This $5 Mini Kitchen Find from Target Is My Secret to Keeping Counters Clean

I try my best to clean up while I’m cooking to make doing the dishes after dinner a pain-free experience. Usually this means cleaning as I go, but it also means keeping my counter as clean as possible while I chop vegetables or dice meat. One of my tricks is to place a small bowl on my counter to catch all of my kitchen scraps, like leaves from a celery stalk or peelings from a carrot. However, this uses up one of the few mixing bowls I have in my kitchen, so I’m always looking for a better solution. Thankfully, I think I found it, and it’s right at my local Target.

Although this small wastebasket is listed for a “desktop,” I honestly think it could work for a variety of purposes — the most prominent being a solution for my kitchen scraps. When I’m prepping a meal that requires a lot of scraps, like seeds from bell peppers for stuffed peppers or peelings from potatoes for loaded potato salad, this wastebasket saves me a lot of back-and-forth when I’m in the kitchen. Simply toss in the food I’m not using as I cook, then when I’m finally wrapping things up, I can dump them out in my trash. Or, better yet, my building’s compost bin.

This Brightroom swing-top wastebasket is made with stainless steel, making it easy to clean after you use it. It holds 1.5 liters of trash, so small enough for scraps or for other uses, such as wrappers for snacks in the car or near the couch, or even at your desk if you’re too lazy to throw that wrapper out in the trash when you’re working from home.

The bin comes in three classic colors: white, green, and black. Plus, for only $5 a bin, you could snag a few of these and place them around the house for easy cleanup. This wastebasket could even work well when you’re out on the patio for a backyard hang, and could easily travel to the beach or lake for easy cleanup after you enjoy your packed lunch.