House in Progress Diary

We went with three large stand-up garbage cans in our pantry. They're bigger than most people's bins, but they take up less floor space and we only have to take them out every few weeks this way!

http://www.ourfixerupper.com/organizing-frenzy.htm

We use a couple milk crate sized plastic crates that live right outside our backdoor (right by the kitchen). They are actually provided by the city, but you can buy similar crates at most places.

We have them sitting next to the house in a line, with the trash can at the end. It's hidden from both the yard and the front, so attractiveness doesn't matter, but I'm thinking about building a wooden frame to sit them on. You can easily open the door and toss the item into the correct bin.

Inside the house, I have a metal file box (the decorative kind) that I place next to the trash can to collect newspapers. We empty that one once a week into teh outside one.

Hope that helps any...

We really like the bins we got at IKEA. Easy to stack, easy to carry. The solid construction is tidier than crates and the lids keep everything neat.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90076364

We use those Ikea bins, too -- they are great. We have one for glass and metal, and one for paper, and we fill them up about once a week, unless we have an unusually high milk consumption week. Love them!

I put my newspapers in a paper shopping bag (I lay them all flat so that LOTS of papers fit in the bag), I use empty kitty litter buckets (with lids) to hold my rinsed tin cans and a 33 gallon Hefty sack to hold all the plastic. They all fit nicely in my trunk so that I can take them to the recycle center not too far from my house. I make the trip about once a month. BUT the IKEA bins sound even better than the kitty litter buckets!

We have a couple of really great plastic totes that we got when we lived in Beverly, MA. They sold these totes specifically for recycling and they worked great. They are about 18" x 30", hard plastic (recycled!) with handles. I have a feeling lots of towns have these as part of their recycling program.

We used to lived in Chicago about 3 years ago...but at that time the city picked up recycling along with the other garbage as long as it was in a blue garbage bag. We were able to buy the bags at Jewel or any other grocery store. Does your neighborhood not have this service?

We have three bins for council collection,one (the smallest) is for household waste and another larger is for recycling,there is also another large one for garden or green waste but that is only collected fortnightly where as the others are weekly.We all looked askance at the small bin at first but we rarely fill it.we also have up to six kerbside bulk pick ups each year and you these can be either absolute rubbish or large garden waste.Many garbage tips have recycling centers which sell off recycled "treasure".They offer various incentives to bring your treasures such as reduced tip fees for the other rubbish that you have.

We use the 59 cent big blue bags from Ikea for our recycleables. They have two sets of sturdy fabric handles (one long for shoulder carrying and one short for hand carrying) and are plastic so you can easily rinse them out. They stand up and stay square reasonably well, but I put a big flat box (a take home from Cost Co) down as a base to give them a little more structure.

We got a few plastic crates at Menards. We are supposed to get "the blue can" program in our ward soon, which will be nice. Hopefully the whole city will soon. It's shameful a big city like Chicago has such a poor recyling program. Ok, I'll stop preaching now.