Ah, but this is tricky! haha. Actually, I used one round of bleach, and let it dry, then I used a round of vinegar and let it dry. No bubbles! 
That’s interesting. Great idea. I guess you could even spray paint them if you wanted to be creative. Great idea.
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I’ve not used empty buckets for planters, but I drill a hole or two on the side right near the bottom edge and use it to drip water any new plantings or those that aren’t doing well in a drought. That allows me to know that the tree or bush will get 5 gallons of water and that it won’t just run off. During the summer we park a cart that holds a huge old rubbermaid water tub right outside the barn door (too big for our paddocks as it gets scummy before it gets low enough to tip). When buckets are dumped and scrubbed daily, they get emptied into this tub and we use that to fill the drip water buckets.
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I’ve always thought dumping water buckets was such a waste, and have always said I would figure something else out if I had my own place. Thanks for the idea!
If you can’t sew, I bet you could use an old boot sock that you love the pattern of… then it would be a double re-purpose project!
I’m so happy to read all the ideas in this thread… and also that I’ve now learned to use the new board’s quote features 
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Frugalannie- those bins are Not rodent proof! Last winter a mouse must have spent a good long time chewing through the lid to get at the seed inside!
Yikes! Your mice must have good dentists! At the very least the bins seem to slow the mice down enough that the barn cats can get them. Thanks for the heads up
I had a vision of a water storage tank that would have strainers and a screen on it to dump buckets into. Then a pump would water the arena with the water tank. Also tried to think of a way to recirculate water being used for cold hosing, route it through an ice holding container to keep it cool…
We have about 20 old feed tubs—the big round kind, we used them at the track—that we now use for all sorts of yard work. Weeding, hauling manure to beds and garden (and to friends’), hauling gravel, sand, limestone, to move saplings and shrubs we’re transplanting, to move bulbs were digging up. Honestly, I don’t know what we’d do without them. I used to remember which ones belonged to which horse but have since forgotten.
We use old foam saddle pads for kneeling on when working. Our garage and basement looks like an old feed room. Lots of old poultice buckets (all sizes!) for what nots, clear supplement jars for nails and screws, grass seed, etc. I’ve got some old nylon race reins, too, we’ll use to lash something together; I keep one half of one in my car as an emergency dog leash.
We have a little sapling planting area near the barn, so when I dump water buckets I walk over and water the trees.
The more I think about it, the harder pressed I am to identify something that isn’t repurposed
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Stretched or worn out stirrup leathers make great belts. Just cut to size and punch some more holes if necessary. They also work well for Oh Sh*t straps on the neck of horses.
Horse blankets beyond repair make good dog bed comforters.
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This is pretty much what lives in my head too! If anyone actually has made/makes this, please share your pictures on COTH!
@punchy It’s pretty neat how naturally and easily things can take on a new job. And you mention manure for the garden… I think we all take that availability for granted, but it’s definitely a re-purpose of sorts!
I tried the latter and someone decreed they are excellent cat beds, not dog beds, thankyouverymuch.
I’ll have to try the stirrup leather belt. I seem to have many questionable ones around. I’ve used a couple to strap things open/shut.
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Haha they work good for cats too. But my little dog snuggles up inside one and thinks it’s pretty great in there.
The only thing with the stirrup leather belts is that they don’t have a keeper. An elastic hair tie works, or just stick it in one of the belt loops.
- sincerely, someone who probably should buy a belt but refuses to.
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Or you can order just the buckle part, cut both ends of the stirrup leather to size, and clip the buckle on one end! Something like this:
I used old paint cans and pieces of PVC jump poles to make new “standards”. I cut 3’ pieces out of the damaged poles and used quick crete to cement them into the cans. I then drilled holes for jump cups. I made six of them so I can have 3 small jumps or I can set them up for pole bending.
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I’ve been saying the same thing for years!
I once suggested here on COTH that we could invent a way save our barn waste water for watering arenas, aisles, etc. and was met by the biggest crowd of negative nancies. I was kind of surprised.
I had to remove a base cabinet to put my antique stove in the house.
It lived in the barn for over 10yrs, holding all sorts of whatnot, before the particleboard back gave in to the weather.
I still have an upper cabinet mounted on the wall behind the mini’s stall that holds meds & other miscellania.
An old “entertainment center” holds my toolbox, hayknife & old towels on the shelves, other “stuff” behind the doors at the bottom.
I got a resin storage cabinet cheap from Lowe’s as it was a floor model & missing a foot. That holds a wealth of small things I want kept (relatively) clean.
Old supplement buckets get used to refill stall water buckets in the Winter, when I’m too lazy to drain the hose.
My trough in front of the barn is a 50gal food grade plastic barrel - free from a neighbor.
Footlockers - one at least 30yo - hold odds & ends: roll cotton (for shipping), rarely-used treatments like Venice turpentine, a small electric kettle for heating the VT, spare halters, shipping bandages, hoof rasp.
Rubber-coated bike hangers hold the mini’s harness.
Grain is stored in galvanized trash cans.
The cans destryoed by horses when they held a frat party in the barn are now planters in front of it*.
A Chicago Park District bench (liberated by DH - not stolen, his Mom worked there) sits beside them.
*or they will be, when I find something to plant the horses won’t eat 
And, of course, wood pallets keep hay bales off the floor.
