Hiding That Unsightly Trash

Our kitchen is small. There's really no two ways about.Though we have made a few improvements over the years to make it as functional as possible, one thing we have never done is find a more attractive solution for our trash and recycling.

 

From the beginning we have had two cheap white plastic trash cans sitting out. As you can see, we never even bothered removing the labels on them. Classy stuff. 

Recently, I decided I wanted to replace these eyesores with some stainless steel versions. When I started shopping around, I was horrified at how outrgeously expensive they were, especially for something designed to have trash thrown in it. Since we needed two, it would cost at least $80, and the ones I really had my eye on would be more in the neighborhood of $200. Needless to say, I had trouble justifying to expense to myself. 

I was standing in the trash can aisle at Meijer one day, when I started really thinking about what I wanted. I had considered a "trash can in the cabinet" system before, since we had one in the house I grew up in, but I imagined that we would be seriously sacrificing on capacity. But in that aisle, I had an epiphany. I didn't want any trash can sitting out, no matter how nice they looked. So I started researching in-cabinet cans and I came across this one from Lowes.

It got great reviews, and each trash can was actually a similar size to the stainless ones I had been looking at so we wouldn't be sacrificing size like I thought. It would also fit perfectly in the cabinet right next to our current trash cans. It was rather expensive, the cost seemed more worth it if it meant I didn't have to have them sitting out in the open anymore.

First, I emptied out the cabinet and found new homes for its former occupants. Then I just assembled and installed the sliders according to the directions. It seriously took all of 15 minutes.

Chubby approved. We lived with them like this for a few days and it quickly became apparent that I am just too lazy to go through two motions to throw away something. Opening the door and then pulling out the trash cans? No, thank you. So I went out and picked up a door mount kit.

Let me tell you, I wanted to kill people while installing this thing. It wouldn't have been near as bad had our cabinet not been right next to the wall.

I had to use an offset screwdriver to tighten all the bolts on that side and I couldn't even see the head of the screw so I had to use it by feel alone. Suuuuper annoying.

My anger came to a head when it came time to attach the door to the kit. Cait had stopped by and suggested I just completely remove the sliders from the cabinet and lay it on the floor. It went much smoother after that.

In hindsight, I probably should have done this from the beginning, but I'm stubborn.

Finally finished!

And it is sooooo wonderful to not have trash cans sitting out in the open anymore. It even makes the kitchen feel a little larger.

I have one more kitchen update that we tackled this weekend to share later on this week and I love it even more than my hidden trash!