It does depend on how diligent you are. DS, a bachelor, lives in a condo with the pull out trash and knives in the drawer above. On a recent visit I opened the drawer to get a knife and almost fell over from the smell. He had shrimp for dinner the day before, put the shells in the trash and forgot to take out the trash when he left for work the next morning. Everyone on this forum sounds very careful either about what they put in the trash or making sure it goes out. I guess the moral of the story is to know your own habits.

For the powder room on the main level and the guest bathroom upstairs, there are vanities w/doors, so they're in there, within reach (I'd hope that that's where a guest would look!). For my master bath, I also have a vanity, so I installed a plastic paper towel holder on the inside of the door closest to the toilet. It will hold 2 extra rolls, and they are out of sight but easily reachable, because I can open the door while sitting. I have seen the tall clear glass vases filled with TP rolls, but that's too fragile for me. A similar look -- go to a pottery place (garden center) or HomeGoods-type place and try to find a tall clay/glazed pottery vase to put them in. That way they're close by the toilet but you don't see "TP" as soon as you enter the room. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- To AJSMama: How about a recessed drawer that tips OUT? Like the little drawers in front of the kitchen sink that tip out and hold sponges? Or kind of like an old-fashioned hamper/laundry chute.

We also have much more recycles than trash. So I need a larger bin for recycle, and a small one for trash. I like the idea of keeping the trash smaller because it will get emptied more often too. I want to keep the pull out narrow so not to give up much cabinet space. So the trick is to find 2 trash can that are narrow, and together take up about 24" depth. The double bins I saw on Rev-a-shelf were all at least 12 - 15" wide, and much less than 24" deep. Also they are much shorter than under counter height, so not an efficient use of space. The photo from Judydel looks closest to what I want. What other brands should I look at? We also started composting recently. Right now I just use an old bread bag to collect stuff during the day, and then dump it in the compost bin after dinner clean-up. My BFF was composting years before it was fashionable. She didn't even have a disposal. She keep a small pretty ceramic pot w/lid on her counter next to the sink. She lined it with a bread bag, and collected her veggie scraps there. Every other day she would dump the contents into the compost pile. So I plan on getting a "compost pot" for my counter too.

The little compost bins come in all styles - ceramic, metal, etc. Some people just use a large can with lid and park it under the sink (functional, but unattractive).You can get biodegradable bags from your grocery store, Amazon, etc - they hold about 1 gallon, which is about the size of the bin. Every day or two pick up the bag and toss it in your big compost bin that you have outside. The bag will rot in time. Don't put meat scraps in your compost. Egg shells are fine, but they don't decay as well. Coffee grounds are wonderful for your compost and garden - you can actually get them for free at many coffee shops! Anyway - toss dried stuff, like chopped up leaves, etc., in with your food scraps. Smaller stuff is better, of course. Stir the big compost bin once in a while. A good compost pile will NOT stink (contrary to popular belief). You can go crazy with composting - there are even classes that teach you how to do it really well - become a Master Composter!. Or you can take a simple approach, like I've described. This doesn't take much time, of course, but you won't get a fresh batch of really great dirt (finished compost) every 8 weeks, either.