The Unexpected Place You Can Get Free Buckets For Your Garden

Buckets are a staple of garden projects and DIYs for a reason. You can use them for all sorts of purposes, including reusing five-gallon buckets to DIY a grow table that will help your garden thrive. While they aren't terribly expensive — only about $4 for the container itself and $2 for a lid at Home Depot — the cost can add up for more bucket-heavy projects. Luckily, there's a surprising solution that may be able to help you source buckets for free: asking bakeries for their used ones.

Many baking ingredients come in buckets, including sugar, flour, icing, buttercream frosting, and pre-made cake batter. This means that bakeries are potentially disposing of several buckets of these items every day. A good place to start is with big chains like Safeway, Sam's Club, and Dunkin Donuts to see if their bakeries will let you take some off their hands. Whether these companies will give you their old ones, though, depends a lot on management. It's always a good idea to call ahead rather than assuming you can have them. While big businesses seem to be more commonly asked, don't overlook checking with some of your local bakeries.

If you're planning to use these buckets for a specific garden project, make sure the buckets you ask for fit your needs. You may be most familiar with round buckets, but there's a chance your bakery freebies may be square instead. They also come in a few sizes, with three and five-gallon options seeming to be the most common. Since these buckets once held food, you should clean them out right away with soap and water. Being food-grade is actually a bonus, however, since it means the buckets are made of a plastic that won't leach harmful chemicals into food — or in the case of gardening uses, soil.

While bakeries are an unexpected spots to get buckets, it's worth noting that they aren't always free. "I called around to a few places in my area and I was able to find a doughnut place that sells 3- and 5-gallon buckets for just $1 each (and they had a ton). Other places I called sold them for $1-$2," said one Reddit user. It may be disappointing that buckets are not always free. However, it's still cheaper than buying them in store. Plus, you get the added benefit of repurposing items that would otherwise get tossed into a landfill.

When you do find a bakery to help you out, don't be afraid to pick up a few more buckets than you think you might need for your current garden project. There are plenty of brilliant ways to repurpose an old bucket around your home and yard, including planting tomatoes in five-gallon buckets. You never know when you'll find another use for these handy containers.