Kitchen Island Rubbish Bin Idea

Thought for the day: Multiply everything by three. Time, cost, & supplies. When you're done, return the excess supplies back to the store or sell it on Ebay. (Better to have supplies on hand than to lose time buying more.)

Okay, after a quick look at the kitchen (the main focus of our home) we noticed that with the second sink in the island, we were still going to have problems if the sink wasn't big enough to hold a colander or deep enough to fill a pot with water... hence a bigger island sink is needed.

Also, since the butcher block counter top will be actively used for chopping, what I wanted was a quick receptacle for chop-scraps. We do a lot of chopping and trimming, so the idea is to have a small place to quickly clear the cutting board. At first, we thought we'd want to have a regular garbage can under the butcher block, but raw food cuttings are usually something you don't want to stick around until the garbage gets full. It would most definitely start to smell badly. So, we decided, a small receptacle that could be emptied to the larger garbage can on a daily basis would be best.

We recently ran by the old industrial kitchen standard steam pans (see here) and thought that would make an excellent short term rubbish bin. With slide clips to the underside of the butcher block, we can slide it in and out, keeping it tight against the underside of the block.

But how to access the bin from above the counter? Well, we'll obviously have to cut through the block and make a hole. But what do we use to cover the hole when it's not in use, how to we keep the opening clean, and how do we not knock things over when sliding them across the opening towards the sink? (Insert theme song to final Jeopardy question here.)

We'll cut the block out as a keystone. Angle the cut block into a wedge so that to open it, all we'll need to do is reach under the block and push it upwards and pop it out. That way it will be smooth when inserted into the block because it won't have a knob or a lever on the top & won't have a lip to hold gunk. Viola. We'll need to make a backup in case we lose one, but I think it'll work. I'll let you know. Better ideas are welcomed!!



Where is the house at now? We're finishing up the demolition work and we're on to our second dumpster. Most of the non-structural walls are down, trim boards are off, ceilings and drywall are gone. Once the old stacks are taken down and the leftover debris removed, we'll be on to the framing and *furring* out of the walls. It sounds cuter that it seems, trust me.