How to install a pull-out trash can

Measure the clear opening, choose bottom mount if you want the simpler install and door mount if you want the cabinet door to pull the bins out, then mount the frame square to the front of the cabinet and set the door bracket last. Tools: a tape measure, a pencil, a cordless drill with a short bit, a square, and a bradawl. The two things that go wrong are a frame set back too far from the opening, and a door bracket adjusted before the frame is confirmed square.

You are not building anything. Every mainstream kit is pre-drilled, and the whole job is transferring four or six hole positions accurately onto a cabinet floor. Accuracy at that stage is what determines whether the unit still runs smoothly in two years.

If you have not done this before, fit a bottom-mount unit. Door mounting is genuinely better to live with, and it is also the version that shows every millimetre of error on the face of your cabinetry. The simplehuman 35L is the exception worth knowing about: its track arrives as one pre-assembled piece, which removes most of the alignment risk from either approach.

The easiest unit to install, and the one with the best slides if you are fitting a kitchen you intend to keep.

Best pull-out overall

simplehuman 35L Dual Compartment Under-Counter Pull-Out Can

The pull-out that is easiest to install and hardest to break: an all-steel frame on commercial ball-bearing tracks that arrive as one pre-assembled piece.

$119.97 · View on Amazon

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

Best slides

Rev-A-Shelf 4WCSC-1835DM-2 Bottom-Mount Double, 2 x 35 Quart

The version fitted with real Blum Blumotion heavy-duty slides — the same hardware that goes into high-end cabinetry.

$449.99 · View on Amazon

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

• Clear opening width at the narrowest point, with the door fully open. Compare it against the unit's published minimum, not against the cabinet's nominal size.
• Clear height from the cabinet floor to the underside of the top rail. Bottom-mount units need this; the Rev-A-Shelf 4WCSC states 20-5/8 inches.
• Depth to the back wall, past the plumbing. The trap under a sink is the usual obstruction.
• Hinge intrusion. Open the door and look for anything protruding into the opening at bucket height.
• Whether the cabinet floor is solid. A thin, unsupported floor panel will flex under two full buckets, and a flexing floor is what pulls slides out of alignment. Add a plywood pad if it moves under hand pressure.

Those five checks take ten minutes and they are the difference between an install and a return. The full routine, including what to do about the trap, is in how to measure a cabinet for a pull-out can.

1. Step 01

   Empty the cabinet and clean the floor

   Everything out, including whatever is taped to the back wall. Wipe the floor - a frame mounted on grit sits on grit, and you want to see your pencil marks.

2. Step 02

   Dry-fit the frame with the buckets out

   Slide the empty frame in and check it clears the opening, the hinges and the plumbing. Do this before any marking. If it fouls anything now, it will foul it forever.

3. Step 03

   Set the front-to-back position

   This is the step that decides whether the job works. The frame front should sit far enough back that the buckets clear the door and the face frame when they travel, and no further. On a face-frame cabinet, allow for the frame thickness. Mark the frame's front edge on the cabinet floor with a pencil.

4. Step 04

   Square it, then mark the holes

   Put a square against the cabinet side and the frame. A frame mounted even slightly out of square binds under load. With it square and on your front line, mark every pre-drilled hole through onto the floor.

5. Step 05

   Pilot the holes with a bradawl or a short bit

   Use a short bit and a depth stop or a strip of tape - cabinet floors are thinner than they look and the bottom of that cabinet may be the top of a drawer or a dishwasher. Pilot at every mark; do not drive screws into particleboard dry.

6. Step 06

   Screw the frame down, front screws first

   Front pair snug but not fully tight, check square again, then the back pair, then tighten everything. Frame-first-then-check is what stops a unit that was square on the mark from ending up skewed.

7. Step 07

   Run it empty, then loaded

   Slide it in and out ten times with nothing in it, then with both buckets full of something heavy. It should run without catching at any point of the travel. Any resistance now is a misalignment to fix now, not a quirk to live with.

8. Step 08

   Fit the door bracket last, if it is door mount

   With the frame proven, attach the bracket to the door and the frame, close the door, and check the face sits flush with the cabinets either side. Adjust the bracket - not the frame - until it does. Budget fifteen minutes for this step alone.

Binding at one point in the travel

The frame is not square, or the cabinet floor is flexing under load. Loosen all the screws, re-square against the cabinet side, retighten front-first. If the floor moves under hand pressure, add a plywood pad under the frame.

The door sits proud of the run

Door bracket, not frame. That is what the bracket adjustment exists for, and the fix is a few millimetres at a time with the door closed between each attempt.

A bucket cracked at the handle cut-out

The normal failure, and not a reason to replace the kit. Rev-A-Shelf sells 35-quart replacement containers for its RV-series frames - confirm your frame series before ordering, because other lines take different buckets at misleadingly similar dimensions.

The whole thing was a mistake

It happens, usually in a rental or a kitchen with one usable cabinet. Pull-out pros and cons is the honest accounting, and renter-friendly options covers what to do when drilling is not allowed.