Here's a solution that my friend came up with: Take a bunch of Styrofoam cups Cut out the bottoms of the cups Stack them up Put the wide end of the top cup under the faucet, and the (cut open) thinner end of the bottom cup over the edge of the sink Place the urn directly underneath the end of your Styrofoam cup chain Turn on the sink At the end, your contraption should look like this:
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/59/Shokhet
Similar to @Shokhet's answer you can also use a clean dustpan, as shown below: Source: Trupser.com
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/63/Luke Shimkus
Step 1: Get a smaller container which actually fits in the sink.
Step 2:
Fill it up.
Step 3:
Dump it into the larger container Step 4: Repeat Steps 1-3 as needed.
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/168/Sterno
This is really simple, but if you urn is very big, it is quite difficult to do :D take a smaller volume fill it with water from your tap pour the water from the smaller volume into your urn.
Another variant: take a large plastic bottle (e.g. 1.5L+) cut the bottom and put the bottle in this way:
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/21/nicael
I've used a flexible cutting board for this, if the faucet is above the lip of the sink.
You can curve the flexible cutting board into a "U" shape, put one end under the faucet, and put the other end over the thing you're filling.
Turn on the water slowly & carefully to make sure it's running the right direction.
And since water will run downhill (isn't that a saying?), your urn or other container will get filled up.
:)
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/4198/BrettFromLA
These are all great answers.
I've also used a plain ol' baking tray that was not as wide as the bucket I was trying to fill up.
Hook one of the lips of the baking tray under the faucet, and hang the tray over the edge
so there's enough force from the other side of the tray trying to fall, to keep the water from splattering too much from out of the faucet.
The advantage that this technique has over the styrofoam cups technique, I think, is that the tray will be much sturdier, and thus be able to take more force, and perhaps perform better under hot water, over a long period of time (depending on your bucket size, and how many times you need to refill it).
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/1732/Jason D.
You can attach a length of garden hose to your kitchen sink using an adapter.
This should allow you to fill any size container.
http://www.wikihow.com/Attach-a-Garden-Hose-to-a-Kitchen-Faucet
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/1505/Jason Hutchinson
Unscrew the U-shaped trap plumbing below the sink.
You can often do this with your bare hands.
Then simply place your container vertically under the drain hole of the sink, and open the faucet.
Careful:
usually there is a gross amount of gross dirt inside, with some water, so don't spill that.
And since the water runs through the dirty drain pipe before getting to your container, this is not applicable when you need clean water .
But if you just want to water a tree or something …
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/4673/tanius
I have a large container (a hot water urn) that I need to fill with water.  I don't have access to a hose, unfortunately, so that is not an option.  I did also try stuffing the urn in the sink, but that didn't work because the sink is too small to fit the urn inside.  How can I fill my hot water urn from a sink that's too small for it?  This also applies to any other bucket or water container.
How do I fill a hot water urn that doesn't fit in the sink?
lifehacks.stackexchange.com
<kitchen><water><sink>
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/60
lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/59/Shokhet
The simplest way to fill an urn that won't fit in the sink is probably to fill up small containers and empty them into the urn. Alternatively, you could use a garden hose with an appropriate attachment. There are many possible solutions - you could fill the urn using a smaller vessel bit by bit, channel the water into the urn using a pipe made from styrofoam cups or a dustpan, cutting board or baking tray, attach a garden hose to the sink and use that or remove the u-bend below the sink and fill the urn directly from the water exiting the sink.
Make a tube out of styrofoam cups with their bottoms cut out and run it from the sink to the urn. Use a clean dustpan. Get a smaller container that does fit and use it to fill the urn in stages. If the faucet is above the lip of the sink use a flexible cutting board to fill the urn Use a baking tray to channel the water into the urn Attach a length of garden hose to the sink and fill the urn through that. Remove the u-bend beneath the sink and fill the urn directly from the plug hole, as long as you do not need clean water.