The Easiest Way To Hide The Kitchen Trash Can

Here's how to organize the space under your kitchen sink and hide that icky garbage pail, when you don't have room for a fancy built in trash cabinet.

It's an easy DIY and one you can accomplish in an about an hour.

Whenever I embark on a new crafting journey or contemplate one of my house DIYs, I always, always consider the pretty.

It's usually the driving force behind my makeovers, since I'm definitely a form over function girl.

And unless I have absolutely no choice in the matter, or it's repair, like when the pipe burst under the kitchen sink, and I just needed the water to stop rushing onto my beautiful wood floor, it's always where I start planning.

With that most important question...but how will it look?

Well, in a complete and total reversal, when I started planning today's project, pretty never even entered my mind.

The kids had both recently left the nest and without the constant hustle and bustle, I began to notice a few things I hadn't had time to examine before.

Like the inside of the cabinet under the sink.

And all I can say is...ick.


Yes, I cleaned under there on a semi-regular basis, but the cabinet doors were always covered by a darling pom pom sink skirt.

I was so blinded its lovely cottage style charm, I never paid attention to what was hiding inside.

The cracked pail.  The rusted and sticky metal caddy, the old cleaning supplies. The chipped cabinet paint. 

And all the nastiness that accrues when people miss toss their garbage and miss - because the trash can no longer pulls out of the cabinet - and mom doesn't catch it right away.

Yeah. Not pretty. At all.


Of course, once I noticed it, I couldn't think about anything else.

The original plan was to simply take everything out, wipe the shelves down, get a new trash pail and put it all back.

However, as soon as I saw the stains on the wood shelving, I decided I needed something to protect it...and cover those stains up.

Funny, but it didn't even enter my mind to purchase something floral or checked, like I used in my silverware drawers.

Or in my pantry.

I just went for the sturdiest, heavy duty, waterproof plastic cabinet shelf liner I could find.

My Under Sink Mat//Similar Mat

It was, after all, going under the sink, and as I said, we'd already been down the leaky faucet road once before.

As far as DIYs go, it was a relatively easy install. First we removed that rusted pail caddy, Then we  measured, cut the plastic mat to size and fit it inside the cabinet.

We did use a bit of double sided carpet tape to lock it in place since the mat didn't have any adhesive.

Carpet Tape

We cut the double sided tape to fit the inside perimeter of the base cabinet, stuck it down and placed the plastic shelf liner on top of it.

Then I used my hand to smooth it down.

I don't know if that was truly necessary, but it definitely hasn't budged in the few months it's been down. So it was a worthwhile add.

And while pretty wasn't my original goal here, I have to say, I was smitten with the fresh, new look.

I'm editing this to add, that when I originally shared this post, Diana, from Nana Diana Takes A Break, commented that she lined her sink cabinet base with vinyl stick tiles. She even did a post about and you can see it by checking out her link.

We have a bunch of these old tiles hanging around. 

I think that is a genius idea. They would protect the wood base from water, wipe clean in a jiffy and they would stay in place.

And...if you did end up with a leaky mess, you could easily pull them up and replace them all or only the ones that are damaged. Thanks Diana!

Next up, we installed a new rolling trash can caddy...the one you see in that photo. 

We realized that while it had been a dependable workhorse, 20 years in service was clearly its limit. So we ordered a new one. It's literally the easiest way to hide the kitchen trash can.

You see, we don't have one of those fancy built in trash and recyclables cabinets. We didn't have room for it in either house, when we added the kitchens.

And I'm not a fan of the garbage can sitting out in the kitchen. Yes, I know there are pretty ones, but I've never been a fan.

I've always wanted the pail out of everyone's way, out of the kids' and pets' reach and, most importantly, out of my sight.

So instead, in cottage number one and cottage number two, we purchased one of these metal pull out trash container/ baskets and mounted it under the sink.

Pull Out Trash Caddy//Double Pail Trash Caddy

Like I said, the last one we had worked perfectly for decades, so we literally bought the updated model and installed it in the same holes that we had used to secure the old one.

We didn't even need to read the instruction manual. 

The company did have a handy video to walk us through the steps if needed though. 

The kit we purchased was made so the basket could be positioned two ways depending on the placement of the sink pipes and the depth of the cabinet.


They do make larger kits, that have two baskets, but our space is cramped, so we have a single basket, set up front, with a small basket for soap, etc., behind it.

Tidy and shiny.