How to store a garden hose – the best methods and one gimmick I never recommend

There's no piece of garden equipment as useful as a garden hose. Without a hose, your plants will wither and die - it's an essential gardening tool.

However, hoses are ugly, bulky, clumsy coils of rubber. They can be tricky to bundle up and store out of sight.

As a gardening product tester, I've used a lot of hoses and my garden is riddled with dozens of hose samples. That means I know all of the best ways to store a hose.

1. Hose reel

Easily the best way to store a hose is to use a hose reel. It's a boring solution, but sometimes boring is best. A hose reel makes it easy to bundle your hose up after use, containing hundreds of feet of hose in around a single cubic foot of space.

The only drawback of hose reels is that they look a little utilitarian, so my advice is to buy a model with wheels. Not only does this make it easy to move the hose around the yard, but it makes it easy to wheel the reel out of sight for when you have guests, or when you're winterizing your hose in the colder months.

2. Wall mount

This old-school solution is straightforward but hard to beat. A good wall mount tidies your hose into a compact space, flat against the wall, and keeps it on hand for whenever you need to water.

As with hose reels, wall mounts can look a little bare. However, there are lots of decorative mounts on the market that not only hold your hose but can be incorporated into the aesthetics of your garden.

The drawback is that it's a permanent modification to your wall, and it can look a little incongruous to have a neon-green hose against an ironwork hose holder. If this bothers you, consider swapping out your hose for a low-key black or silver model. It will be harder to see in the grass, so it may be a trip hazard, but it will look less garish.

3. Wall-mounted hose reel

Expert gardener Drew Swainston told me: 'I know many gardeners swear by wall-mounted hose reels. They incorporate the best of both hose reels and wall mounts into one convenient storage solution. They sit flush against a garden wall, so they save space like a wall mount, and unlike a hose reel, they don't take up any real estate on your patio.'

Unlike a wall mount, however, you don't need to wind them in by hand - they usually wind in with a handle like a reel, making life much easier. On top of that, many models go one step beyond hose reels. These models are self-retracting, so you don't need to do any winding at all, saving you a job.

Drew Swainston

Drew qualified as a journalist and wrote for many websites and publications, before studying for a horticulture qualification. He worked as a professional gardener for several years, specializing in kitchen gardening. He's now bringing his expertise and passion to Homes & Gardens.

4. Hose box or pot

If you find hoses ugly and just want yours out of sight, hose boxes and pots offer a stylish storage solution. They're exactly as they sound; boxes and pots designed to store hoses without drawing attention. They have a discreet hole in the side to run a hose through, and drainage holes in the bottom to avoid standing water.

The big drawback with this solution is that it's not very mobile, and you can't easily move these boxes around the yard. A lesser drawback is that a lot of hose boxes on the market are tacky, fake poly wicker designs, which don't look particularly great and defeat the point.

5. Hose strap

If money is tight, your best option is storage straps. I love these - they can bundle up more than 100ft of hose and keep it neat and tidy. Best of all, they have convenient carry handles, so you can easily move them in and out of your garage or shed. Unlike some of these other options, there's no need to install anything.

The downside is that these are much more work - you need to spool and unspool the hose by hand every time you use it, which can be a little inconvenient.

Don't use an expandable hose

If you see an expandable hose advertised as a storage solution, I recommend you steer clear. I've tested several expandable hoses in my time as a product tester, and they have some big drawbacks. They can be great if you have a small patio or little kitchen garden, but they don't actually save that much space. Sure, they expand to three times their size, but a 100ft expanding hose in its shrunken form is still 30ft long. Bundled up on a wall mount, it takes up as much room as any other hose. What's more, you can't even use it on a reel, because it is likely to burst. Though they never kink in use, they get very tangled when they shrink down to size.

That's just the issues with storage, too - there are even more issues when you actually use them. They never reach their advertised size, they're heavy and unwieldy, and they aren't very robust. If you can, stick to the classic storage solutions.

For more advice on hoses, take a look at our guide to take a look at our advice about whether or not it's safe to drink from a hose, or how to stop a hose from leaking at the faucet.