Smelly bin.. what do you do?!

[cheesywotsit62]

So, we’re having an issue of the bin being smelt and bin juices when we change it. I do thoroughly clean the bin when we change it to absolve the bin juices etc. We had discussed getting a food bin caddy but we are unfortunately in a very small flat and don’t have our own garden so not possible to put it outside our back door as many other posters seem to do.
Every time I walk into the kitchen I get a whiff of a bad smell from the bin which is just as you enter the kitchen. I suggested to DH we just change it as soon as it starts to smell but he is against this as the bin is hardly even full when it smells - waste of the bag and time.
Especially as it is coming in to the warmer weather it’s more noticeable - what do we do?!

The start of the post should have said “bin being smelly” not smelt! No edit option unfortunately.

Identify what is making it smell (for example: Raw meat) and dispose of these outside at once rather than putting in your bin inside your property. Also - washing out containers (like containers for food like tins etc) before disposing of them should really help with the issue.

I also live in a flat. To avoid a smelly bin, I put all food waste into (biodegradable) dog poop bags, and tie up tightly, before placing in the bin.

We have a food waste caddy that lives under our kitchen sink and gets emptied once a week. It doesn't smell. When the weather is very warm I might put potentially smelly food (like leftover meat or fish) in a food caddy bag and into the freezer until bin day.

Get a Joseph Joseph counter top food bin. It looks nice enough, and has a charcoal filter to absorb smells. You can also put a little kitchen roll in the bottom of the bin to absorb moisture.

But also - just empty your bin more often. Your husband “not agreeing” is weird. Why live in squalor?

What in your bin smells? We rinse all plastic containers, tins and glass. We also rinse all soft plastic and recycle that separately - we take that to the supermarket. We put peelings etc straight into the compost bin outside. And we have a separate food waste bin (for cooked food) which we empty once a week or so. Very little therefore goes into our main bin. If we think there is something that will smell a lot (eg packaging for fish or meat) then I put it straight into the outside bin.

We keep it all in a Joseph Joseph Totem bin and only really empty it when full. It doesn't smell.

Why is it smelling?
Can you wrap up smelly stuff before it goes in the bin?

Lining the bottom of the bin with newspaper helps to absorb bin juices and smells

Wash bin, use smaller bin bags and empty it daily or whenever one of you leaves the flat. No smells and your dh will be ‘happy?’ with smaller bags = no wasting of a bag/ space.

Smaller bin and take it out more?

Dry out thoroughly after cleaning, then add a small amount of baking soda.

So after you have cleaned the bin sprinkle some baking powder in the bottom. Also, get a food waste bin. I have a small one on the worktop, it never smells as it has a tight fitting lid and filter. Also more environmentally friendly.

All recycling should be washed before binned anyway. Any food waste get a much much smaller bin, so it’s emptied every 1-2 days out to main bin.

I always double bag my bin. It has one bin liner, which has air freshener block at bottom. Then a second Costco bin liner goes in. That way no spills ever.

But you do need to wash it, double bag, but also change it more often. And more importantly look at what you are putting in it - there shouldn't be any juices or spills or leaks ever, so if there is there is something going wrong.

Why would you was recycling then bin it?if you aren't going to recycle why waste more resources washing it?

Paper towels dripping with zoflora in the bottom before the bin bag

How often do you throw the rubbish outside ? We do ours everyday , so don’t have an issue with smells , I think you just need to persuade your husband that putting the rubbish out more often is the answer, anything else is just trying to disguise the smell .

Also I realised that I assumed you use a bin liner , but your post doesn’t say , rubbish thrown straight in the bin would obviously be a smellier issue . Although we do sometimes get condensation in the bottom of the bin if we put something warm like a tea bag at the start of a new bin bag .

Put any organic waste in a designated bin and empty it when full. www.amazon.co.uk/OXO-Easy-Clean-Compost-Bin-6-62-L-Charcoal/dp/B07ZDRTFYN

How are you ending up with bin juices? No liquid should go in the bin. Make sure you squeeze teabags out. Strain any leftover milk from cereal down the sink before you put the cereal in the bin. Pour any juice from meat packets down the sink before putting the packet in the bin. Flush leftover soup down the toilet. Etc.

If you want to try a food caddy you’d still have to do that!

Minky food caddies are much cheaper than Joseph Joseph and have a brilliant design

What size is your bin? Maybe your existing one is too big and everything starts to smell before it is full. Could be a space and smell saver to go smaller and empty more often?

Rinse absolutely everything before you (appropriately) bin it. Simples!

Use bin liners & wash the bin out regularly.

If you have anything like gravy or food juices too lumpy to pour down the sink, chuck and flush down the toilet.
It’s not rocket science.
Read all the posts on here and get to it in a way that works for you.

We empty the bin every night, only way to keep on top of smells in this house.

I've found that the worst thing for a smelly bin is onion skins. I mostly use frozen onions now or take any onion waste straight out to the wheelie bin. Don't know whether it's causing your problem or not but it made a big difference to ours.

Our council tells us too. Our last one did too.

*to!