The best Sterilite trash cans, size by size

For a kitchen, buy the 13 Gallon TouchTop (model 1045) if you want a latched lid and no pedal to break, or the 11.9 Gallon StepOn (1069) if hands-free matters more than the latch. For a gap beside the fridge, the 11 Gallon Slim StepOn (1058) is 10.5 inches wide and still takes a 13-gallon bag. For an office or a mudroom, the 7.5 Gallon TouchTop (1043). For a vanity or a nursery, the 2.7 Gallon StepOn (1061). Every one of them is a plain plastic can and none of them pretends otherwise.

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	Sterilite 13 Gallon TouchTop Wastebasket (1045)The 13-gallon Sterilite most people are looking for: a latching touch lid, a full-size 13-gallon liner, and no pedal linkage to snap.	Best Sterilite overall	$28.36 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
02	Sterilite 11.9 Gallon Large StepOn Wastebasket (4-Pack)The plain plastic step can that does the job: a pedal, a hinged lid, and room for an ordinary 13-gallon bag.	Best cheapest step can	$67.51 · View on Amazon $78.05 · 14% off · Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
03	Sterilite 11 Gallon Slim StepOn Wastebasket (4-Pack)The slim one: 10.5 inches across, hands-free, and it still holds an ordinary 13-gallon liner.	Best for a narrow gap	$69.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
04	Sterilite 7.5 Gallon TouchTop Wastebasket (1043)Seven and a half gallons on an 8-gallon liner — the right size for a home office, a mudroom or a second bathroom that actually gets used.	Best mid-size	$23.80 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
05	Sterilite 2.7 Gallon Rectangular StepOn Wastebasket (2-Pack)A hands-free can small enough for a vanity or a nursery, with an inner liner that lifts out and a bag-holding lip.	Best small step can	$30.99 · View on Amazon $35.99 · 14% off · Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

Sterilite is the brand you buy when the can is infrastructure rather than furniture. There is no brushed finish to keep clean, no damper, no filter, no app - there is a body, a lid, a pedal or a latch, and a price that makes the whole decision reversible. What you are really buying is the fit: the right capacity, in the right footprint, on a liner you already own. Get those three right and this is the correct purchase. Get them wrong and the can is in the garage by March.

Sterilite builds almost everything in two variants, and the choice between them matters more than the capacity does.

TouchTop: a spring latch, no pedal

The TouchTop lid is held shut by a spring latch and opens when you push the panel. The advantage is that the part that normally fails on a cheap can - the pedal linkage - does not exist, and the latch means the lid actually resists being nosed open. The cost is that you touch the can with the hand holding the trash.

StepOn: a pedal, and a lid that just rests

The StepOn models give you hands-free at the usual price: a plastic linkage, an undamped lid that closes with a clack, and no latch holding it down. In a household with a dog or a toddler that last point is the deciding one - how to keep dogs out of the trash explains why an unlatched lid is not a lid at all to a determined animal.

Sterilite publishes a model page for every wastebasket it makes, with capacity, outside dimensions and the liner size the can is designed around. We worked from those pages directly on 2026-10-13 rather than from retailer copy, which is why the dimensions below are to the eighth of an inch, and then ranked the line on one question: for the job this size is bought for, is this the can that fits? Methodology, disclosure.

The 13-gallon TouchTop leads because it is the model the brand is searched for and because the latch is a real functional advantage at a price where nothing else offers one. The 11.9-gallon StepOn is second as the hands-free version of the same job. The slim 11-gallon is third because it solves the narrow-gap problem without forcing you onto an odd liner, which almost every slim can does. The 7.5 and 2.7 are placed by room rather than ranked against the kitchen cans - they are different purchases.

Sterilite's wastebasket catalog is larger than the five cans above - there are oval and vanity bodies at the small end that are open baskets rather than lidded cans. Here is the useful part of the range in one table, so you can match a room to a model number before you shop.

Two things that table makes obvious. First, the three kitchen-size cans all run on the same 13-gallon liner, so you can mix them around the house without changing what you buy - that is the single best reason to stay inside one brand. Second, the 7.5-gallon jumps you to an 8-gallon bag, which is the size almost nobody has in the cupboard; trash bag sizes explained is worth two minutes before you commit a room to it.

There is a tendency to treat a cheap can as a compromise. It is not, in four rooms specifically: a garage, a utility or laundry room, a rental you are leaving, and a kids' room. In all four, the things a premium can sells you - a damped lid, a brushed finish, a published step rating - are either invisible or actively wasted, and the things that matter are that it takes a standard bag and that replacing it costs nothing.

Where it is the wrong call is an open-plan kitchen next to a living space, because an undamped lid bangs, and anywhere the can is on show. That trade is the whole argument of stainless steel vs plastic trash cans, and if you land on the plastic side of it, the best kitchen trash cans under $50 is the wider field this line competes in.

The two Sterilite sizes people most often cannot find anywhere else: a genuinely slim 11-gallon that takes a normal bag, and a 2.7-gallon with a pedal.

Best for a narrow gap

Sterilite 11 Gallon Slim StepOn Wastebasket (4-Pack)

The slim one: 10.5 inches across, hands-free, and it still holds an ordinary 13-gallon liner.

$69.99 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

Best small step can

Sterilite 2.7 Gallon Rectangular StepOn Wastebasket (2-Pack)

A hands-free can small enough for a vanity or a nursery, with an inner liner that lifts out and a bag-holding lip.

$30.99 · View on Amazon

$35.99 · 14% off · Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

The failure mode on a TouchTop is the latch spring going soft, and on a StepOn it is the pedal rod. Sterilite does not sell individual lids or springs to consumers for these models, which is why a surprising number of people search for a Sterilite lid replacement and come up short. At this price the practical answer is a second can rather than a part - and the reason that is not as annoying as it sounds is that the bodies stack, so a spare takes almost no storage.

If a lid has already gone and you would rather fix than replace, trash can lid replacement, brand by brand covers which manufacturers actually supply parts, and trash can without a lid makes the honest case for just running it open in the right room.