When we moved into our house, there were naturally a million boxes everywhere. We soon got those under control, but the regular recycling was not. Since the island in our kitchen wasn't in use with bar stools, we just stacked all of our recycling there. And yes, it looked absolutely awful. I happened to be at a farewell party for a friend when I spied the most beautiful garbage can that took care of both waste and recycling. Of course it was simple human. Those trash cans are really well designed. But I'm not about to pay near $175 for one or even $90 for something similar. I'm sure they're worth it, but I'd much rather that cash go towards furniture we really need right now (coffee tables, rugs, etc). So the plan to buy a sexy trash can was nixed. I eventually came across these bins at Ikea. They're simple enough and sit next to one another nicely. They also happen to fit our little garbage nook and budget perfectly ($26 for the pair). We've had them for a few months, and our system is working really well. We don't have lingering recycling (unless it's the big sort, in which case it'll never fit any bin besides the giant can outside). And we actually recycle instead of hide our recycling items in the trash can. The only problem with these cans was that they were not labeled accordingly. Items would usually get mis-categorized when company was over, but that's easy enough to remedy. I designed and cut out some vinyl stickers to attach to the bin. BAM! DONE. I'm sure grubby waste and messy hands will gum up these stickers sometime in the future, but they're not too hard to replace. How do you manage your recycling if you're not taking every recycle item outside to the large bin?