually versus landfilling perfectly good buckets, then burning a gallon or two of irreplaceable gas to go spend hard earned cash on new buckets, made with more irreplaceable petroleum.
This really brings home to me why we have such a divide these days. It is almost impossible for me to picture how washing the buckets out isn't a better deal for the environment, yet many are positive that saving the water is better in every way.

What I will say is that most of my joint compound bought over the years has been in a cardboard box with a plastic liner. Now I have to decide if that was better or worse for the environment. I will say it was cheaper for me.

Now to ruin everyone's day about waste. When I worked for a pizza joint many moons ago, recycling was a thing, but you had to bring it to a waste station. That never happened. We dumpstered so much cardboard it made up 70% of of each dumpster load. When it was pointed out how much it cost to empty the dumpster twice a week vs once if we were to recycle, management just shrugged. All the pickle and apple filling buckets went right into the dumpster too, along with the aluminum and tin cans.

 

[TexMedium]

Wow, just WOW!!! Forty gallons of water? Abrasive pads? Seriously, just put a couple of inches of water in the first bucket, get a stiff bristle scrub brush and apply some elbow grease! When it looks clean, dump the water in the next bucket to be cleaned. Rinse with a garden hose!!! Sheeesh! If anything in this world was as difficult as some people want to make it out to be, none of us, me especially, could do it.

 

[JRC3]

Oh come on, guys...Don't even act like you don't completely fill and empty the drywall bucket with water 8 times to clean the 3 ounces of residual compound left in the buckets.

 

[1967ChevyRagtop]

A former co-worker and hubby were having a house built. When they began living there, hubby was roaming the wooded 10ac lot. He came upon a bunch of drywall mud buckets that the workers were apparently using for poo toilets. I asked co-worker what hubby did with them, she said, "Well, he cleaned them out and stores stuff in them".
bg

 

[Kev442]

First rule of residential construction sites: do not take buckets with the lid on them out of the dumpster.

 

[JRC3]

^
^^
It's called a 'thunder bucket'...Sometimes you gotta "rock the thunder bucket." I used to throw a construction trash bag in the bucket and then just throw the bag in the trash so the bucket could live to rock again. Wimpy bags need not apply.