What is a Dustbin?

One of the worst things about my trashcan is actually a twofold problem. It is a good sized trashcan (I’m talking about the kitchen bin here) but I think it could be five feet tall and ten feet wide and still not be large enough for my family.

There aren’t that many of us really; my husband, myself, my four year old daughter and my two year old son. But by the trash that we collect in a days’ time, you would think there were about forty men and their family’s using our can!

This leads to the second problem. The trash gets piled up against the side of the island. And that leaves nasty gunk all over it. It flows over into the floor and gets kicked around.

If I don’t empty my trash at least twice a day, it looks like I haven’t emptied it in a month, and I have to spend an hour cleaning the wall and floor, too.

I bought an attractive dustbin a few years ago when my friend opened up her craft shop. She had handmade items like candles, purses, and even trash cans.

The can I chose was bright teal with glittery white feathers glued around the rim. I bought it because it was so pretty, and the idea of a beautiful container to hold ugly things appealed to me.

At the time, I didn't think about how feathers around the mouth of a trash can would be a bad idea. Once I started using it, I noticed that pencil shavings and dirt often got caught in the feathers, and when I tried to clean them, the mess just fell on the floor and needed vacuuming.

Okay; I have the funniest story in the whole world about me, and England native and a dustbin.

I was working with this English lady in a coffee house. Naturally, she had a dialect and I did as well (southern). Sometimes we got a little confused to say the least, and this was one of those times.

If you’ve ever worked in a place like this, you know that the floors get really dirty, really quickly. At the end of the night you have a whole mini-mountain of dirt that has to be swept up.

Well, one of my first days on the job this lady tells me to throw the pile into the dustbin.

Being southern, I call a dustbin a trash can, and I had no idea whatsoever that that was what she meant. I thought she literally meant there was a special place where dust was collected from the floor and then kept at.

Imagine my embarrassment and her good natured guffaw of laughter when she asked me what I was searching for, dustpan in hand!

@StarJo - I do the same things with my leftover fish. I also have problems with old fruit that I need to throw in the dustbin.

At least a couple of my bananas often go bad before I can eat them. If I throw them in the trash, then they smell strongly and attract fruit flies.

I love fresh pineapple, but when I cut it up, I have the spiky rinds and top to dispose of somehow. I wrap them in newspaper and a plastic bag. Then, I tie it tightly to seal in the odor. Though it has a pleasant smell at first, within a day, it will smell spoiled.

For bananas and pineapple, I find it's best to place them in smaller plastic bags and place them in the outdoor wheelie bin. I push this bin out to the road on garbage pickup day.

I have found that you should never leave fish or shrimp leftovers in your indoor garbage container overnight. When you wake in the morning, your whole house will smell like rotten seafood.

If I have fishy leftovers, I either give them to the dogs or put them in a small plastic bag in the outdoor trash can. Unless I used some ingredient in preparing the fish that is unsafe for my dogs to eat, I will give it to them to avoid the hassle of wrapping it up.

When the garbage man comes on Friday, he always leaves the lid off after he picks up the trash. I leave the trash can out there for the rest of the day without the lid on to let it air out, especially if I had plastic-bagged fish in there.

If you have a dustbin and are tying to figure out how to kill the unpleasant odor it emits I suggest a couple of steps. First, you could buy scented garbage bags if the bin is in a heavily trafficked area of your home. These bags are available in a huge variety of colors and are perfumed enough to keep nasty odors at bay.

If you are not in the mood to buy more expensive scented garbage bags you can toss a dryer sheet into the dustbin and I find it really absorbs odors. Just make sure you change it regularly or you may be faced with an icky spot to clean up.

If you are going to buy a dustbin for your home it doesn't have to be unattractive. There are actually numerous more stylish versions available in-store and online.

For myself I managed to find a set of dustbins for my home that perfectly matched my decor. The best thing was that they didn't really even look like a place to toss your rubbish.

The dustbins I purchased were made to look like potted plants, with the plant on top, and the vase part being a concealed garbage can. This was great as it preserved by decor while still providing space for a necessary item.

@sunnySkys - When I bought my last kitchen dustbin I neglected to grab the top to it and I've regretted it ever since! It's been awhile but I might go back to the store and see if I can buy just the lid.

There are a lot of funny names for a dustbin, but one the article didn't mention is "the gray file cabinet." I had a teacher in elementary school who used to refer to the trashcan this way. As in, "If you copy off of your neighbor, you test won't be graded. It will go into the gray file cabinet." I always found this very entertaining. And just for the record I never saw her put anyones paper into "the gray file cabinet."

Ugh! Trashcan odor is such a gross household problem. However I've found a few simple steps hep cut down the odor a lot.

When I buy a new trashcan, especially for the kitchen, I always get one with a lid. This stops unpleasant odors from wafting out of the trashcan into the air I'm breathing. I also try to put food waste down the garbage disposal in the sink instead of in the trashcan. This sort of stops the problem before it even starts. As far as smelly things, such as cat litter, that can't go down the garbage disposal I double bag those before I throw them away.