It’s been a long while since I’ve written a home products post, so I looked around my apartment to find an object that I absolutely love, what I call a “welcome object.” And, well, I have decided to write about a trash can.

Yes, I love a trash can. Never thought I’d have such strong feelings for a trash receptacle, but here we are. I’ve owned this particular trash can from Yamazaki for years now, and my love remains strong.

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What’s so special about it? For me, it’s an ideal example of form meets function.

On the functional end, this trash can does something a little differently than other ones: it holds and hides the unsightly trash bag. I was raised to reuse plastic grocery bags as trash can liners. (Doesn’t everyone?) And now that San Francisco and other cities have banned flimsy single-use plastic bags, I hoard them when I come across them, carefully folding them into triangles for storage. (But that’s another post.)

An aside: I feel bad that I’m using plastic bags, seeing as how plastic lasts forever. (OK, not forever, but perhaps 500 years). But I’ve been working on reducing what goes to the landfill by trying to buy items that come in less packaging. I’m proud to say that I’ve reduced my trash output to about one flimsy grocery bag’s worth of trash per week to 10 days. And I have the city of San Francsico to thank for taking my compost. What’s in my trash now? Mostly packaging, like potato chip bags.

Anyways, back to trash cans. Basically every trash can I grew up with looked like this:

This look always bothered me because I care about aesthetics and that plastic bag over the rim is just unattractive. But, what else are you supposed to do?

The Yamazaki trash can, made from ABS plastic, provides a solution. It consists of two parts.

The top is a cover that slides off, revealing the bottom part, which has notches.

Place the bag over the sides with the notches.

Then slide on the cover. The sides of the cover go into the notches and hold the bag in place.

Viola! The unsightly plastic bag is hidden! Ingenious.

And that brings me to form. This is a handsome trash can. Modern and minimalist in design. A simple pleasing square. It also has a handy cutout handle on one side in case you need to grab it and move it. I use it in my bathroom. At 7.1 x 7.1 x 14 inches and 2.5 gallon capacity, it’s on the small side, so it’s not good for the kitchen or other areas where you may generate more trash. But I find it perfect for the bathroom.

You can find this trash can on the Yamazaki site, Bloomingdales, or West Elm for $50, but I bought mine from the Container Store for $35. There are other iterations of this trash can as well, including a larger, rectangular version and a tall one made of steel. And if you want to upgrade the materials, there’s also this steel one with a wooden top.

This trash can is my introduction to Yamazaki, which makes practical home organizing items in pleasing, simple designs. Many of them work well for small spaces, like this skinny rolling cart or this over-the-sink dish rack. I’m now eyeing this magnetic paper towel holder and this minimalist banana stand.

UPDATE 5/11/23 – Now that I’ve traveled to Japan I’m here to report that all the trash cans I encountered in hotels are designed to hide the liner. Love that! By the way, here’s my Japan packing list.