What I do gather from it though, is that trash cans in cabinets appear to be more work (more frequent changing) than my big can.

I suspect you have a bit of a confirmation bias there. People typically choose to do smaller trash cans but you can easily fit a 60 liter trash can in a cabinet (which I suspect is the same size or larger than your Simplehuman trash can). People just typically don't want that. The same goes with a lidded trash can. You can even go up to a 94 liter trash can in a cabinet if you really need to, but few people would actually want that. In the end, the reason that people typically choose the size they do has more to do with larger sizes being wasteful than it does with capacity.

My 2 cents... It isn't the convenience, the visuals, the receptacle, etc. that I am chasing.... It is the countertop. Anywhere in my kitchen that I could conveniently put a trash can, would benefit me more if it also had a countertop. If you can manage to put your trash in a convenient location in your kitchen without sacrificing valuable work surface or walkway... cool. I wish I could do that. However, since I haven't managed to accomplish that well yet, I am going to stick with trash in a cabinet.

Here in the SF Bay Area, mass invasions of Argentinian ants are a fact of life, especially during winter (poor little ants, too cold and wet outside!) and summer (too hot and dry!). The first place they head is to the garbage cans as a food source (after that, it's the sugar in the pantry...). The easiest, most environmentally friendly way to get rid of them is to deny them that resource, but not so easy when the garbage cans are in a fixed place within cabinets. This is one reason why, in our latest remodel, we ditched the trash cans in cabinets that were in place when we bought the house for a free-standing can. I also found the trash cabinets, with so many cracks and crevices, hard to keep clean and, after twenty years, the pullout mechanisms and tracks were rusty and screechy. That cabinet face was also more beat-up than any of the rest, due to more constant use.

I've had both and I liked both. My pull out garbage/recycling was great. Never had bugs or odors but with a family of six we were emptying it every day or every other day. In my downsize there was no option for adding trash when we refaced the kitchen so I bought a Simple Human can and I like it a lot.

I've seen too many walls and cabinets damaged by trash can lids, I also had a client who claimed that pull out trash cans were 'terrible' so had a freestanding trash can in her pantry. Not only would that be a functional nightmare (the pantry was on the opposite side of the kitchen from the sink) but the trash can had worn the finish off the hardwood floors in the corner where it sat. Obviously to each their own.

SimpleHuman make some beautiful and hardy products. I have 2 SimpleHuman trash cans in other rooms.

They are very nice especially if you have a super modern setting…also, the other issues with floor scratching should be easily solved with little stick on furniture pads …

Years ago I had beautiful (soft) pale golden pine floors….throughout my home..nothing went on those floors without soft stick-on pads!

@catspa the ants were actually a big reason we wanted the cabinet trash—the hope was that it would help to have no direct contact with the ground. They‘ve never gotten into it (though I will say that for the last year before we renovated we invested in a nice Simple Human trash can to try to seal it better and they didn’t get into that either—we still keep dog food in a SH pet bin and so far so good on that too). But I suspect the far bigger factor is not what kind of trash can, but whether you put food in the trash—we have city composting so everything goes into a countertop bin that is emptied once a day (at least). The cabinet trash bin does not have any food in it and is only emptied once a week unless it fills up.

It is true that the trash cabinet front has more wear than many of the others, though (comparable to the drawers for dishes and snacks, which also get heavy use).

I just remembered my compost can is a diaper pail!…works fine still.. after many years..

DH and I never had undercounter trash/recycling until this reno. We used something like this, for years:

HATED IT. In 3 different kitchens, it was always across the room from the sink area (the only/nearest place it could fit in each kitchen) and we inevitably dripped liquids onto the floor as we carried refuse over to the container. We had a bad habit of overfilling the very large bin, making it difficult to extract the plastic bag of garbage. The inner rim and lid got spattered with various trash item detritus and they were not all that easy to wipe clean. And, every now and again, we would see ants.

In the reno we added TWO 18" pullouts: one to the left of the main sink with trash & recycling; one on the pantry wall with another trash & recycling. The pantry wall cab keeps non-cooks out of the cooking zone. All of the bins are smaller than the metal stand-alone one was. No more drips on the floor; no more inner lid grody surfaces; no more wrestling matches to extract the plastic bag; and no odors or bugs!

City composing. No food in the trash. Interesting. How does that work?

I compose and recycle as well as have separate garbage can. 4-legged friends get food scraps. Birds get stale bread. I dump the composing in my yard. These days where I live, I question how much value recycling has, given that the item needs to be clean and they don't accept many items and I drive to drop it off (by grocery store so combine trips usually). Hoping that I am helping to reduce the need for landfills but certainly water is wasted and additional gas is expended.

Anyway, my Simple Human can is open to the air, which I imagine most of you would not like. Works for me. Have a pantry for the recycling (paper bag that I reuse as long as I can), and I need to buy a prettier sealed compost bucket when I do my kitchen remodel.

I remember years ago when recyling started in my area how much less garbage there was. With my composting, I am surprised how much goes into that pail. In depends on what you eat/cook of course.

Some kitchens - U-shaped especially - simply do not have a place for a free-standing trash can.

I love our pull out trash cabinet. It has 2 bins (trash/recycling); pretty standard, it seems. We line them with plastic bags, empty them when necessary, and didn't have any problem with odors or bugs, as if something started to smell, it was time to take it out. For the last 9 months or so, our waste service does not allow food waste in the trash anymore, so we have a stainless canister with tight lid on the counter for banana peels, fruit peels, onion skins, etc., that now goes into the yard waste bin every day or two. Small food scraps, sauces, etc., go in the disposal. My trash and recycling cabinet is right near my sink and range, so it is easy to dispose of paper products, bottles and cans, and other trash: rinse it out, toss it. We used to have a Simple Human can, but the only place for it was at the end of the cabinet run, on the far side of the refrigerator...not nearly as efficient.

I love mine cabinet trash can. Had a double for 25 years, but opted for a single that also holds the box of bags in the back after recent renovation. The bag goes out every day or two and my DH takes it around to the bathrooms and office and collects that trash in the same bag. Things like fat scraps go in a plastic grocery bag direct to the outside bin. I don’t really have a good place for a stand along can like Simple Human. Advice …in any case make sure you can use standard bags….

Love it. I have the trash in the front can, bottle returns in the back can. Trash doesn't smell if it's changed in a timely manner. That can be a couple days, or it can be immediately after tossing something stinky into it like fish scraps. Fish is going to stink up anything, freestanding or built-in, its the ammonia smell. How would bugs get in there in the cabinet is always closed?

I have never had bugs in my pull out trash. Never.

@HU-910663146 our state now requires municipal composting, and our city was one of the early adopters. Each week we have three bins: recyclables, compostables, and garbage. (We also have a backyard compost, although tend not to put much food waste in that these days due to critters.) The city compost takes any food or food-soiled paper/cardboard/etc. (in addition to yard waste) so we scrape plates into it, put scraps from meal prep into it, put any compostable wrappings or containers in, and so on. That covers the vast majority of our food-related trash; what's left is things like a bag from a snack food or the wrapper from a granola bar or the interior bag from a cereal box. Those do go into the pullout trash but don't tend to smell. Very rarely we will have something that does--one grocery store nearby still wraps its fish in plastic inside the paper wrapper, for instance, so if we buy that I usually just put it directly in the outside trash bin. We use one of the bins in the pullout for recycling and the other for garbage. Garbage doesn't tend to fill quickly so just gets emptied on trash day most weeks; recycling is often full sooner than that so gets dumped into the outside bin as needed.

A remarkable thread.............!!

"and we inevitably dripped liquids onto the floor as we carried refuse over to the container. We had a bad habit of overfilling the very large bin, making it difficult to extract the plastic bag of garbage."

Imagine a small plastic bag ( bath can size AT MOST ) set into an empty coffee can or in a mixing bowl. Set on your counter as one preps or cleans up. Wet refuse, stinky refuse, meat bone, fish bone, fat scraps, chicken gizzards, coffee grounds ......into the bag, tie it off and dispose. Into the garbage beneath the counter, or across the darn kitchen. No drip ,no goo,anywhere. Use the round object 36 inches above your head.

The point of all trash locales and its storage within the home is it is t.e.m,p,o,r,a,r,y.

The sooner it goes to a final destination outside the home? The better. In whatever manner your locale dictates.

When you have not the luxury of space, or even if you do......there is just no point in hanging on to trash- wet, dry, recycle, compost, all..... beyond a day or two and you don't wait for the smell.

I suspect people know how trash works. We also all know how temporary trash is in our kitchen… but so are lots of things in the kitchen. Your pantry is just temporary storage, your refrigerator is temporary storage, plates and bowls are temporary storage, etc. There are many pretty important parts of the kitchen that will not be used any longer than trash… your cooktop for example.

There is a piece of financial advice I give that seems pretty appropriate here: Never make plans for the person that you wish you were, make plans for the person you are. If you don’t take out the trash often, then don’t design a kitchen that only works well if you take out the trash often.

Every person is different, so every kitchen should be different. I wouldn’t like a coffee can near my prep area. It is fine that you do. I actually prefer an open trash can at the end of the island… I just prefer a bigger island more, so use a pull-out cabinet for trash instead.

Well, the food you EAT is temporary, beyond that which fuels it and I am not going there.

For the love of heaven, use what works for you.

" Never make plans for the person that you wish you were, make plans for the person you are. "

An excellent piece of advice, and one too often ignored because of some rules we're supposed to follow. It wasn't until I was in my 40s that I had the brains and courage to design my home for who I was, not who I wished I was or whom others thought I should be. For some things (like my kitchen remodel) I got a lot of negative comments for it, because it wasn't done to fit the "rules" or it would hurt the resale price.

Thank you Artemis78 for explaining. Very kind of you!

Thank you everybody for your feedback.

I'm not trying to decide between 15" and 18" for my pullout size. Any thoughts?

I don't think you’ll regret 18” if you have the room, but I’d probably base it more on how it impacts the overall layout. One consideration is whether you’ll want double bins, though—not sure that fits in 15”.

Great, 18 inch it shall be.

JAN, Seriously... Stop being so dramatic. It is a kitchen forum. Whether to go with a trash pull-out or a trash can and what size pull-out to use are standard questions for a kitchen design forum.

You are pretending that the OP's gathering information means that they can't make a decision. That is something completely fabricated by you. The OP is simply asking for the perspective of others to make the decision. That is how most good decisions get made, by considering perspectives and experiences different than your own.

In several different posts you have denigrated this discussion. If you feel that this topic is that unworthy of your vaunted opinion, then just resist the urge to comment on it.

Edit: This was in response to a now deleted post.

Yikes. I hate even the concept of a pull out trash can. Often my hands are dirty from whatever I am thowing away - and now I have to grab the handle to open the cabinet! Much easier to have a freestanding trash can that opens with a pull of a bar at the bottom. Simple simple. Interior designers be damned!

Everyone has a different perspective on TRASH…..the only thing that works in most situations is to put wet trash in closed plastic bags in a separate container… and dry trash in a separate can…if they are outdoors lids are best …in the garage? Lids are not necessarily needed…the size of the cans is dictated by how often you have trash pickup….

I , personally do not like a lot of garbage stored in my house ….😩

So little plastic lined cans are indoors for a few days for convenience…then transferred to bigger containers until it is time to make a dump run… or maybe in. your case ….garbage day

Love my pull out trash receptacle…and I have no problem with yuck going from hands to pull out. Vegetable waste goes in composter. Meat waste goes in grocery store ba into the the big trash in the garage. I would do the same if there was a stand alone trash bin in the kitchen.

Let add…my pullout is right next to the sink so when I do put vegetable or food waste in the pullout it is because it is full and soon to be removed to the garage…and I don’t need to walk half way through the kitchen to do it.

We have a trash compactor and it's great. I compost my vegetable scraps in a closed bin on the counter until I throw it in the outside compost. The fat/wet trash gets put in used deli bags, produce bags, or cereal bags before I throw them in the trash compactor to keep it from smelling. Once a week I go to the dump with my trash and my recyclables. The trash compactor has a handle as well as a foot pedal. I make a habit of using the foot pedal to open it.

How cool that this older thread popped up as I’m currently arranging to have my trash compactor removed and a pullout trash can receptacle installed in its place.

Hate the compactor- there are so many surfaces inside that gather excessive trash splatters making it difficult to keep clean. There are only two of us and it’s really not necessary to compact our sparse trash, and the special heavy duty bags are expensive.

Looking forward to a plain old smooth-surfaced plastic trash can and cheap dollar store bags.

Love the trash can, hate those with bad aim.

I bought a foot pull for my trash cabinet on Amzn, works great! I centered it and wish I had put it to the left because it would be a little closer to where I stand when prepping.

Following...

I have a push-to-open function on my pull out trash cabinet. I push it with my knee and it pops open. Push it back with my knee and the soft close function does the rest. No dirty hands touching the cabinet or handle. Love it!

@bjankowskipa - does that option come with certain brands, or is it an add-on feature?

Link please?

They are Blum Blumotion drawer glides in the custom cabinets for our new build. I had to specifically ask for this when talking to the cabinet maker. It was never offered as an option.

I had the same trash cabinet function in our old house with Diamond Cabinets semi-custom cabinets, although I don’t know if they were Blum. The kitchen designer on my remodel was suggesting a trash cabinet and I explained I didn’t want one due to many of the issues as stated in this post. She’s the one who informed me I can get them with the Diamond Cabinets. These may be an option with many other cabinet brands. I don’t think many consumers know about them and therefore not a highly sought after accessory.

https://www.blum.com/us/en/products/motion-technologies/servo-drive/servo-drive-uno/programme/

I used this in a previous build and will use it again in a current build. This and the undercounter vac pan were my favorite kitchen extras. I think this is what Bjankoskipa might be referencing.

What's an undercounter vac pan?

You can also retrofit many cabinets with a push-to-open mechanisms - there are various types depending on your type of cabinet and slide.

I am limber enough to use my foot to grab the handle and pull open.

@porkchop_z5b_MI - I'm assuming @rmsaustin is referring to an under counter toe kick vacuum.

"I'm assuming @rmsaustin is referring to an under counter toe kick vacuum."

Never knew there was such a thing.

My trash can cabinet push-to-open is not a servo-drive.

@Porkchop. Undercounter vac pan was part of a central vac system -- it's installed in the toe kick and you can sweep your dust/crumbs/hair right up to it and then tap it open and it gets sucked into the central vacuum. There are also stand alone units that function similarly, but have a local reservoir for the dirt that you have to empty. I made the mistake of installing dark wood floors throughout my last house and loved being able to quickly sweep the kitchen floor (too many times a day!) and have the dirt sucked away.