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Tips & Techniques

Stacks of 5-Gallon Buckets

By Charles Miller Issue 250 - April/May 2015

I have a lot of empty 5-gal. buckets, usually from drywall compound, and I stack them up to save space. They inevitably get stuck together, to the point where a lone person has a hard time getting them apart. Holding the bucket stack with my feet and pulling up on the top bucket often doesn’t work.

I realized there was a better way to separate them using cedar shingles, which are basically long, narrow wedges. By wedging a shingle between two buckets and moving it around the gap while pushing it down, I can gradually pry apart the buckets, no matter how stuck they are.

—Paul Vernooy, Hockessin, DE

Edited by Charles Miller

From Fine Homebuilding #250

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  1. ktkcad | Feb 12, 2017 06:26pm | #1

    Leave a sliver of shingle in between the buckets as you stack them. This will help keep them separated from the get go. Keep the sliver small enough and spread around that they don't create a 'leaning tower of Pisa' effect.

  2. BillAZ | May 30, 2019 06:13pm | #2

    I use short pieces of 1/4” drip Irrigation tubing and turn the buckets upside down so they don’t collect water.

  3. edsous | May 30, 2019 06:35pm | #3

    Short pieces of romex 6- 8 inches or so bent in a u or j shape work well.

  4. Bill_R | Jun 01, 2019 06:26am | #4

    I learned that I can sell the plastic buckets in a garage sale for $2.00 each, in a recent garage sale they were my best seller. Voila, no stuck buckets. All joking aside that is a good suggestion.

  5. user-7626294 | Jul 18, 2022 04:42pm | #5

    Shoot an air nozzle at the joint, it works!

  6. 2morweeks | Jul 18, 2022 04:45pm | #6

    Fire up your air compressor and shoot air between them...they'll fly apart.

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