Genius Ways You Never Thought To Reuse An Old Garden Hose In Your Home And Yard

Garden hoses are a problem. Because they are incompatible with the machinery in recycling centers, a worn out, leaky hose is basically destined for the landfill. Unless, that is, you can find a way to reuse it.

The problem is nothing new, and neither are the solutions. In a 1993 episode of a Canadian comedy called "The Red Green Show," Red discusses uses for old hoses in a segment called Handyman Corner. His ideas are mostly absurd: a "high-volume, long-range drinking straw," a bike lock to defend against thieves without pliers, and soup-filled suspenders. But he does have an idea that seems workable ... using a bit of hose to make it easier to carry a can of paint by its wire pail handle. (Which, of course, he immediately spills.)

They aren't all terrible ideas, though. Okay, the hose with funnels on each end serving as a very obvious mechanism for eavesdropping around corners is a terrible idea. But the bail handle grip? That could just work. Let's see what else is a workable way to keep garden hoses out of the trash.

A YouTuber who goes by @southernprepper1 really likes the bail handle grip idea, as do a number of other DIYers, crafters, and sustainability fans. While Red Green was trying to carry a can of paint, @southernprepper1 had the idea of using a short length of hose to cover part of a chicken waterer bail. In his case, the bit of hose could be forced over an end of the handle, but he says you can also cut the hose lengthwise and just slip it over the bail while it's still on the waterer.

Moving from bails to bailing wire, one finds YouTuber @plantabundance, who slips a bit of bailing wire (or an extension cord, or whatever) though a foot or so of hose to stake plants firmly without abrading or cutting into the plant. The hose protects the plant when you're fixing a leaning plant or when using straps to support a newly planted tree. Depending on what you run through the length of hose, you can accomplish quite a few different garden tasks with this method.

As important as it might seem to keep plants in place, it's arguably more urgent to keep garbage bags in place... lest you spend the next half hour mucking out your trash bin. Fix.com has a few garden hose reuse suggestions on YouTube, and one is to use a few segments of hose split lengthwise to clip garbage bags onto the rolled lip or the top edge of a garbage can. This keeps the bag from collapsing inside the can when you toss things in.

While a garbage can is a fitting place to use a hose saved from the waste stream, what about using rescued garbage to welcome people to your home? Lots of crafty folks have had this idea, from a questionable project that uses a hose, $24 worth of glue, and a doormat to make a doormat to more practical versions that use cable ties rather than glue. The Hallmark Channel's color-coordinated entry finally answers the age-old question of how many Hallmark Channel actors it takes to roll up a garden hose. (Seven, it turns out.)

A less literally pedestrian, though more figuratively pedestrian, YouTuber @Thaitrick's use of old garden hose is to cut a few short segments, split them, and use them as handles for grocery bags. The handle gathers a number of plastic grocery bag handles, and you then use the single handle to carry them more easily and comfortably. There's not much to this hack, but it's probably the most universally useful thing on our list. Everyone has to struggle with grocery bags from time to time, after all.

YouTuber @homemadesimple isn't the only one to think up this use for old garden hose, but he might be the most enthusiastic. The idea is to use a split segment to cover the blade of a straight-edged handsaw for safety, and to protect the blade. He shows the hack on a dovetail saw, but others have used the same trick for edges like axes and bow saws... though it might take an unreasonably long amount of time to put the hose on a long bow saw blade.

YouTube's @Thaitrick (of the grocery bag hack) also has a few nifty tool-related, umm, Thaitricks up its sleeve. One is to slip a short piece of hose over the jaws of pliers for a non-marring bit (the hose segments can be stored on the pliers handles). But the best might be screwing split hose segments to a board scap to hold hand tools. The hose grips and releases the tools easily, and would be fitting for a number of tools like screwdrivers, chisels, pliers, wrenches, and more.

Some above-ground pools use non-standard connectors that make it impossible to use off–the-shelf helpers like pool vacuums with their pumps, leaving you to clean your above-ground pool without a vacuum. YouTuber @burbbilly solves the problem of removing sand and dirt from the bottom of a pool using nothing but a length of old garden hose powered by a simple siphon, which you can start with the intake from your above-ground pool's filter pump, or with the output from the filter pump to push the water through to get things moving.

Some inventive YouTubers are using old garden hose to route water in drip irrigation systems. As such, @learninghydro uses discarded garden hose as the trunk line moving water from a hydroponic system to potted plants. Drilling ¼-inch holes in the hose allows you to add drip irrigation tubing branches to the garden hose. @NortheastEdible also uses a hose as a drip tape stand-in for his family's garden with an approach with a leaky hose... just place the leaks in the old hose against the base of a plant that needs water.

Now, for something completely different. YouTuber @artcrafthome1005 shows a very quirky DIY clock project, in which a length of garden hose plays a minor, purely structural role. Form a circle of old garden hose and wind jute twine around it for use as the outer edge of your clock. @artcrafthome1005's stylistic choices are what make this clock special, including using googly eyes of different sizes in place of number or hour markers.

Should you make something if you don't even know what it is? Either way, you might be impressed with @Sofiacraftsdiy1's YouTube project. This looks like a very elaborate and probably time-consuming project, but it might inspire some ideas. Form two identical lengths of hose into a circle, cover them with thin manila rope, and add an unlikely combination of other discarded items to make ... well, the video doesn't seem to reveal what the project actually is, but it looks like it might be intended as a potted plant stand.