Cleaning your wheelie bin

[Mendi]

What products do you use for this?

Wheelie bin is just a bit whiffy and I want to give it a good wash before the weather gets warmer. Would I use a solution of washing up liquid and a brush, or what?

[Blamenargles]

I use jeyes cleaning fluid and a yard brush.
I also use the jeyes bin sprinkle, input a bit in after its been emptied

[PigletJohn]

try not to let it get too dirty.

a newspaper or two in the bottom will help absorb wetness. Potato peelings are bad for liquifying as they rot, wrap them in newspaper. Food scraps are best wrapped or bagged.

you can throw a bucket of water in, or use a hose, swill it round, tip it down a gulley or on the garden, that will get rid of most grime.

If there are nasty food or grease deposits, another bucket of hot water with some GP cleaner, poke it round with mop or soft broom, tip it out, leave upside down to drain, leave the lid open for it to air dry.

If you ever feed the need to scrub your bin, don't lean over the top (you may fall in). Lie it down on the ground and use the mop or brush.

[EeyoreIsh]

Most of my street get them cleaned each week after the rubbish has been collected

[hedgefund]

i use disinfectant then a few boiled kettles full of water, swill it then empty. use newspaper to soak up anything left at the bottom.

i once asked the wheelie bin people to clean my bin as a 'once off' and they refused! weird way to get custom i thought. they could have got another customer!

[LouLouH]

Good old jeyes fluid.

[GwendolineMaryLacey]

I've never understood this. It's a bin. Its job is to get dirty and it lives outside.

[HorryIsUpduffed]

A man comes with a special van once a month. Mostly hot water. It's £3 ish a go, and he does our main bin and kitchen scraps bin (which is the sticky smelly one).

Money well spent. Bin juice makes me heave.

[PigletJohn]

my neighbour has a dirty bin and it stinks. They put it by at the end of the boundary fence close to me. I hose it out sometimes in winter.

Rotting, maggoty food is more than dirt.

[PigletJohn]

summer, not winter

[Coldcuppacoffee]

I once cycled past someone cleaning their wheelie bin and a bit of juice flew out and hit me on the mouth. Gross.

[SageMist]

Am I a slattern? I have never ever cleaned my bin. It's a bin, it gets dirty.

[orangeandlemons]

Do people clean wheelie bins? Everything in ours is in black binliners

[Mendi]

Agree if rubbish is properly bagged the bin shouldn't need too much cleaning. But ours are only collected once every 2 weeks and in summer even when double bagged sometimes the foody rubbish starts to pong. I think some left-over pong is whiffing out my bin . The shame.

I am not looking forward to this job so have roped in DS (11) to help (for a small payment). I've told him doing the bins is 'a man's job'. Funny how my feminist beliefs deserted me to accommodate that one.

[PigletJohn]

I'll email him to say that ironing is woman's work, then.

[wheredidiputit]

I Pay some one £3 per month to do it.

Although I bag everything up. I can't stand a smelly bin. I also have the recycling & garden waste bin done as well.

[Hassled]

I've never cleaned my bin and I know it needs it.

We have food scraps collected separately, weekly, which is brilliant - and has made a noticeable difference to the amount of standard waste - but that bin gets absolutely rank.

[Startail]

kitchen bin gets attacked with bleach and a hose out in the garden.

I guess the same thing will happen to the wheelie bin, if needed. So far, living outside and with food waste going separately it's ok.

Outdoor food bin is evil, that is certainly a candidate for chemical warfare.

[Booyhoo]

thanks for this thread. it has reminded me to clean mine. i inherited a load of grime in the bottom of mine when i moved in last summer and keep meaning to clean it. once i do i'm going to use those wheelie bin liners in it. everything else that goes in it is bagged anyway but sometimes bags burst.

[PigletJohn]

when mine is fairly clean, I just leave the lid open so the sun and rain can get to it, after it's been emptied.

tip out the rain afterwards.

[Mendi]

I don't mind the ironing Pigletjohn - it's relaxing.