<p>Our homeowners association requires that trash cans are kept out of sight which for most of use means in our garage. Due to the way the house sits on our lot, there is no place to keep the can out of site without going down many steps and keep it in the back yard. Our can is provided by the trash company and is huge on wheels. We get trash pick up ones a week, so the can is pretty close to full many weeks.</p>
<p>The problem I am having is mostly in the summer when the garage is hot. The odor is awful, and I swear I even smell it in my car! We clean the can a few times a year and I make sure we don’t put anything in that is not in a plastic trash bag, so the can itself isn’t really dirty. All it takes it one dinner of fish or chicken and the next day the can reeks. This is just from the package or wrapper the food comes in, but once you add a really over heated garage to the mix, you have a smelly area.</p>
<p>Any great suggestions to keep the area odor free? I would like to tell my homeowner’s association when they can keep their trash can, but I guess that isn’t the answer Is it really so horrible that a neighborhood filled with families has a trash can next to each home? We all have the same rolling can, so at least each house would have the same can out; but I guess my association doesn’t find trash appealing.</p>
<p>Scrub it out with bleach and leave it open outside the garage, <em>in the sun,</em> to air dry. If anyone complains the day you do that, tell them what you are doing—it is not the same as leaving a full can lying around—and tell them why.</p>
<p>You might already be doing this, but we find that it makes a significant difference if we bag the smelly stuff in a plastic grocery bag before putting it in the trash can. That said, ours smells right now due to shrimp shells, and they were individually bagged before putting them in. I like the idea of washing with bleach. I’ve washed outs, but not with bleach, so that will be on my list of things to do on Wednesday, after trash is picked up.</p>
<p>I remember reading somewhere that charcoal absorbs odors. I wonder what would happen if you threw a few briquettes in the bottom of the trash can. Worth a try.</p>
<p>It’s especially bad when one little fly finds your can . . . it’s enough to make me consider becoming a vegetarian during the hot months. If it’s going to be several days before our once a week pick-up I sometimes wrap meat scraps in foil and stick them in the freezer until trash day. All other food items are composted, but the meat can be a problem. </p>
<p>Bleach helps, and I rinse mine out at least twice a month.</p>
<p>This has always been a problem for us in the summer months. We often entertain which adds to the volume of garbage. We kind of have to keep in the garage because we don’t want animals getting into it , or worse yet …maggots. I have to get it out at the curb early in the morning , not at night since our containers are too big for the trash collecters to pick up. I do tend to use my grocery store plastic bags to provide extra protection from food that I know will be really smelly from the heat.
Also have used a product called SCOE 10X to get rid of the smell in the can that bleach just won’t touch</p>
<p>I do wrap all smelly trash in plastic trash bags before putting it in the can. Not that the can smells nice when empty, but the odor is definitely from the trash, not the can itself. That said, I think I will clean it again this weekend and try bleach. </p>
<p>I wish we had somewhere else to put the can, but our property slopes at the end of the driveway, so there is no where else to hide the can.</p>
<p>I have heard of others freezing their trash; not something I want to do, nor do I really have the room for that. It isn’t the food that is the smelly problem as much as the shrimp shells, the plastic tray with the chicken juice, or the chicken skin I remove, or the paper from the fish.</p>
<p>Thought I would check online to see if there is some type of clip on air freshener for a large trash can. I still don’t think that will really help in the summer, but I am willing to try anything!</p>
Is it really so horrible that a neighborhood filled with families has a trash can next to each home? We all have the same rolling can, so at least each house would have the same can out; but I guess my association doesn’t find trash appealing.</p>