
It seems like every year I have to make a trip to our local Walmart to buy a new garden hose. One hose was accidentally left out all winter, another was crushed when someone ran it over — I could go on and on!
Since we do a lot of hand-watering during the summer, we need a functioning hose, but I’ve always felt a little bit bad about trashing those old, damaged hoses. So I thought I’d put on my thinking cap and come up with some ways to repurpose an old garden hose that would otherwise end up in the trash.
Lucky for me, a bit of internet research yielded plenty of great ideas! Check out 10 ways to put your old garden hose to good use below.
10 Ways To Repurpose An Old Garden Hose

1. Protect Your Car
Our two-car garage is just barely big enough to fit both my SUV and my husband’s truck. The tight squeeze means that I have to be really careful when pulling into the garage, and when opening my car doors. But I recently discovered that a garden hose can help protect my car from the hazards of our small garage!
Use screws to secure a short length of garden hose to points where your car might make contact (like in front of the bumper and where the doors open). The hose will act as a cushion between your car and the garage walls, minimizing damage to both.

2. Make A Soaker Hose
You can turn an old hose into a soaker system for watering your garden! Soaker hoses are more efficient, because unlike traditional hoses or watering cans, they deliver water right to the base of your plants. That means less water gets wasted or evaporated, and it’s actually less work for you!
To make your own soaker hose, use a small drill bit to make evenly spaced holes along the length of your garden hose. Screw a hose cap onto one end of the hose, and attach the other end to a water source. Run your soaker system for 30 minutes a few times a week to ensure deep watering for your garden. (Make sure to water more often when it’s really hot outside!)

3. Cover Sharp Blades
You can keep the blades on your axes, hatches, and saws sharp by sheathing them in between uses. An old garden hose has more than enough material to make sheaths for all your bladed tools.
Measure the blades of the tools you want to cover, then cut a length of hose to match each one. Use a utility knife or craft knife to cut a slit in each hose piece from one end to the other. Slide the piece of hose over the blade, and you’re done!

4. Improve Your Grip
You can use the same technique outlined above to make an easy-grip handle for buckets! Just cut a small length of hose, and use a utility knife to create a slit from one end of the hose piece to the other. Slip the hose piece around a bucket handle to make it easier to carry!
You can also use it to carry grocery bags, shopping bags, and all kinds of other things!

5. Cover Swing Chains
Use segments of garden hose to make covers for the chains on your backyard swings. You won’t have to worry about little fingers getting caught in the chains anymore.

6. Water Pots Gently
Even the gentle shower from your watering can may be too forceful for new or delicate potted plants. Use a small piece of garden hose to make an in-pot watering system!
Cut a piece of garden hose to match the depth of your pot, then drill several holes along the sides. Dig a hole near the center of pot down to the bottom and slip the hose inside. Fill the empty spaces back in with dirt, and you’re ready to water! Pour water into the open end of the hose, and the water will seep through the holes to deliver water to the roots of your plant.

7. Hang Tools
Your old garden hose can help you organize your garage by getting larger tools up off the floor. Hang up a board along one of the walls in your garage, then screw a piece of garden hose near one end. Make a loop large enough to accommodate the handle of your rake, shovel, or broom, then screw down the hose on the other end.
Repeat the process until you’ve created as many loops as you want. Slide your tools into the loops, and you’re done!
Related: Our Best Tips For Organizing Your Garage

8. Trap Earwigs
If earwigs are feasting on your plants, you can use a garden hose to create a simple and effective earwig trap.
Cut a piece of hose about 12″ long and place it in your garden where the earwigs tend to hang out. Earwigs like to hide in cramped, dark places, so they will crawl right into the hose. After a few days, empty the hose section into bucket of soapy water to kill the earwigs.

9. Sand Curved Surfaces
It can be a pain to sand curved areas of furniture, trim, and crown moulding, but a garden hose can make it easier! Cut a short section of garden hose, and wrap your sandpaper around it so the gritty side is facing out. Grip the hose and it against those tricky curved areas, and you’ll be done sanding in no time!

10. Make Door Stops
Cut a small section of an old garden hose to use as a door stop. To “install” it, just squish the hose flat with your hands and slide it underneath the door. When you let go, the hose will expand to fill the gap, and the door will stay in place. Easy!
What else could you do with an old garden hose?
For anyone who uses an electric fencer:
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I collect old hoses and cut into short lengths on a table saw. I count the number of wooden posts I am going to attach it to and string that number on my fence wire. I attach it to the post by squeezing the hose with a pair of pliers to flatten it enough to put a 2″ fence staple over it and hammer into post. If you attach it to trees you need to nail a small board to the tree and staple to it or the tree will grow over the staple and you can’t re tighten the wire. It is more work to begin with, but the insulators stand up for years without breaking and fence staples are very cheap to buy compared to the plastic insulators.
I’ve used pieces of garden hose to encircle branches or young tree trunks to attach to a sturdy support (fence or stake) until they are no longer needed. Sometimes old pantyhose works too for a season.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Oh my, I love, love, and love all of these ideas, and plan to use them
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have a cousin who weaves old garden hoses and makes them into sculptures….really! On a more mundane note, I will use this idea for my meat cleaver which doesn’t fit the knife rack, and my special pointed dressmaking/embroidery scissors which I’ve never been able to make any cover that doesn’t wear through very quickly. Thanks for these ideas.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Love these ideas! Love your site!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I took an old hose, cut it and used it to ‘link’ a good hose through a hole in my pump house (I have a well.). So when time to bring it in for the winter, I just unscrew the good hose and put it in the pump house, Next spring, just re-hook it up the the already-there hose. No need to thread it through or anything.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I used an old garden hose and zip ties to make a doormat, from a picture I saw on Pinterest. It held up for about a year until the zip ties gave out.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Ages ago we strung a chunk of hose on a rope to support a newly planted tree. the hose protects the bark of the tree so the rope doesn’t hurt it. I hope that made sense.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I was reading a container gardening book this past winter, were they used one as a container. Using zipties they made circle, ziptying the free end to the piece being overlapped, and continuing around and up to the size wanted. If you didn’t tighten them too much and/or used a soaker hose you could water by attaching to hose. I though it was good recycle idea, and if you are really good, the hose and zipties form a pattern.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.If not put trailing plants in it to hide the pot.
If you have a dehumidifier in the cellar, but no sump pump, you can put the dehumidifier high enough to attach a length of hose to drain into your utility sink. That saved my back in one of our houses.
These are terrific ideas.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Most dehumidifiers have a knockout plug in the drain bucket. I attached a small length of hose and put other end in sump pump hole for automatic draining.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I learn a great deal from your information and look forward to receiving it ! I want to thank you and let you know how grateful I am!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.About the tool hanging: you’d have to lift the tool really high to fit the handle in. Plus, you’d need enough vertical clearance to do that!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.True. So put the hose lower on the wall, maybe 2 or 3 feet fromthe bottom. The hose should be tight enough to hold the tool against the wall, but not so tight you can’t get the tool in.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Now this last paragraph contains good ideas! Thanks
Please log in or create a free account to comment.BRILLIANT!!!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Some craft sites are using old garden hoses as frames for wreathes. You can use twist ties or hot glue to add live plants, silk flowers, tiny terra cotta pots, old tools etc. to make your own wreath
Please log in or create a free account to comment.What a brilliant idea!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Jillee,
I once bought a car where they had put a “bumper” on the wall to prevent the car door from hitting the wall of their garage and it actually wore the paint off the door where it made contact with the “bumper” repeatedly. Even though the bumper protects the paint from being chipped when the door slams or knocks into the concrete or drywall or whatever, the bumpers can still cause paint to be worn off over time by just the door rubbing against the bumper.
My two car garage is kind of tight too on my side, so I back into my garage so I have more room to open the car door without worry of hitting the wall. Maybe that’s an option for you too?
Also, another good use for an old garden hose is to just cut a short length, like 4′, 10′ etc., to attach to the hydrant to fill buckets, clean off your hands or tools or whatever, without having to drag out a 25′ or 50′ full length garden hose or hose reel. By having that partial hose attached, you also don’t have to worry about the water running down along your foundation or at/on your feet.
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