My brother gave me a 55 gal barrel that he got from work. It contained soap for the car wash at a car dealership, and the soap is bio degradable, enviro-friendly. green etc. I was going to cut the top off and make a garage trash can out of it, but got to thinking that I should ask here for some ideas before I hack it up.
The only thing that I can come up with is move it to the basement and fill with water to be used for toilet flushing etc. Anyone have anything else?
BTW This soap in the barrel smells and feels just like the laundry soap that I make with Fells Naptha, Borax, and washing soda.

Rain Barrel.  I'm sure the residual soap will come out with a good rinsing.

Car wash soap is what I had in mine, been watering the garden for years with it.

Thought of the rain barrel also. Not enough rain around here to keep it full.

best use is cut them down for other uses, planters or garden implements. oil change pan etc.

Plastic or steel barrel?

Compost tumbler.
Non potable water storage.

If steel you can make a wood burning stove.

Wood burning stove kit.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I have some blue plastic barrels that I was storing kero in. Moving the kero to steel, do I now have garbage cans, or are there any ideas for old kero barrels?

OP, I think your idea for using it as a non potable water storage container is perfect. Do eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Rain Barrel all the way.

edit:  or fill it with sand and use it as a shooting backstop.

Fill it with concrete, roll your lawn with it, roll your neighbors lawn....profit?

Not sure of your AO, but if you are in earthquake country, storing your gear in a barrel allows it to be easily found if your house is trashed (paint it blaze orange) and prevents your critical gear from getting crushed if a wall falls on it.

Before you use it as a rainbarrel, you want to clean it out as much as possible.  When you think it is completely clean, put water in it, then test the pH of the water...compare to your tap/well water....if significantly different (usually if soapy it will be higher pH)...don't use it for that purpose.

If metal, should be easy to clean, if plastic, you may not be able to completely clean it out sufficiently for water usage.

Usage - possibilities are smoker (preparing food for long term storage!), water storage, gear storage container, water filtration cannister, solar still, solar oven/water heater, form for concrete pillars, the possibilities are endless...

Don't forget the ever-popular steel drum...start your own band!

Metal?
I use mine for burn barrels.

Store MRE's in it? The soap smell should keep the mice away.
Non-potable water storage makes sense too.

cut it in half longways and make cattle feeder/waterer.

or

bury it in the ground, where your outhouse will be.

Use it on your own shooting range. Can be used for cover fire and to hold objects to shoot.

We have one of the 55 cal. blue plastic barrels with a removable top.  We have filled it to within 4" of the top with water and keep it for non potable water.  It is kept in an outside storage building.  Since it is heavy plastic, freezing is not a problem.

Oh wait...

Fill it with water and in an emergency...

...filter the water and drink it.



Obvious solution until you can come up with an Enviroweeniewacko Certified EPA Friendly Global Warming Cancelling, barrel.

That we can all agree on.

You seem to be in an interesting mood this evening

 

Well, I'm sort of dismayed at the number of Pussies -even on so called Survival Forums, that the brainwashing by nutty social policies and failure of the PC education system, have, uh, bread.



Just look at the water filter thread---

Oh, wait...

Garage trash can seems best. I would hate for someone to not understand "non potable" and drink it in an emergency and get sick.

Liners

I have had problems with used barrels both the white and blue ones. I first bought 3 blue barrels that had coke syrup in them.  I was never able to get the odor or the taste out of the barrels and believe me I used everything under the sun to try to get them conditioned  for drinking water in the event of SHTF scenario should  come around.  I used bleach, baking soda, a mixture of both, and I used vinegar and other things I can't remember but to no avail they still smell of the product that was in them. Well I have ended up using them to store secondary water like bathing, waste disposal, washing clothes etc.. I then bought one barrel  that had pickles in it.. Never could get the smell out. I used it for a target at the range. Then I bought two barrels from the local car wash. I just could not get the soap out of the barrels. I have since cut them in two for use in the garden as planters. I have spend a lot of time and money trying to get  used barrels conditioned for drinking water to no avail. I have since purchased 6 new blue water barrels for $35.00 ea. which were on sale at a local grocery store. I rinsed them out with bleach and now they hold my drinking water and there is no odor to contend with. If someone says they have gotten the smell out of their barrels entirely I would suggest that their noses are not working very well. But when you get right down to it and your barrels still stink and you have water in them for what ever purpose  you will drink from them if that is all you have its just better in my opinion if they don't smell of anything.  Just my two cents.

This is what I did.

I got two.  One was made into a burn barrel.  The other is now for trash.  I use the big 55gal trash bags from Home Depot with a bungee cord around the rim to hold the bag in well.

First I used it for target practice (I mean it does need some good holes in it to draft, right). And then used it for a burn barrel. I am in the process of getting some liners for the rest of them, though. If you are trying to store some mylared (is that a word?) foodstuffs, then I believe between mylar and a liner they would be ok.


Redman

barrel potatoes

BBQ/smoker maybe


RG

I have several 55 Gal; barrels I use at the deer lease.

After they are rinsed out, they can be used to store feed, and many other items, keeping them safe from weather and bugs, and bigger animals like bears. You need to be sure the bottom is off the ground, or they will rust through in about  5 years or so.

I know a few hunting guides and outfitters that use them in Alaska, and in the lower 48 to store stuff they use in their permenate camps in the off season, so they do not have to pack out and in, everything every year.

I also know of a serial killer, that put the people he killed in 55 gal drums with some sort of acid in them and then just left them around an industrial area in his city where they were picked up and disposed of, with the rest of industrial waste...

They have a lot of uses...

wash it out good.  and keep it as is for an unknown emergency .