Trash Can Guide

There’s nothing worse than a bathroom without a trash can. Sure, it’s (usually) not a place where people eat hamburgers or fruit with peels, but it is a place where small trash accumulates with astonishing speed. It’s amazing how fast the occasional toothpaste box, old toothbrush, and string of dental floss can clutter up a bathroom without a trashcan and make it completely unsightly.

So what you need is a small, unobtrusive trash can for all those little pieces. As with the other trashcans mentioned on this site, you can go very cheap, very expensive, or somewhere in between.

If you want to really splash out, you can spend $460 on wall-mounted HEWI, which does not have a lever. Instead, with slight pressure against its side. Spending this much on a bathroom trash can is, of course, your prerogative, but this writer has a hard time seeing how $460 merely for a wall mount and lack of a lever is a reasonable way to spend your money.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can spend a mere $3 – less than 1/100^th of the HEWI –on a Nine Star 5 gallon infrared-equipped trash can. This writer has to wonder why you would get anything more expensive. After all, it’s a trash can in a room that hardly lends itself to much thought in interior design.

What you need in your bathroom is a small, functional trash can that keeps the clutter at bay. The  5 gallons are more than enough to keep all your bathroom trash and the infrared function is just what you need to keep your hands away from the unmentionables that sometimes accumulate in bathrooms.

So go on the cheap. Save your $460 for a different part of your house, or put it in the bank. When it comes to bathrooms, function reigns supreme.

Ashtrays

If you own a business, a large ashtray is imperative. Even if barely any of your customers are smokers, those who are will quickly make your entrance unsightly as they drop butts onto the ground. One ashtray will be sufficient, and, as with all trash receptacles, there are a variety of options.

Smokers’ Posts

These are devoted to the smoker. With their long neck and wide base, they are designed to quickly extinguish cigarettes by denying them oxygen. They are incredibly effective in this regard, as the narrow neck also ensures that other trash can’t be put into them, thus negating the risk of a fire. While a tad obtrusive, smokers’ posts are also attractive, and serve their purpose well.

Wall-Mounted Urns

The name of the game with the wall-mounted urn is utilitarianism. Nothing more than boxes that stick on your wall, they are not attractive at all – but that’s not what they’re designed to be. Rather, they’re designed to be discreet places for smokers to discard their butts. “We don’t mind smokers,” you’re saying when you buy one “but we’re not going to celebrate them with a pretty ashtray.” These are great for places like hospitals and halls of residences whose managers would prefer not to endorse smoking.

Combination Ashtrays and Trashcans

These are excellent as they combine all your waste disposal needs. If you buy one of the above options, you are going to also have to buy a trash can, as there’s no point in eliminating cigarette butts if they are replaced with candy bar wrappers, orange peels, and the like. If you’re trying to keep a clean shop while operating on a budget, this is the most effective way to give smokers a place to deposit their refuse.