This Simple Under-the-Cabinet Hack Completely Solved My Annoying Trash Can Storage Problem
I love my apartment. But like many renters, I don’t exactly adore my apartment’s kitchen. It’s a galley kitchen, which means my boyfriend and I are always bumping into each other when we’re cooking. Because it’s a small space, I’m always looking for smart storage solutions to maximize mobility and minimize clutter. I’ve tried all the kitchen upgrade tips & tricks, and implementing some suggested improvements really did help make my kitchen feel more functional, more stylish, and more me. However, I couldn’t help but feel something was still messing with the flow of my space. I was haunted by the feeling that something was still off. The space still wasn’t quite right.
Then one night, as I was carrying my cutting board to the trash bin so I could throw out vegetable cuttings, it hit me. Ding ding ding! It was my trash bin.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: No trash bin is cute, right? Of course my trash bin was making my culinary play-space feel less chic. Like so many apartment kitchens, mine has no convenient corner to tuck the bin away (not to mention, I’m an avid recycler, so I have two bins!). After a bit of problem solving, and a lot of rave-review-reading, I discovered a solution.
This Rev-A-Shelf is a piece of handy hardware that easily allows you to slide your unsightly bins in and out of a kitchen cabinet. Installing the Rev-A-Shelf was surprisingly easy, involved little equipment, and once the 10 minutes of installation was over, I was already wondering why I had waited so long. Finally, my trash bin no longer lives on the outskirts of my kitchen (a spot where it was an eyesore but was also inconvenient to access). Not to mention, now, any potential smells are contained in their cabinet-sized space, and I have so much more room in my kitchen.
The hardware comes along with two bins that are easily hidden away behind a cabinet door. If you only use one bin, the second slot is a perfect place to stash your box of trash bags to maximize spacial efficiency! Its ball-bearing slides can pull up to 100 pounds (um, hello holidays!) and the versatile size of the whole device makes finding the right cabinet extra easy.
After a few months of using this smooth, reliable, and retractable hardware, I know I’m not turning back and in fact, I’m still excited about it all this time after I’ve installed it. Truthfully, this is a solution I know I won’t ditch through all of my future kitchens — especially if/when I have my very own dream kitchen.