We have had a rain barrel attached to our garage roof for over a decade now, but a perennial issue is present. Due to the large cluster of trees and low-hanging branches near the roof of the building, the gutter and downspout often clutter with tree-debris. To combat this, we cut out some screen mesh to fit inside. While this did help, it was unreliable and often got covered in leaves and sticks, making cleaning it a routine procedure.

Paper bags are great. They are much more sustainable than their plastic counterparts and they are reusable and recyclable. I often keep or collect these bags because they have so many uses. The issue I have is that I don’t have a good place to put them. At the moment, they are stored behind my recycling bin, being propped up. When I take out the recycling they all fall down and make a mess.