The best trash cans for RVs and campers

The Clorox Slim 2.6 Gallon Step Trash Can is the one to buy for most RVs: 7 inches wide, 13.3 deep, a damped lid that closes quietly in a space where everything is close to your head, and a removable inner bucket so emptying it at a dump station does not mean carrying the whole can. If your gap is narrower still, the Umbra Skinny is 6.5 inches wide. If the can lives in a cabinet or under a dinette bench, the Sterilite 2.7 Gallon StepOn two-pack is the cheap, sensible answer - and you get a spare.

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	Clorox Slim 2.6 Gallon Step Trash CanA seven-inch-wide steel step can with a soft-close lid and a liftable inner bucket, for the gap beside a desk or a vanity.	Best for a narrow gap	$29.99 · View on Amazon $34.99 · 14% off · Price as of October 17, 2026.  #ad How we make money
02	Umbra Skinny Trash Can, 2 GallonSix and a half inches wide, which is the number that matters when the only space is between the toilet and the wall.	Best narrow small can	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
03	simplehuman 16L Mini Step CanA proper step can at 16 liters — damped lid, steel pedal, and a footprint that fits beside a dorm desk or under a counter.	Best small step can	$110.00 · View on Amazon Price as of October 17, 2026.  #ad How we make money
04	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 17, 2026.  #ad How we make money

Four constraints a house kitchen does not have, in the order they will bite you.

• Width, not gallons. The usable spots in a camper are the gap beside the fridge, the end of a galley run, the space under a dinette bench and the floor of a wet bath. Those are measured in inches, and a round can wastes most of a rectangular gap. Measure the gap before you read any further.
• It has to stay shut in motion. A free-hinged lid will open on a speed bump, and whatever is in the can will not stay in it. A latched lid or a damped lid that seats positively is worth more than any other feature here. A bungee across the lid is a legitimate travel-day fix.
• It has to not slide. Anything on a smooth RV floor migrates. Put the can against a cabinet face or inside one, and if the base is light, something non-slip underneath it.
• The waste lives with you longer. You cannot take the trash out when you are forty miles from a dump station, and an RV is a small sealed box. This is the real reason a lid matters, and the reason the food fraction needs managing separately rather than better odor control on the can.

That last point is worth being blunt about: no can solves RV trash smell. Keeping the wet, food fraction out of the bin solves it. Bag food scraps separately and freeze or ice-box them until you can dispose of them, exactly as you would on a boat. How to stop trash can smell covers the rest of the technique, and it is more relevant in 200 square feet than it is in a house.

We did not take these cans on the road. We selected from cans whose manufacturer-published width is genuinely narrow, ranked by the four constraints above, and checked each against a live retailer or manufacturer listing. Where a can has no lid - the Umbra does not - we have said so rather than letting it rank on footprint alone. Methodology, disclosure.

A 13-gallon kitchen bag in a 2.6-gallon can is a comedy of folded plastic, and the overhang is worse in an RV because the can is usually wedged somewhere the excess can catch. You want 4-gallon liners for the 2.6 and 2.7-gallon cans, and small grocery bags genuinely work in the Sterilite - the manufacturer lists it for a 4-gallon liner or a standard shopping bag, which is the useful kind of honesty.

Buy liners in a size you can restock on the road: 4-gallon bathroom bags are in every supermarket and every campground store, and a coded liner is not. Trash can liners vs trash bags explains the difference, and why your trash bag doesn't fit covers the sizing arithmetic.

The two we would put in a camper: the 7-inch damped step can for an open galley, and the small Sterilite pair for cabinet duty with a spare in the garage bay.

Best for a narrow gap

Clorox Slim 2.6 Gallon Step Trash Can

A seven-inch-wide steel step can with a soft-close lid and a liftable inner bucket, for the gap beside a desk or a vanity.

$29.99 · View on Amazon

$34.99 · 14% off · Price as of October 17, 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 17, 2026.  #ad How we make money

• Empty it before you drive, every time. It takes a minute and it removes the whole problem of a lid opening in motion.
• Bungee the lid on travel days. Cheap, reversible, and it also stops the can sliding if you run the cord to a cabinet handle.
• Keep the food fraction cold, not covered. Scraps in a sealed bag in the freezer or the ice box until disposal. This is the single biggest difference you can make to how an RV smells.
• Wash the can, not just the bucket. In a small space the film under the lid rim is what you smell. How to clean a trash can has the order of operations, and the inner buckets on these picks lift out so it is a two-minute job.
• Carry a second can for recycling if you boondock. Two 2.7-gallon cans beat one 5-gallon when the recycling has to be kept separate for days - which is why we picked a two-pack.