Trash / Recycling

solution: simplehuman receptacles
cost: $70 - 300

When my wife, Kristen, and I moved into our home in 2008, one of the first things we took stock of was the amount of cabinet space in our kitchen. While we actually have a decent amount of over-the-counter cabinet space and drawer space, what we didn't have was enough under-counter cabinet room to store trash and recycling. This meant putting a trash can out in the open and recycling in brown paper bags, on the floor (which, for anyone who knows me well, was completely frustrating).

In my quest to prove the theory that a clean home is a happy home (and holy home, I believe), I looked into using some of our wedding gift money to purchase a couple of stainless steel trash and recycling bins which would look nice out in the open. And I found them, through the brand simplehuman.

Their tagline, "tools for efficient living" just struck a chord with me right away. Everything simplehuman sells is designed to save space and be easy to use, which is just perfect for our home. While they started as a company trying to create a better trash can (per their Web site), they now have products for the whole home, including soap pumps, trash bags, kitchen organization, shower caddies, bathroom organization, recycling solutions, laundry tools, coffee products, and accessories for all of these product lines.

Now their products aren't cheap, but in doing some research on stainless steel trash and recycling bins, I found many of them are prone to wearing out and rusting. The simplehuman line is about quality construction and style and I can say there definitely is a difference over less-expensive look-alikes, which you'll probably see at your discount retailer. The simplehuman bins just feel sturdier and feature nice soft-close tops.

We purchased two containers:

A simplehuman trash can

 



And a simplehuman recycling bin.

 





You'll pony up a few bucks for these, but if you're going to have the recycling and trash out in the open, and want something that will look great and last, these are a good option.

You can find new and used simplehuman products at Amazon.com.