My junk drawer is above my trash pullout.

Silverware. It's the most conveniently placed drawer for it. Never thought about it being near trash as a problem.

Dish towels, new sponges, and microfiber cloths for cleaning the SS. I relocated my junk out of the kitchen!

Junk drawer---extra keys, pens, tape, etc..above that on the counter is my drying rack..to the left of the sink. It's in a corner of the kitchen not conducive to "everyday" items. The cabinet above has items not used every day either.

We have silverware as well. There is a solid piece of wood between the trash/recycle and the drawer above.

Another vote for silverware.
There's a solid piece of wood between the silverware and garbage. It's called a "drawer bottom" + the silverware caddy wood.

Mine's right next to the sink, so it's the most convenient.

K-cups and coffee doo-dads.

Prep sink cabinet has 3 lower pullouts: 2 recycling, 1 trash.

Above the right most pullouts are tilt down trays:

Above the left most is a 12" shallow drawer and behind it my inset composter.

This post was edited by oldbat2be on Tue, Jan 22, 13 at 17:37

My recycle pullout is on the island. My cabinet maker did not want to cut through any cabinetry for an outlet so he "hid" one behind a tilt-out drawer above the recycle pullout. It's a perfect hiding place and right next to where I keep my appliances.
I think a drawer for garbage bags and misc. items would work well too.

Instead of a drawer, I have a paper towel cubby above the trash pullout, since it's right next to the sink. This is what it looked like before the counter went on.

Oh, you'd be surprised how many people here think storing anything food related above the trash pullout is disgusting. I've seen this discussion before. :)

I store baggies, plastic wrap, wax paper, washed/reusable plastic produce bags, and my compost bucket liners. Such a handy drawer and just the right size for all those small items so they don't get lost in a big drawer. It makes cleanup and prep so much easier.

A drawer with a zillion dish towels. Use them for everything.

It's next to the prep zone and the perfect width for the in-drawer knife block we already owned, so that's what's in there, my knives.

I have my foil, plastic wrap, baggies - the often-used things, and a hot mitt.

I posted a very similar question last month:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1209010111186.html

I thought about installing an extra tall toe-kick drawer underneath, thereby raising the whole trash pull-out up and eliminating the need for a drawer on top at all, but instead settled on an interior drawer for paper recycling as shown in the picture. (Sorry, I forgot who this belongs to but it is in the thread I indicated).

Also, here is what I meant by an extra deep toekick drawer underneath. Again, sorry I don't recall who this belongs to but it is an awesome idea.

Olivertwist--those cabs with the toekick belong to Loves2cook4six.

Here is a link that might be useful: Loves2cook4six's kitchen

This post was edited by breezygirl on Wed, Jan 23, 13 at 0:14

I have moved into the kitchen yet but my plan is for dish towels and if there is still room to store some unused sponges. My trash pull out is directly to the left of my sink.

What is the size of your cab that houses pull out waste? And does it accommodate one or two waste containers?

So far, mine is planned to be 24". It's wider than it needs to be, but its to the left of the sink and then there's a corner cabinet. It would have two containers and an area to keep the trash bags,etc.

I'm just trying to decide what to put above it. It is the best spot for silverware. Just trying to assess if people think that is gross (for most doesn't seem to be the case). If I decide against that, I think I will put my dish towels, drying mat there.

Thanks to everyone for your responses!

I have knives in the drawer above my trash pullout. The pullout is to the left of my sink. The rest of my flatware/ cutlery is in the adjacent drawer to the left of this.

My trash pullout is 24" I believe. Can't get in there to measure right now as floors were finished this week and still have to stay off of them. There are two smaller trash cans stacked front to back. I will use front for trash and back for non-paper recycling ( cans,bottles,plastics). I have space next to the cans where they made a shelf so I can store extra trash bags and maybe some paper towels. Although on second thought maybe not the paper towels since that might be gross. Maybe the Lysol will go there to spray in can after I remove the trash.

Dishtowels are over my trash. But my cabinet builder was thinking one step ahead of me and made the cabinet that holds the trash pull out a separate box from the drawer above.

I never would have thought of that. Yes, I think he's a genius!

ayerg73, you must have my kitchen! Completely enclosed trash box with drawer for towels above. Only 12" on the interior so small trash bag doesn't linger too long. One small trash bin in front with another one for recycling behind.

I am putting my outlets (required by code) above my trash pullout. Looking into sillites for this.

What wonderful ideas! I only have two small cabinets that I can install a pullout trash unless I put it under the sink. Right now I use one drawer for silverware and the other for odds and ends but maybe I will use some of these ideas for my renovation. Thank you!

Our dbl trash pullout is in the island in prime prep area. We store our knives in the drawer above it.

This is what we ended up doing.
In front is trash, in back is plastic/glass/metal recycling, and on top is paper recycling.

We have the large trash containers in our 18" cabinet. In the specs, it said that a drawer couldn't be placed over it, and that's true - it would have been too tall. But, we do have left over space and I'm going to ask our cabinet maker for a shelf to put in there so I have a place to store paper bags (we use for inside the recycle bin) and garbage bags.

Guess I'm one of those weird people that doesn't like trash near their cooking goods...probably too much time working in bacterial infections lol.

My trash pull-out is extra tall, so there's no room for a drawer above it. The trash bins (one garbage, one recycling) have lids as well. It's flanked by a wall on one side, and the kitchen sink on the other (which holds all my chemicals and cleaning solutions, so I like to think it's a bit of a bacteria barrier...then it's the dishwasher, so it's a clean zone for everything past that.

...yeah, I'm a bit of a germ-a-phobe apparently.

I am with you there, Awnmyown. We plan on doing a tall cabinet for the trash/recycle cans. No drawer above it. I had second thoughts after reading all these comments, and asked my cabinet maker about it - he said they never do a drawer above it, because of odor issues and to allow for a taller trash can.

I have my papertowel cubby above my trash pullout. I have a 18" tall trashcan drawer and a 8" cubby for the papertowels. It's fully built in, so no odors most likely coming through the cabinet wall. My trash and recycling seem to get so full so quickly that I rarely deal with odor issues--I have to empty them every day. Also, much of my food scraps go to my chickens, so I don't throw away a huge amount of "raw" food. Obviously the only thing that I would never give them is raw meat scraps and food that has been cooked (salted, etc.), and that seems just gross to leave in a trash can, so I empty that right after dinner.

Does having a drawer over the trash pull-out interfere with sweeping trash from the counter into the trash can? I'm wondering if the drawer face or handle gets dirty if its between the counter and the trash.

I'm considering having a pull-out that holds two cans, with the outer can for trash and the inner one for compost, so we can sweep stuff from the counter directly into the cans.

I would never keep food scraps in that bin, but I imagine that unless your countertop edge protrudes at least as far as the handle on the drawer above the trash bins, it would have to interfere.

I'm so thankful for this thread! I hadn't seen prior ones. I'd waffled about what was and wasn't problematic to put there. It's in a prime location between my sink and fridge.

I'd been planning on no drawer above to accommodate a taller can, but switched to one with a drawer above and 2 smaller cans in my 18" cabinet. I think it'll either be for foil/wrap and/or ziplocs etc. or for knives. It's in a spot where we currently have an old-fashioned (or so I've learned) pull out cutting board. So it's where I'm used to prepping. I just can't figure where I'll end up prepping in new kitchen. So that will determine where the knives end up.

I just finished my kitchen and haven't quite got everything in place yet. I do have an 18" wide pullout with both an external drawer and an internal drawer. It contains a trash can and a covered compost bucket. I could have put two big trash cans in there. The internal drawer has dishwasher soap and garbage bags in there so far, and the external drawer has my cutlery. It is across from the kitchen sink but on my longest cabinet run.

@beaglesdoitbetter1, where did you get the hardware to do your cutting board? Can you remove the board?

I am one of those that finds it a little gross to keep anything food related or even utensils, dish towels, or something that may touch and object that goes in your MOUTH!

We have our “junk” drawer directly above the trash/recycle pull-out. However I don’t like anything in there because items in there absorbs smells from the trash. (I think mostly “plastic” items) i.e. if we put garlic in the trash our pens will smell like trashy garlic. Then when you use a pen your hand will smell... I suppose we could just start a compost and omit plastic from that drawer all together. Not sure if the smell sticks to the metal and paper products as much.

After reading peoples responses I’m leaning towards filling it with dishwasher soap pods; not sure what else would be a safe item as-well.

It's to the right of the sink, and before the range. In the drawer above I store silicon oven mitts, scrubbing pads for dishes, and the like. The trash has two compartments, recyclables in back, regular trash in front. Compostables go in a separate portable "pot" with lid, before going outdoors (or to the chickens, depending upon what it is). Yes, the garlic doesn't end up in the bins under the counter! It's composted.

I put my garbage bags in the drawer

We are going to install a Rev-A-Shelf pull out trash can drawer ourselves in our new house we are having built. I have asked the cabinet maker to leave the space empty (no shelves) and the door face loose (no hinges installed) so that I can mount the door face to the pull-out trash drawer. There will be another smaller drawer above the trash drawer so we weren't sure whether it would be a good idea to have a floor bottom mounted above the trash bin area to separate the two areas from each other so that smells don't permeate into the area above. The small drawer above the trash bin area will likely just be random items (sandwich bags, utensils) no food. Do you think this is a wise idea or not worth it?

I should add this this will be located on a corner cabinet, adjacent to a peninsula. On the other side of the cabinet will be the dishwasher.

Mine is at the end of the island across from sink and dishwasher. Because the island is where leftovers go for packing up in the fridge I leave Saran foil sandwich bags etc in it. Next to the sink is drawer with dish towels cloth napkins etc etc.

Michael none of my ziploc bags or Saran has ever smelled from the trash being underneath it. Just FYI

Ours is also in a corner, next to dishwasher. I have dishcloths, and dishwasher soap in the drawer.

We’ve lived in our kitchen for 12 years now with just the drawer bottom above the trash pullout, no extra divider. Our upper drawer holds knives, so that’s not really relevant to your question, although there are no smell issues. I just wanted to say that there have been times a solid divider would be helpful anyway. Occasionally when getting full, an odd-shaped or large trash or recycle item can stick up high enough to interfere with the drawer operation. This can mean both are difficult to open freely, and I have to be on the floor, reachly blindly between to dislodge whatever culprit is causing the bind under the drawer.

Of course, emptying in a timely manner and/or not adding flattened plastic gallon bottles to a nearly full bin, only to have them pop back out to almost full size, are ways to solve these problems before they happen, but in family life- ours, anyway- things aren’t always done perfectly. :)

Just something I thought you might want to consider besides the odor issue.

Thank you for the feedback! I didn't even think about the trash contents interfering with the drawer above. It probably would be wise to have a divider between the two spaces then.

Would you say a 35 quart trash can would be a decent size for 2 people living in the home?

We have a divider b/w our top drawer and the trash & recycle bins below. We have no smell issues at all and no transfer of odors to the items in the junk drawer above.

I strongly recommend the divider...if you have an over-full trash pullout, I'd rather it was brushing the divider than the drawer above.

In our tiny apartment sized kitchen, the only place for a trash pull-out was right below the sink. We have the Simple Human trash/recycling bins. The cabinet is only 21 inches and the plumber angled the drain pipe sideways to accommodate it.

Can just say that THIS is why I love Houzz? I came here with this question knowing someone had asked it and many had answered it!