Excuse me, are you dipping your brushes in CHOCOLATE MILK?!

Tash: do you use the mega totes or the regular size?

I use the regular size ones... I don't need to change it out very often - maybe every3-4 hours of painting because I spritz my paints and try to do the Gary Cole no coffee water method.... atm I need to buy more brushes... if I had more brushes I don't think I would need to change it out ever.
I will say though lost one ( meaning it started leaking out of the seemed areas) after using it for about 9 months.... I think it was from me throwing into the washing machine to clean it....ooops
I still use the leaky one sometimes I just put a little conatiner in the bottom because I really like the fact you can put your brushes in the side pockets when they have paint in them instead of washing them out... and that you can't see into it... so if it is a bit coffeed you can't tell, and it folds up and fits into my makeup case.
I would suggest getting a darker colour as the paint tends to make them look a bit manky after a while and only maybe 99% comes off when you give it a scrub.
( That said if your not lazy like me and clean your kit straight after every gig then it will probably come up clean very easily * sigh* bad habbits)

I have a large jug with a spout for festivals. and a smaller one for small gigs. i use a spray bottle to wet my sponges with..i use 4 small shot type jars for my water and change them out when they git dirty.. I only use about an inch of water so not to the the wood part of my brush wet.

i empty the dirty water in a bucket and empty later

Right now my system is simple - a cup of water, a gallon jug of clean water, and an empty container for dumping dirty water. I rarely ever need to change my water though because with the exception of one weekend festival, all I've really done so far are 1-2 hour birthday parties and since I like to use a lot of brushes, my water stays clear for the relatively short amount of time I'm painting.

I do like Shannon's method of keeping used sponges in water so they don't stain - I may have to incorporate that.