Where do you keep your kitchen garbage can?

[stratford]

Was thinking about where the ideal place for a kitchen garbage can would be and where most people place theirs. I'm talking about the garbage can that you use to dump food waste and empty food cartons and the like. I keep mine under the sink, away from sight and smell. I was considering getting a step-open can but I can't think of a good place to put it in my kitchen if I had that. Where do you put yours?

[Cathy]

I use something similar to this, but bought mine at Ikea, more than ten years ago.

http://www.simplehuman.com/products/t...

I have not bought trash bags since owning this and use only bags from the grocery store. {put the grocery store plastic bag handles over those black handles, the lid covers the bag, store bags in bottom} There is enough space on the side of one cabinet and the outside door.

[pdxgastro]

Ok but pretty soon there will not be grocery store plastic bags.

[sunshine842]

sure there will -- you'll just have to pay for them.

[Beach Chick]

My best friend has the cabinet pull out trash and loves it like I do but he bought a large chest freezer and he freezes his trash so it doesn't smell..at first I busted his you know what until I realized it makes perfect sense...especially, if you live in hot climate that can make a full trash can sitting in the garage a horrid, smelling stink bomb!

[pdxgastro]

I always admired Jamie Oliver's Naked Chef hole-in-the-counter top garbage system. It would not be ideal for big items (milk cartons) and it's a touch unusual to cut into a counter top like that. But still...

[free sample addict aka Tracy L]

I am with the out of sight out of mind being a bad thing for me camp. Besides being forgetful, I also hate cleaning garbage pails so I tie a plastic grocery bag to one one of the door knobs on my lower cabinets, as soon as it is full out it goes. I recycle and if I lived in a place where I could compost I would compost what I could. I am single w/out kids or foraging pets. I live in a studio so space and clean air are really important to me.

[Breezychow]

We keep our kitchen trash can in the kitchen. When it's full, the trash gets moved out to the outdoor trash cans. Whey they're full, we load them into the truck & take them to the dump/landfill.

I know this may be news to city folk who don't know what happens to their trash once it leaves their kitchen, but there it is - lol!!

[westsidegal]

i have a slideout as part of the lower counters.
love this.
not only is garbage not visible, dogs and kids are unable to get into the drawer.

[iL Divo]

now that's brill.............

[LeoLioness]

In a corner of my kitchen, not close to the sink/prep counter. I drag it over when I cook.

[taos]

I have a long galley kitchen and keep the trash can at the end of one of the counters. It's the only place it would fit. The can is narrow, rectangular with a foot pedal. I use Glad ForceFlex bags in them, which I believe are worth the extra cost.

If I were custom designing my own kitchen, I'd install a pedal operated slide-out cabinet just for trash. When you kick the pedal, a drawer slides out with three top covered canisters that automatically open: one for trash, one for recyclable cans and bottles, one for recyclable paper and cardboard. When you close the cabinet, the top lid snaps back on.

[Kajikit]

I HATE putting garbage away into a cupboard. Out of sight is out of mind and I'm sure it would end up stinking the whole place up and making the cupboard germy. Our garbage can stands under the bench at the end of the kitchen because that's pretty much the only place to put it in our apartment. But it's easy to get at, and if it's time to take the garbage out you can easily see it.

[WNYamateur]

This is one of my pet peeves: I've got better things to do than open a cupboard door every time I have trash to get rid of. And better things to do with my (probably messy) hands than open a lid. So foot-release out on the floor is a necessity for me.

Same with dish detergent: I'm not opening a cupboeard every time I need it. So if I'm cooking in your kitchen or mine, the trash can is on the floor and the dish soap is out.

Did any of the earlier posts bring the Anal-retentive Chef from SNL to mind?

[Beach Chick]

Obviously, you have never used or seen the built-in/slide in versions for your trash..it really is a lovely thing and not as pesky as you have described...if that was the case, I, and others, would never go for it.
Next to my 48" Wolf double oven 6 burner stove with griddle, it's a godsend...plus, you leave it half open when your chopping on the island..no mess since there are stainless steel knobs...you can also open it with your foot at the bottom so gives you that 'foot-release' feel.

I couldn't imagine going back to the 90's to the foot release version!

[westsidegal]

completely concur re: the buit-in/ slide versions being fantastic.
i can easily pull out the drawer with my foot even though it was not built with any kind of 'special' foot pedal.

[sunshine842]

I keep my dish soap out, too....but I keep it in a pretty ceramic pump container from Mexico. Out, but not ugly.

And +1 on the having yucky hands....and I'm NOT going to make one trip to open the bin, and another trip to throw whatever mess in my hands away. Foot pedal, please....or the motion-activated one I gave away before the last move, and that I miss desperately.

[EWSflash]

Being the only female in the house, I've had to wage war on those who would stuff the wastebasket under the sink and then not take the trash out until the police showed up to look for a body due to the smell. We used to have a very long legged German Shepherd with coyote tendencies so a foot-pedal self-closing wastecan was mandatory. She's gone now, but I will never let anybody put my garbage in my cabinetry- I'm freak that way, but have smelled too many disgusting dumpster-scented undersink cabinets.

[ZenSojourner]

I'm with you - the idea of having trash in my cabinets turns my stomach.

[Beach Chick]

when we built our home, our kitchen designer from Wm Ohs stated that the best thing in the last 10 years was the built in garbage can and I laugh that you all that think we all would be dealing with smelly garbage in our cabinets...
Never ever had an issue with smell and mine is to the side of my double stainless sink.
No sticky freshners either..
; )

[John E.]

What are you putting into your kitchen trash that is so objectionable that it turns your stomach? If we have something that has an odor, we put it into the bag under the sink, tie it up and put it in the large container in the garage and line the kitchen trash can with a new liner.

[ZenSojourner]

Trash in my cabinets shall never be! I don't care HOW trendy some kitchen designer thinks it is.

I'll design my own kitchen, thank you very much. And my design will not include trash in the cabinets!

LOL!

[Beach Chick]

Though I designed my own home and kitchen and since the OP asked 'where do you keep your kitchen garbage can' and we all answered respectively, there is no need for your tone to be sarcastic.
I'm sorry you haven't had the wonderful experience of designing your own kitchen and building the home of your dreams and maybe one day that might happen, but please don't put me and others that have our built in kitchen garbage can as somehow 'Trendy' is absurd..

[ZenSojourner]

Thank you, but I HAVE built my own home and designed my own kitchen. With my own two hands as a matter of fact.

I was trying to take a lighter tone. Come on, can't you hear the campiness in "Trash in my cabinets shall never be!"

Lighten up!

[sunshine842]

c'mon you guys...you're *really* arguing about where a total stranger puts his/her garbage can?

It's a garbage can...and it's a complete stranger, whose house you will likely never enter.

If they want to hang it from the ceiling, it's their option. It's not your kitchen....just post where yours sits for the OPs benefit and carry on.

[tracylee]

"the police showed up to look for a body due to the smell."

Ours is next to a free-standing cabinet on a bare wall, step model. Under the sink is taken up by a sliding rack for cleaning supplies and not tall enough for trash.

The garbage can that goes to the curb every week is in the garage, and one week it really did smell like something had died. It was awful! We finally realized that we had shelled 3 lobsters and the weather was scorching that week. Now, shellfish shells get sealed and put in the freezer until trash day.

[Breezychow]

I have mine right out in the kitchen. It's a lovely extremely sturdy & well-made piece from the "Home Decorators" catalog. Muted green with a painted fruit design on the front. Holds a basic white kitchen "grab tight" bag very nicely & contains all odors. One of the best purchases I ever made for the kitchen. Looks absolutely lovely & does what it's supposed to do. Plus, I can use my cabinet spaces for much-needed other items.

[iL Divo]

we used to have a receptacle under the kitchen sink for years as a matter of fact and we are a family of 5 so that was really dumb. my husband one day came home with a huge industrial trash can with lid, not galvanized just hard plastic and it holds a 30 gallon trash bag, he put it in the kitchen store and it's been there ever since. makes sense, out of sight out of mind and out of the way of me tripping more importantly

[BobB]

Ours is at the end of the prep counter, and foot-operated, making it very easy to access when cooking - no hands required. It's made of stainless steel and is quite heavy, with a rubber base and no protruding lip on the cover. In other words - it's cat-proof! Not even our muscle-bound 20-pounder can get into this thing.

[Beach Chick]

when we built our home, I had the cabinet maker make a slide out next to the kitchen sink for a good size trash can...
It blends with my cherry cabinetry and a lot of guests will immediately try and put trash underneath the sink and they get punk'd..
If I put in a new garbage bag, sometimes I will hook a plastic bag over to catch trash from making dinner since when I place a new bag in, I want it to stay new and shiny without the evenings meal sitting overnight smelling up the place..I can just wrap up the smelly bad boy and have my clean garbage can bag all white and pretty...sad, I know.

[lynnlato]

"they get punked" - Ha!

I do the same thing - attempting to preserve the clean, fresh trash bag. I'll bust out a plastic grocery bag and put table scraps, etc. in there, tie up that bad boy and toss it out in the wheeled-giant trash bin out in the garage. Its kind of like vacuuming and then running around behind the dog and kids picking up crumbs, hairballs, etc. so as not to mess up the clean carpet again. It's really pointless. LOL

[Beach Chick]

LOL ...were we separated at birth?
I so love doing the bag over the shiny new garbage bag...then my husband in the morning plops the coffee maker grounds in the newbie, and then I'm over it and back to throwing garbage in like nobody's business!

[buttertart]

I wanted to have one of the Simplehuman ones installed but the space under my sink is too small. My dad used to have what was essentially a plastic-coated wire frame with a lid and handles to hold a plastic grocery bag - this would fit in my space. Does anyone know if such a thing is still available?

[lynnlato]

Is this what you are talking about, buttertart?: http://www.wasserstrom.com/restaurant-supplies-equipment/Product_901751

I remember the coated-wired-framed contraptions that held the small bags for food scraps. Grandma had one on the kitchen counter. Like this:

http://www.shophometrends.com/product...

[buttertart]

Yep! thanks, I'm going to see if I can scare one up. PS I love you ;-), I've been trying to get my hands on this for months.

[lynnlato]

Ha! My pleasure. I was curious and so just googled it. It would be handy in a small apartment. Good luck!

[buttertart]

Definitely. I just don't have an appropriate place for a garbage can in my kitchen although there's space. Want it out of sight.

[Pia]

Buttertart, if you haven't found one yet, I've seen a cheaper version from SimpleHuman that I think is also what you're looking for:
http://www.simplehuman.com/products/t...

They have this at our local Target, or it's easy to find online.

[buttertart]

Thanks very much, we got one of those and thought we had it made but it's too wide for the under-sink cabinet so it's now under the downstairs bathroom sink. It would have been ideal for the kitchen. I got a plastic bag hanger but I'm not sure how well it will work.

[justalex]

We have a good-sized, walk-in pantry 4 feet from the sink. Due to our dogs, we keep the swing lid trash bin in there. Trash goes out nearly every day. No smell, no mess.

[lynnlato]

Same here. I don't like it out in the open and I don't want to put a small bin beneath the sink. It has worked fine for us. If we have potentially stinky items we just take them out to the main garbage container in the garage.

[flavrmeistr]

?? Why, in the kitchen, of course! The trick to keeping the kitchen from smelling is to empty it once a day. Or more.

[jeanmarieok]

With kids, I've had bad experiences with trashcans under the sink. But mine's not a slideout, which would make a big difference. Mine is next to the refrigerator, and not visible unless you are standing in my immediate work 'L'.

[Georgia Sommers]

Under the sink. When I was growing up we had a large family and folks weren't recycling much then, so there was alot of trash. Our Rubbermaid-ish can was out and had one of those lids that swing in when you touch it. I always hated it because the lid got dirty every day and had to be cleaned off when you cleaned the kitchen after supper. I really disliked that job!
Love my small, lidless container under the sink that gets changed often.

[John E.]

When I was a kid, we not only were not recycling, we had a burning barrel in the back yard and burned our trash. The non-burnable trash had to be taken to the town dump. It wasn't until later that the city had a trash hauler come around twice a week to pick up the trash.

[Georgia Sommers]

Ok, now I feel positively youthful! :)

[sunshine842]

My grandma's trash got burned until sometime well into the 70s....so you're not as old as you think!

[odkaty]

Some of my relatives still burn their trash ...

[_jj_]

We have an open can with no lid to get messy. Smelly trash goes out right away. The can is sized so the kitchen bag is larger than the can so you always have room to close it completely no matter how full the can gets! We keep it out in the kitchen right off the work triangle. Works well for us but no dogs in the house.

[dave_c]

Simple answer... due to my dog, I keep it under the sink with baby locks on the door.
.
When I'm cooking a big meal, I'll pull it out and put it in the corner so I have easy access.

[bytaber]

I have a pull out to the left of my sink. and the pull out next to it is for recycling. My ex-mother-in-law used to keep a small garbage can on top of her counter by the sink where she put food garbage, and she kept it out until it was full. Ewww.

[beachmouse]

Step open can in the dread stainless steel finish. There's a spot of wall between kitchen cabinets and the door to the laundry room that seemed designed to put a trash can there. We don't have dogs so we can get away with it, and it would crowd out cleaning products if we went under the sink.

It's from Simple Human, and is more of a fat 'D' shape than a round, which somehow lets us fit more stuff in every bag.

[sunshine842]

Mine's a heavy-duty plastic, but looks for all the world like brushed stainless with black trim, so it's as attractive as a garbage can can be....it at least matches all my appliances and the handles and trim on my cupboards.

It's a 12-gallon step, and sits on a small wall between two doorways in my kitchen.

I simply don't have the cupboard configuration to put it under the sink, so it's in plain view, behind the sink in my galley kitchen, and just a few steps from the stove and my work surface...it's more one of those things where there isn't really a better place to put it...so there it sits.

[beevod]

What garbage can? I have a window.

[melpy]

hahahahahha

[Bill Hunt]

We have an angular kitchen cabinet, beneath the sink. There, you will find the garbage pail on a track, that can be drawn out. The pail is behind a cabinet door.

Hunt

[pikawicca]

Mine is under the sink, but I crave the trash can I saw on a cooking show a couple of years ago. It was a hands-free model on wheels, made in Italy. It would really work in my kitchen, but I can't find it.

[Bill Hunt]

Now, did it follow the chef around, waiting to be used?

Hunt

[pikawicca]

Hah! Now there's a money-making idea, for sure.

[BobB]

Like a top-loading version of a Roomba - I like it! It would be tricky to keep it from getting underfoot, though.

[sunshine842]

Just get yourself a Labrador -- underfoot, follow you everywhere, and devour everything before it hits the floor

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

We have a long galley style kitchen, and we have a step-to-open can for the organic garbage. It has to be close enough to easily dump stuff in, but putting it under the sink is too stuffy, and gets moldy and smelly too quickly (hot, humid climate). Our apartment complex has bins for organic waste (aka pig slops), so the food garbage is kept strictly separate from other garbage.

Containers get washed and put with the recycling on the back balcony.

[John E.]

I mentioned earlier that we keep a small trash can under the kitchen sink. We use the plastic bags from the grocery store to line it with. What I failed to mention was the door to the garage where the big trash bin is kept is only about 10 feet from the kitchen sink. If the trash didn't start to stink in the warm months, we could get our trash picked up only every three or four weeks.

[c oliver]

Where we live now weekly pickup is the only option. It makes me a little crazy that I'm paying for other people's lack of recycling etc. But not too crazy cause I have so many other things to obsess about :)

[bagelman01]

Where we live, eventhough we pay 14K+ in annual property taxes, we pay for trash pickup. Using the trash compactor cut our pickup from 2 cans twice a week to 1 can per week. This cut the private hauler's bill from $104 to $26 per month.
The town picks up recyclables weekly for free. My biggest cutdown on trash gping to the curb was switching 3 daily newspapers from home delivery to online editions.

[melpy]

Our borough lets has us pay by the bag but recycling is free once you buy the one time bin (which cost either 7 or 13 dollars but it was a fews years ago so I don't remember). A bag used to be $4 but now it's $3.80. I put recycling out every week (usually so full I have to put some things next to the bin) and trash once every 2 to 3 weeks.

[c oliver]

Funny seeing this thread. We're doing a house exchange and their trash can is across the room from the sink (12+') and I already find it annoying. Yeah, I could bring it over by the sink and prep area but I'd rather have it under the sink. A container out in the floor wouldn't work since my avatar-Airedale always thinks she's starving. We had a trash compactor in a home and I stopped using it. Two reasons. I found a full compacted bag to be quite heavy to lift and carry. Also we recycle and eat up so much that many weeks we make only one bag of uncompacted garbage. When we lived in Oregon we could actually opt for garbage pickup only every two weeks.

[melpy]

I never thought about how far it is form the sink. I rarely put anything in the trash (wrappers from things), most items get put in the disposal.Mine is also all the way across the room. It happens to be the place the can fits the best.

[majordanby]

anyone have ant problems in the kitchen? How do you deal with them with regards to your kitchen garbage can?

[Kajikit]

The ants crawl all over the counters, the sink, the walls... they're the bane of my existance! But I've never seen them express any interest in the garbage can.

[tracylee]

I get ants by the sink and in cupboards, but not the trash.

[Georgia Sommers]

Under the sink. I like it out of sight and the small can means the trash must be taken out frequently. That's a good thing!

[bagelman01]

NO can, we have a built in trash compactor. It's under the counter next to the ovens.........
Food waste goes in the garbage disposal.
My wife says of all the appliances, she would never be without a trash compactor. No smelly accumulating garbage in the kitchen. No constantly hauling trash out to the bins. Just lift a compacted bag every three days.

[Midlife]

We LOVE our trash compactor but find that lots of people believe they smell. I don't know if we have impaired olfactory issues, but we don't smell anything from it, so long as we're somewhat careful about what we put in there, and take it out every few days. We also spray inside it with Lysol spray whenever we replace the bag. The only negative is the tendency to avoid taking it out until it's really heavy.

If we wanted to I've been told there are odor-minimizing things we can buy to mount inside it, but we don't see any space for such a thing. The older one we had in our last home had a compartment for a deodorizer. This one (a GE) doesn't.

[im_nomad]

Recyclables are out in the porch, but my main kitchen garbage is right in the kitchen in a corner, a pedal model with a locking feature that keeps my dog from burrowing in there. Under the counter models are a bit too small for my needs, as the garbage here only goes out once every two weeks.

[Pia]

I've tried various configurations and the one I like best is a slide-out trash can in the prep area. It's out of the way and in a very convenient place. I was worried about the smell at first, but we take it out every other day or so and the smell has never been a problem.

[Caroline1]

I keep mine in a corner where the sink counter top meets the side wall. It's a tall stainless steel model, and not totally unattractive, but it does take up floor space. Of necessity, it sits in front of a couple of cabinet doors, but fortunately they aren't cabinets that I have to access frequently. But as soon as I figure out WHICH under-counter cabinet I can give up, it's out of here and I'm getting a trash compactor! If you can figure out where to put one without handicapping your cabinet space, they are the ONLY way to fly!

[Barbara76137]

I live in an apartment and have a galley kitchen. My laundry room is at the end of the kitchen and has a door. I keep my 13 gallon kitchen garbage can in there. It is out of the way, yet easily accessible. My current garbage can has a flip top but I'd love a motion-activated or foot open/close one.

If I'm doing a lot of prep with a lot of waste I can simply move it next to me at the counter. I can't stand garbage under the sink.....I think that can attract a lot of critters up through walls and around the pipes, especially in an apartment.

[John E.]

We keep ours under the kitchen sink as well. We also considered exactly what you're considering, either the foot pedal thing or they have some that have an electric lid that opens when you wave your hand over the motion sensor, kind of like the paper towel dispensers in some public restrooms. (I recently was waving my hand like a madman in front of a paper towel dispenser when my son said "Dad, it's not motion activated"). Anyway, we ultimately decided since we didn't like any of the spots that were available in our kitchen, we'd just stick with the smaller can under the sink. My wife thought a bigger can would just keep the trash in the kitchen longer.

[Ruth Lafler]

I agree. Having a smaller can ensures you take it out more often.

When I designed my current kitchen one thing I insisted on was that the garbage be inside a cabinet -- mostly because I was tired of telling my dog fifty times a day to get her head out of the upright kitchen garbage pail I had. Right now I'm coveting a can that attaches to the cabinet door and automatically opens when you open the door.

[masha]

We have the garbage can -- actually a plastic bin -- in a slide out cabinet immediately to the right of the kitchen sink, just under the counter area where we typically do both prep work & clean up. So, it's out of sight, and close to where most of the waste is generated.

[Shann]

This is exactly what we have. It is a very convenient way to do it. The slide out was actually suggested by the contractor for our dog food bin and the garbage bin. Great ideas.

[The 1st and only KSyrahSyrah]

I have a slideout underneatht the kitchen sink. I can't stand garbage out in the kitchen.