It doesn't. I have one for the first time in my Florida home. I love how I can cut and chop, then open the drawer and drop in the remains. So convenient.

I appreciate it even more as my house in the north has a stand-alone and although not too far, it's annoying walking back and forth. I have simple human so not convenient to keep moving the pail to be near the sink area.

I prefer trash pull-out. Will you have a disposal? When I didn’t have a disposal, my trash smelled a lot more, though you could only smell it when you opened the pull-out. There has never been a smell from my trash when the pull-out is closed. With a disposal (must be 3/4 or 1 hp, no less), the garbage doesn’t smell at all. There is also a disposal specifically made for septic if that is what you have.

The other thing to consider is location of the pull-out. Don’t put it in the wrong spot. The best location IMO is next to the sink, or next to the sink between the sink and the dishwasher, depending on your setup.

Yes, we'll have a disposal. We currently have the pull out planned for right next to the sink. I have planned a 24" with two bins, one for trash and one for recyclables.

No the food doesn’t smell, we have a circular trash can that mounts on the inside of the door under the sink and the lid is fixed so when you open the door the can swings out with the door and then when you close the door the lid covers it. Our can is not extremely large so it gets emptied every couple of days so it doesn’t get the chance to smell.

How often will you take the garbage out? We don't have a disposal so ours goes out nightly. We keep ours under the sink. The cabinet has never smelled.

We typically take the trash put each night.

No smell I have pullouts. And who is putting their head in the cabinet to worry about smell? Don’t put the dishes next to it if he’s worried put the dishwasher next to it

Why would a pullout smell any more than a standalone?

We've had both and the pullout is far, far superior to the standalone! Our trash is taken out every couple of days, and it doesn't smell.

Our trash pullout has a divider b/w the top drawer (which we use as a junk drawer) and the trash below it.

BTW...you only need an 18" wide cabinet for a 2-bin trash pullout. Merge those other 6" with another cabinet to make a wider cabinet.

Location...the best location for a trash pullout is in the Prep Zone. Far more trash & recyclables are generated while prepping and cooking than any other time/task in the Kitchen, including cleaning up and for a much longer period of time (you spend 4x more time prepping & cooking than you do cleaning up).

The Prep Zone is usually on the non-DW side of the sink, so that's where it should be. Unless...if you have a prep sink elsewhere (e.g., in an island) and that will be your primary Prep Zone, put it in that Prep Zone. For the cleanup sink, either locate the trash pullout close to the cleanup sink but keeping it in the primary Prep Zone, or get a small trash can for under the cleanup sink (or 12" single-bin pullout next to the cleanup sink).

My biggest regret in my Kitchen is my trash pullout location. I put it next to the cleanup sink (non-DW side) but my primary Prep Zone is on the other side of the Kitchen with a prep sink and my cooktop. I have to carry my trash & recyclables across a 6' aisle, often dripping, to dispose of them.

Do you have dogs? Another advantage is that dogs cannot open a trash pullout, even when they know it's there. In our old Kitchen, we had a standalone trash can (I hated it). Our dogs (standard poodles) learned how to open it by stepping on the foot pedal! I had never seen that before!

Something else to think about...consider getting a "hands free" foot pedal for opening the pullout.

I have a pull out with both trash and recycling. Never had a problem with odors.

I have mine on a pullout under the sink - small kitchen, so I couldn't waste precious cabinet space on a separate trash cabinet. I much prefer it to the stand alone can - more convenient, doesn't take up floor space (again, small kitchen) and not unsightly. I separate recycling and compostables (also in separate bins under the sink); only the recycling can is larger than a plastic grocery bag, so they are emptied too frequently to smell.

Something else to think about...consider getting a "hands free" foot pedal for opening the pullout.

I second this. Another option is a "push to open" mechanism eg Blum Servo drive or Ikea Utrusta

@Buehl Interesting about the 18". That extra 6" would actually be helpful in that location for us. You find that to be big enough?

To answer your question about why it would smell more LOL....my husband said because a stand alone has open air circulating around it. That's his reasoning/concern.

We kind of have 2 prep zones, one span of counter next to the sink and one next to the stove. We have the trash pull out located on non-dw side of sink in one of the prep areas,.so I think that would be the best spot.

I have mine in one half of a 30" cabinet and that is more than big enough for my 2 (now one) person household. It is the Rev-a-Shelf 15" pullout with two 6.75 gallon bins (20"T x11'x11" each). I mentioned that I use grocery bags - but the bins have much larger capacity. I just keep more bags in the bottom of the trash bin.
How many people are you typically generating trash for? and, are you generating a lot of trash from prepackaged or pantry items? I would think that that would determine how much space you need, how large your bin needs to be.

I have a trash pull out and absolutely love it. I was concerned about odors but I found this Hefty one has a push button top and it fits in my ikea 15” cabinet. I have enough room behind it to store the trash bags. No complaints from anyone in my family whatsoever and highly recommend.

We're a family of 4. We have a regular size kitchen trash can with the regular trash bags, and fill it up probably every couple days. I feel like we generate the most trash from my boys (5 and 7) being sloppy and wasteful, but I've been trying to train them to improve that.

@Destiny Thanks! That looks like a good set up.

Have a pull out trash cabinet, in a small kitchen, that has a great spot for a stand alone trash can. Wish I put in a drawer base cabinet instead.

Would consider YOUR situation. Do you have a good space for a stand alone can? Do you want more base cabinet space?

@Casa Bella Designs, also a family of 4 here with a toddler and teen. We currently go through one trash bag a week (we recycle heavily).

@mdln We're ok as far as storage goes to include the trash pull out. We remodeled our kitchen at our previous home in 2012, and we were set on no trash pull out because we didn't want to devote the cabinet space in our 8x10 kitchen. But our kitchen now is 10x20, so we have significantly more space. There is a spot to put a stand alone at the end of the cabinet run, but it would be partially in front of a low window soon not crazy about that.

In that case, would do a pull-out.

BTW, no odor in my cabinets.

Good luck!

When we started planning the remodel for our current kitchen, I had never had a pull out trash can before and was similarly paranoid about ending up with a cabinet that smelled and which you could never get clean. We put in a pullout anyway, and 6 years later, we’ve never had a problem with odors and I can’t imagine going back to a stand-alone can.

Also, FYI, our frameless pullout cabinet is 16.5” wide and perfectly fits a 15” pullout with two cans — one for trash and one for recycling — so you probably don’t need 24” for yours.

Tangential perhaps to the discussion, but what are people throwing in the trash instead of the compost or recycling? We throw out some non recyclable packaging, and some oily or meat scraps that can't go in the compost for fear of attracting bears, but everything else gets recycled or composted.

You're both right.

There have been posts about this before (use google instead of the houzz search engine) and people feel pretty strongly. I go both ways. :) I now keep dog food in my trash pullout. If your family is a bit messy, that cabinet will get gross if it's not cleaned often. (It's usually not the actual trash; it's the splatters.) If you do not have a good spot for a free-standing can, the pullout is great. In my previous kitchen, I retrofitted a nasty old cabinet with a pullout and it was an improvement. In the remodeled one, once we stopped using the pullout for trash, things became nicer.

18" trash pullout:

Pullout. No odor unless DH puts something stinky in there like fish remains in which case I just empty the trash, problem solved. How is a stand-alone any different in that regard?

"what are people throwing in the trash instead of the compost"

This question almost always comes up when discussing trash can location/function in a kitchen. I am always mystified why people are unaware there are multi-millions of people who live in cities for whom composting is not possible.