Uses

• You can safely use rain-barrel water for gardening, laundry or car washing without any treatment.
  
  

Safety

• To promote sanitary rain-barrel water, use a screen to keep out impurities that could fall into the barrel and rot or mildew, such as leaves or bugs. While you'll still need to treat the water before consumption, you'll keep out major impurities.
  
  

Treatment

• You cannot drink or shower with rain barrel water unless you treat it. Treatment can be done with carbon filtration, distillation or ozone sterilization.
  
  

Setup

• Purchase a rain barrel from a garden store or via the Internet, or create one yourself from a plastic drum. There are guidelines available online to build your own rain harvesting system.
  
  

Caution

• Before you set up a system to cleanse your rain water, check with your local building official. Communities have different types of regulations on using rain-water systems indoors.