Liz's kitchen is small. Not the smallest I've ever seen, but small enough that it can't really hold more than two people at once. It is also quite feature packed - washing machine, dish washer, fridge, freezer, cooker all built in. One thing that is not built in is a rubbish bin, or indeed any space for one!

For the last year of living here we have tried various combinations of hanging carrier bags from the kitchen door handle and sitting a black sack on the floor. Both of these are far from ideal. The only floor space available for the black sack is directly in front of the freezer, which means accessing the freezer requires moving the rubbish. Hanging bags from door handles comes with fairly obvious problems, notably closing or even just moving the door. As there isn't much clearance between the door and the worktop it would often cause the bags to be knocked off.

For some months I have been convinced that the only place available for a bin is attached to the back of the kitchen door, high enough to be above worktop height (so as not to interfere with access to the dish washer). The trouble is most bins aren't designed for mounting onto a door. A few are designed for mounting inside cupboards, but seem to either expect an actual cupboard (eg are rail mounted) or are really small.

To further complicate our requirements, we didn't just need one bin. As is the trend these days, we're trying to recycle what we can (curiously Reigate and Banstead Council really don't collect much, basically just paper and tins!) and picking recyclable items out of the rubbish after the fact is not very pleasant. So we could really do with two bins.

Given this information, for the last few months I have been gradually formulating a plan. I finally concluded with a basic frame, attached to the door with mounting hooks for a couple of carrier bags (plentiful supply and easy to tie up afterwards). Now I just needed something to build it out of.

Then I looked on the Internet... D'oh!

After attaching them to the (surprisingly tough) door, our kitchen has been transformed into a far more comfortable living environment (although I confess not very "smart" - now just to find trendy carrier bags!)...

If only we'd installed them last year. If only I'd designed them before someone else did!