I started labeling my water jugs with a date and it saved me from disaster

Last summer I had 12 five-gallon jugs I rotated for emergency water, but I kept forgetting which ones were old. After 8 months I realized three of them had gotten stale and grew algae inside, totally gross. Now I write the fill date on each jug with a permanent marker and swap them every 3 months on the first of the season. Anyone else got a trick to keep track of water rotation?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura18925d ago

The date marking trick works great but I got tired of peeling off old labels so now I use a dry erase marker right on the plastic. Wipes off with a rag when I refill and I can write the new date in like 2 seconds. For the algae problem you gotta keep those jugs out of direct sunlight too, I learned that the hard way after a batch turned green in like a month. Also I color code the caps with duct tape - blue for January, green for April, yellow for July, red for October. Makes it real easy to grab the oldest ones first without squinting at the date.

finleyw9925d ago

The dry erase marker trick is a game changer, I switched to that about a year ago and never looked back. Just make sure you test it on a small spot first, some plastics can stain if the marker sits too long in the sun. Your color coding system is smart too. I do something similar with those little rubber bands from the produce section, different colors for each month. Helps when you're digging through the stash in the garage and don't want to wipe off dust to read the date.