Luckily, my area does have recycling; a weekly pickup in my neighborhood along with county-provided dropoff bins in a local shopping center. Last I read, they were making several hundred thousand dollars annual *profit* with expectations of trebling that amount. Yep, it's a big, populated county and I can see that a tiny town wouldn't consider making just a few dollars worthwhile. But because I compost everything possible; deliberately plan meals to have re-runs; and buy cheapest large sizes of staples (and repack into smaller units); there is very little for the recycler. We put out the bin every other week and it's rarely more than a few items, mostly plastic milk jugs. Almost the same ratio for general trash -- one tall-can sized bag from the kitchen, and again it's rarely full for the weekly pickup. Remember that odors in the trash mostly come from food (unless someone is disposing dirty diapers), so if food is never put into the trash, there isn't anything there to get stinky. Even the newspapers used to wipe out dirty frypans go into the compost; bones and pieces of fat are wrapped in newspaper and then put into one of those plastic bags the newspaper comes in... no smell gets out even on hot days although if one is really concerned the bones and fat can be frozen and deposited in the trash just before pickup. It's fair to say that's a lopsided point, because we don't eat much meat to provide the non-compostable byproducts; but the fact remains the same no matter the quantity -- if there aren't food products put into the trash, there isn't anything to cause a smell. josh - a properly run compost won't draw vermin or have an unpleasant odor. Proper means adding as much or more dry material (newspaper is good) as there is wet material (peelings/scraps), and keeping the additions covered with at least an inch of [X]. [X] is garden dirt and/or shredded leaves and/or sawdust. I use a bottomless 30-gallon trash can which is partially buried to prevent being blown over; at the edge of the garden nearest the kitchen. Once a year I lift the can off the compost and dig another hole to put it in. The dirt from the new hole is used to cover the scraps that were being held by the can. Everything decomposes within a month and sinks down to the level of the garden. Tomato and melon plants adore being planted in the compost. The covered can is painted dark green and keeps the composting discrete while preventing dogs, rats or other vermin from getting into it. OTOH, one can compost even easier; see link. Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen composter

We’ve lived in our kitchen for 12 years now with just the drawer bottom above the trash pullout, no extra divider. Our upper drawer holds knives, so that’s not really relevant to your question, although there are no smell issues. I just wanted to say that there have been times a solid divider would be helpful anyway. Occasionally when getting full, an odd-shaped or large trash or recycle item can stick up high enough to interfere with the drawer operation. This can mean both are difficult to open freely, and I have to be on the floor, reachly blindly between to dislodge whatever culprit is causing the bind under the drawer. Of course, emptying in a timely manner and/or not adding flattened plastic gallon bottles to a nearly full bin, only to have them pop back out to almost full size, are ways to solve these problems before they happen, but in family life- ours, anyway- things aren’t always done perfectly. :) Just something I thought you might want to consider besides the odor issue.

Well, op here. Since I don't want to move the plumbing and drywall, I am going to keep the sink next to the stack. As for uses for it, I have tons. I have 3 kids and, this room is right off my garage and has a door to the front yard as well, so mine is used for kids washing hands immediately coming into the house (will put soap dispenser faucet there for them), water balloon filling, paint brush washing, filling buckets, with the counter next to it, will do flower/vase filling and may be overflow as its off the kitchen for when we do lots of baking or for greasy pans to soak. I am getting a big and deep one that comes with a hanging basin for handwash soaking...the list goes on and on. The clincher for me was that my babysitter who does lots of laundry for me says she never folds in there and takes the clothes to the tv to fold as its often her only chance to sit all day. For me I sit in an office all day so I love to stand and fold next to the dryer, so I may be the only one who uses the formica top (i got a quote on one today to fit right in the undermount bowl..) So will have some counter and the sink. And the sink cabinet will be set forward to be as deep a counter as the washer, so will have room behind it to set the laundry soap. I also have a small cupboard above the sink... Thanks for all the input. Perhaps if I had thought of it before the plumber did the work to move the washing pipes, I would have moved it to the end, but with all he has to do for my kitchen, dont have the energy or money to spend on moving it....

We don't use a lot of compost so, while we have a compost area, it is not actively worked. What NHBabs described is similar to what we do - the bin area here is behind the shed. There are two bins - constructed with a couple of wire meshes.... The back wall is the chainlink fence section directly behind the shed, between us and the neighbour behind us. We used panels from an unused portable dog pen to make the intersecting walls, using the metal pins meant to connect the pen panels together to connect the panels to the chainlink fence! We added a couple of other metal posts for additional support. Plant material is added to the bins as things get cut back or weeded out. When DH needs some compost for the soil mix in one of his veggie pots, he dumps the unfinished upper layer into the other bin and uses to remaining finished compost that is at the bottom of the bin he's digging in. We do also get compost from the Town's composting site during the spring compost give-away. That compost is what is added to some of the garden beds. Our own compost is a small quantity and is largely used in the veggie pots on the driveway. I looked for photos but don't have any good ones. The one below is of painting the back of the shed, but you can see the compost bins too. They were pretty empty at this point since we had to empty them to give the guy who built the shed space to work.... There is only about 12-14" between the side of the compost bin and the back of the shed - just enough room for the dogs to run past between the bin and the shed - and for people to sidle by if they turn sideways :-) The ends opposite the center panel are open with a path leading to each so a wheelbarrow can be used to dump stuff in.