I've been working on collecting our precious rainwater for many years. Both sides of my house I have the rain "absorbed" into the ground through a channel along the property where it collects and slowly infiltrates the ground. There is small gravel on the surface for the rose garden side and a perforated pipe on gravel on the storage side.
My front yard totally absorbs most of the rain because I got rid of my lawn
a few years ago, except for a small concrete patch. Back yard is 75% concrete but the rain is collected mostly by the side-yards unless it gets over-saturated (rarely) then it runs into the drainage pipes to the street.
I have not installed gutters on my roof ($$$) but I do try to collect as much water that runs off the roof with a line of old but clean trash cans - we have had to use the provided ugly trash containers now for the past 10 + years. Spring is the only time I use all the collected water to water the gardens. Lots of water carrying but it's worth it when I see my low water bills! Been doing this for many years now.
I remember way back when neighbors said they thought my house would float away when they saw all the rain, on an especially hard rainy day, fall into my side yard off my roof. It was useless to explain to them that the rain falling straight to the ground was doing me a favor. They have the enormous water bills that I do not! Plus it's all giving back to Mother Nature the way it should be done.