Trash cans. How many do you have in your home?
And by trash cans I mean not only the one that’s {probably} under your sink {or nearby} but the ones considered “waste baskets” that are likely in your bathrooms, bedrooms and other spaces in your home.
In our home, we have exactly ONE trash can, and it’s under the kitchen sink. We have zero waste baskets.
Just one trash can under the sink, and the typical residential garbage and recycling bins on wheels that hang out in the garage except for a few hours each week it’s on the curb waiting to be picked up by the trash guys.
I grew up with trashcans/waste baskets in nearly every room. And maybe we even started our married life that way.
But then we brought home Lucy and well, every container was like a gold mine for her so we stopped using waste baskets. If one of us created trash in a room, we simply brought it to the kitchen to dispose of.
It’s funny the things that become habits over the years. And that they seem totally normal to you until someone visits and asks a simple question, like where’s the trash.
So trash cans. How many do you have in your home? I suspect we are in the minority here with only one can.
But, hey, curious minds want to know.
~Mavis
P.S. I hope you have a great weekend!
Melissa says
One in each bathroom and one in the kitchen. Recycling container beside the one in the kitchen.
JulieP says
Mmmmm two in main bathroom as we have a septic tank so nothing apart from the three Ps goes down the loo! A similar lidded container in our shower room which has a loo and separate toilet! A rubbish bin in the kitchen and a compost bin(small) with a big one just outside the back door for taking the compatibles down the garden. In the back hall two recycling bins and then the three big wheelie bins for recycling, non compostable garden waste (which we pay separately for) and a rubbish bin! Yesterday they delivered food waste bins too so as you can see we’re have a house full of bins! We probably will only use the food waste bins for bones! Our garden bin is always full, we have a big garden with trees, hedges etc all the chunky stuff and weeds go in there. The recycling bin is usually no more than a third full every two weeks and the household rubbish bin is usually only half full every fortnight. The thing is smaller properties have to store all these bins too! It’s a nightmare 🙂
SueD says
One in my project room, 1 in the computer room in the open. The puppies ignore them. One in the bathroom in the vanity, and one in the kitchen, under the sink. We had a dog that learned to open every bin we had, so we put it under the sink. Just kept it there.
Nancy Settel says
1 bedroom 1 bath apartment and we have 4 trashcans!!! We are over achievers?
Kathleen Paje says
Just 1
Erin says
We have a little lint can in the laundry room (we compost it eventually), One in each bathroom. No way am I carrying bathroom trash through the living room & into the kitchen! And we have one under the sink in the kitchen, with a recycle bin. We have a compost container on the kitchen counter. The guest room is beside the bathroom, so I don’t feel a need to keep one in the guest room.
Something we do have in every room? Kleenex boxes. I haven’t been able to make myself minimize those yet. And living in Maine, people visit. I think it’s nice for guests to have in their room & not have to grab TP from the bathroom. They do have to walk to the bathroom to throw the tissue away, though. It’s funny the things my brain thinks are negotiable/non-negotiable.
Mavis Butterfield says
We haven’t had a box of tissue in the house for years! Maybe a decade.
And yes, if you live in Maine, there will be guests. Lots of them. Everyone wants to visit. Except in winter. So there’s a bit of a reprieve there.
J in OH-IO says
Mavis, what do you use instead of tissues for colds and runny noses? It’s allergy season so we go through lots of tissue boxes! Curious minds want to know what you use (ie. tp, paper towels, napkins, handkerchiefs)?
We have 8 counting our outside trash bin. The bathroom wastebaskets are on the back of the toilet put up so the dog didn’t get into them.
J in OH-IO says
Mavis, curious minds want to know what you use without a tissue box in the house?
We have 8 wastebaskets counting the outside trash bin. Small bathroom wastebaskets are on the back of the toilet so the dog couldn’t get into them.
Mavis Butterfield says
T.P.Facial tissue is just thinner toilet paper in the shape of a rectangle.
Wendy C. says
We have 9. We have two home offices, so there’s one in each office, one in each bedroom and bathroom and the kitchen. Oh, nope it’s 10. There’s one in the garage. And one on the back porch too. So if that one counts then there’s 11. Is that too many? I guess we’re too lazy to walk to another room or downstairs to throw trash away.
Sandra says
I have one each bedroom and they get used, also one in the laundry and each bathroom plus one under the sink in the kitchen. Oh, and one in the home office. I think that makes seven and I’m good with that. Most of the time I only have to empty the one under the sink every other day or so. My bathroom is weekly, likewise the office and sometimes the laundry. The other bedrooms and bath are only used occasionally when I have company, but I think wastebaskets in those rooms are essential for my guests. Do your guests save up their personal waste and carry it through the house to the kitchen trash receptacle?
Virginia says
We have 9 (one in every bedroom, every bathroom, and one in the kitchen). Kids generate trash in their rooms and it just seemed inconvenient to constantly walk trash somewhere else. Having trash cans (and tissues) in bathrooms is a non-negotiable. We solved the dog-in-the-trash problem by closing the door.
JoAnn Moran says
When my husband and I downsized we have fewer trash cans. We have one in the kitchen but it’s a large stand alone with a lid and a pedal to open it, and one in each of our two bathrooms. We also have a trash and a recycling bin in our garage that gets put out weekly. We don’t leave them out. I am going to buy a trash can for my guest room. We solved our dog problem and trash by having all of our trash cans with lids. I think your system is fine for the two of you.
Dawn says
We have 9. One in each of the four bedrooms, my office, family room, kitchen and one in both bathrooms.
That seems excessive but it’s not likely I’m going to take a tissue from my bedroom all the way down to my kitchen trash if I’m reading in bed and I don’t want them accumulating on my night table..
KC says
This is 100% a Know Thyself issue, where the question is basically what makes things work better for you! It’s not excessive if it works better for you (or your household). There are some things we do better with if they’re within reach (if you’re supposed to drink a lot of water each day) or out of reach (hi open containers of chocolate or snack foods…). It’s sometimes possible to adapt to a system, esp. if motivated by dealing with dog digestion issues regularly, but a lot of people are more likely to complete tasks (like throwing things away) if the system fits with the way they think and doesn’t cause substantial interruption.
Personally we have slightly fewer trash cans in use – 4, including one mini less-than-a-quart-size one – for our one-bedroom plus one-office house, just because we normally generate trash in fewer rooms. (we also have a recycling box in the kitchen and a recycling file folder)
But we have scissors *everywhere* so that we don’t have to hunt for them. If scissors can be put away without leaving the room, then they generally *GET* put away instead of being left near where they were last used, or near the next place someone went after using them. I don’t know why scissors are this way, but scissors always “walked” in my house growing up, to the consternation of my mother, who wanted all the pairs of scissors kept, all together, in Their One Place. Years ago I read an old (early 1900s) book that advised homemakers to chain the scissors to the parcel/mail desk so that family members could use them but couldn’t carry them away and thought, “this is the step my mom was missing!” But for us: scissors everywhere is possibly my favorite luxury)(although I suppose since most of the pairs were cheap or from garage sales, we’ve gotten decades of Luxurious Living out of paying an extra $8 or so for the spare pairs, so it is not a very expensive luxury in first world terms. But it is just so nice to always have scissors 1. close and 2. where you’re expecting them to be!)
Judy says
Mavis I have one in each bathroom (3) and one in two of my 3 bedrooms, one can in the kitchen for trash and a second one for recycling.
To clarify this though, one of the bathrooms and bedrooms is only for guests so those two trash cans are rarely used upstairs.
Vanessa Strawder says
One in the bathroom and one in the kitchen- we started using lidded ones long ago because of “curious” toddlers- works for the doggo as well.
Kelly-Jo says
Five. One in each of our three bathrooms (we are on septic so this lets others know to dispose of things properly instead of flushing anything unwanted down), one in the laundry, and one in the kitchen.
Michelle says
7, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, workshop.
Susan Williams says
We have the typical under the kitchen sink, then one in each bathroom and I have one in my sewing room right next to the sewing machine.
Lea says
4 – kitchen, 2 bathrooms and the laundry room! Kitchen and bathrooms are in the cabinets. Laundry room is a lidded one.
No pets but we did have toddlers at one point and having more than that seemed to create more clutter. How? Who knows?!
Heather says
Nine. One in each home office (2). One in each bathroom (3). (1) in the laundry room. (1) in the Kitchen. (1) in the auxillary sink prep area. (1) in the garage by the work bench.
Annie Millett says
We have at least 9. 2 in our bedroom, 1 in each bathroom, 2 in our office, 1 in each bedroom upstairs. 2 besides each of our living room chairs. We have a dog as well, but he was taught to stay out of the trash. It works for us!
Alice says
One in every room but sine we are only two of us mostly we use bathrooms, kitchen, our bedroom, laundry room and office. When kids from out of town come home, we have to watch every trash bin because one lonely soiled diaper missed in the bottom of a trash can will be a stink fest!
Debi says
6 waste baskets – 1 in each bedroom (2), 1 in bathroom, 1 in dining room, 2 in living room.
2 trash cans – 1 in kitchen and 1 in basement.
Emily B. says
Laundry Room
Den wet bar area
1/2 bath
Kitchen
Master bedroom
Guest bedroom
Full bath
I live by myself.
Mavis Butterfield says
7 baskets for one person. Your comment made me smile.
Richelle says
One in every room, other than the dining room and living room, plus two in the garage (one near each door). I also live alone.
Emily B. says
I have a cat too, so I can assign at least one of the 7 to him.
Cathy says
HA!
Sue in SoCal says
We have waste baskets in master, guest room, sewing room, both baths, kitchen, family room, laundry, and garage. We’re trashy people.
Elizabeth Todd says
6 but I think that is too many! One in each of the three bathrooms, one in laundry room, one in hubby’s office, and one in kitchen. If I had my way there would be one in the laundry and one in the kitchen. No more.
Kathy says
Every place I lived in had one in the kitchen, but not under the sink. It was always near the counter by kitchen sink. Then, after having a baby and nursing, there were 2, kitchen and living room (don’t know why there.) Now there’s 5, added bathroom and both bedrooms for there are people in this joint that are excessive nose blowers and I couldn’t stand cleaning used TP off bathroom counter/bedroom floors. GROSS but then again, I raised 3 little boys, 2 I birthed and the other I married.
Janet says
I would think that not having cans in the bathroom perhaps guests would flush items instead of throwing them away properly. I could not imagine carrying my dental floss or hair from the shower drain to the kitchen. Easier and cleaner to have a can in the bathroom.
Stephanie in Utah says
Same! Trash can in the bathroom is mandatory for me!
Sue S. says
1 in a kitchen cabinet that once housed a trash compacter and 1 in each of 2 bathrooms. Garbage goes in the woods for wildlife; recyclables in the garage in 1 of 4 bins.
sandy says
I am loving reading this post and all of the comments. I do have a puppy, but this has always been my system. I do have kleenex-and I am shocked that no pups have discovered it.
I am a trash-can-cleaning freak. My kids know that nothing goes into the bathroom trash ( I use vintage big Bauer flower pots as trash cans in the 2 bathrooms)
One small trash can in the upstairs bathroom closet-never to be seen in public. One two-sided step-lid trash can with 1/2 recycling and 1/2 trash. That is it. I am a no-trash-in-trash-can person- it goes out right away. If you can see it, it goes out. A weird phobia.
Linda Sand says
Four plus two recycling. But our apartment only has four rooms and one of those doesn’t have any.
Judi Y. says
I have 6.
Stephanie in Utah says
2 trash cans (kitchen and garage)
14 waste baskets (3 bathrooms, 5 bedrooms, 2 in the office [one at each desk], laundry room, storage room [next to the upright freezer], family room, living room)
Family of 6
We don’t actually produce that much trash. We empty the trash cans once or twice a week, but empty the kitchen recycling daily. We rarely have our street garbage can filled up even halfway for the weekly pickup, but usually our recycling can is close to overflowing every other week when it’s on the curb for pickup.
Mary says
one in each bathroom, large one in kitchen. I also have recycle (plastic, glass, tin, paper & cardboard) container in the garage.
Ashley B says
We have a small two bedroom house so I only have the one in the kitchen. We’re intense recyclers so we put out one can of trash and it’s usually half full. If it weren’t for the cats with the liter boxes we’d put out less.
We also throw food scraps on the lawn. Between animals and the sun they usually disappear.
Renay says
We have one in the kitchen and one in the two bathrooms. I was always told to keep the excess toilet tissue out of the toilet to preserve the septic. Now that I have my own home, I still do not put blow your nose toilet tissue or pick up a dead bug toilet tissue in the toilet. We don’t have septic, but its less that goes into the sewer systems…and into our oceans.
Nadia says
We have 13. One each in 2 home offices, 1 in each bathroom (2). 3 in our master bedroom, one on each side of the bed. One in the guest bedroom, one in daughter’s room. One inthe craft room, 1 in kitchen 2 in the living room. I also have a shredder in my office which has to be emptied fairly regularly. We do a sweep of the house every Fiday to dump all trash into one large bag. The kitchen trash gets taken out almost every day and any packages or boxes get taken to the solid waste dept yard as needed.
Christine Burt says
Sixteen, plus 2 recycle bins and a lint bin in the laundry room! We are a family of 5 and they all get used.
Julie says
I’m late, but we have one in each bedroom-6, one in each bathroom-3, one in the kitchen, one in the laundry room, 2 in the basement. 13 total….but no animals inside….that makes a difference!