Updated October 2026
2 min watch
In short
Plan the bins from day one. Work out how many you need for rubbish, recycling and food waste, then build them in, under the sink or as a pull-out in the run, so nothing sits on the worktop. Adding bins to a unit later means drilling extra holes for the runners, which is never as tidy.
In this video
- Everyone has a bin, so build it into the design rather than leaving space for a freestanding one.
- Count how many you need for rubbish, recycling and food waste. Every household is different.
- Bins can go under the sink or in a pull-out, in lots of sizes.
- A hands-free bin makes it easy to slide in vegetable peelings straight off the chopping board.
- Converting a unit to take bins later adds unnecessary holes, so decide early.
What is said in the video
Many people who don't have bins, people who can't fit bins into their kitchen, but it is, it's in there with, I need a dishwasher and I need a fridge, it's like the bin. Because everyone has a bin in their kitchen. So if you think someone's having a wall-to-wall kitchen or an L-shaped kitchen, where do you put the bin?
You might as well build it in. Nobody says, make sure you leave space for my freestanding bin. A bin is an essential part. We do so many. We do really big bins, a selection of bins. We can have bins that fit under the sink. The recycling is changing for a lot of people at the moment, which means there was a time that we needed a lot of bins and now they've just slightly changed.
So sort of paired with waste disposals and things like that. Everyone needs a different amount of bins. It's nice to have allocated spaces within your kitchen, rather than all these clunky, smelly bins on your worktop. Nobody wants that. This is my favourite bin. I don't have this one at home, but I want it and I will get it.
You don't need it, but it's one of those things that you want. So it's, I just love it. Fantastic. So you just, hands-free bin. If you are composting and you have small bins and you don't have a waste disposal, actually, if you imagine that you've just chopped a load of vegetables and you've got them in your hands or on a chopping board and it's just hands-free, you just open it up and slide it in.
The actual, the mechanism that is on the runners has the right amount of holes. What you're asking is if you have a four bin system, you'd obviously have a metal rail in there. So you can obviously convert carcasses to suit bins and things, but you're just going to add more holes unnecessarily. And it's not really ideal.
It's really important to think about from day one, how many bins I need where like, if someone's got a really small bin, is it enough where you put in your recycling?
This video is part of our guide, Kitchen storage ideas that work, which goes into more detail.
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