In the past year, those of us in Northeast Georgia have become used to a different way of using water.

The historical drought in the area has forced everyone to conserve water, at some level, inside and outside the home.

Some folks take shorter showers or flush toilets less often inside the home. Outdoors, many collect rain water in barrels for watering plants.

But now with our recent rains, the barrels outside are overflowing. And while we're thankful, many are wondering - what to do with all this water?

Vicki Barnhorst, executive director of the Lake Lanier Association, advised people to save it.

"Even though, with the rain that we've had, the lake has come up several feet ... the forecasters haven't said this is a trend yet," she said. "We still have to conserve the water that we do have."

And just because we've gotten the much-needed rain doesn't mean everyone should start using their well or city water again to water outdoor plants.

"You don't have to have a drought to use a rain barrel - store it and use when needed," Barnhorst said.

Northeast Georgia is still in an "extreme" level 4 drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. This level 4 drought covers 7.5 percent of the state, compared with 49.4 percent of the state in the same situation one year ago.

But South Hall resident Paul Barnes said he learned the hard way that holding water in a rain barrel in the dead of winter does have its disadvantages.

Namely, one of his 55-gallon rain barrels cracked last winter when the water froze. It's now just a 30-gallon drum.

"In the wintertime I don't leave water in it because I don't want them to freeze and bust," said Barnes, who has 12 rain barrels at his Flowery Branch residence. "What I do in the spring and early summer - up until October - I save water in those barrels and I water my garden out of it and the flowers."

Barnes said only about a half an inch of water needs to fall in order to fill up his 12 rain barrels. Needless to say, his barrels have filled up a lot in the last week.

An avid gardener, Barnes began using rain barrels almost 10 years ago.

"I had a well and I wanted to conserve my water. We started having drier seasons, and I had to do something because I didn't want to take the water out of the well," he said. "I've checked and I have a rain gauge right there, and since last Friday we've had 6.1 inches of rain here, so that's good."

Barnhorst also said she is excited about the abundant rainfall in our area.

"I'm thrilled it's gone up; it was hovering so close to the record low," she said. "There are a lot more boat ramps open ... I hope that the lake will go up considerably and we will have a wonderful start to the summer."

But we still need to be realistic and keep conserving, according to Scarlett Fuller.

"We should still do what we were doing," said Fuller, a water conservation specialist with the city of Gainesville. "For us (the rain) is good, but (conservation) should be a way of life. We are still down 15 feet ... definitely not out of the clear. We could easily not have any rain for a while."

Fuller said the water restrictions from the summer months have not changed in Hall County and she doesn't expect a change anytime soon.

"We are happy for every drop we get," she said. "In our local area, we are reminded every time we drive over a bridge that (the drought) is not over."