Wheelie bins are great! So much better than the heavy old metal dustbins that we all used to have, and certainly much better than dustbin sacks which could be easily torn or ripped open by animals. But although we love them, they’re not the most attractive of items to have in your garden.
Of course, there are many ways to hide them or at least disguise them. But, before you consider the options there are some questions that you might like to ask yourself.
How important is convenient access? If you have a side entrance to your house and keep your wheelie bins in the back garden then you might be attracted to the idea of a purpose-built wooden storage shed at the end of your garden. However, this might not seem so attractive every time you have to go to the end of the garden to use it, or to wheel it to the front of the house, especially in cold wet weather.
If you don’t have side access or don’t want to wheel your bins to the front of the house every week, you may consider building or purchasing storage for your drive. But how practical is it? Will you still be able to access the bin when the car is parked there? Will it limit access to the front door for deliveries? We wouldn’t want the supermarket delivery man/woman getting your shopping stuck between the car and the storage.
Having decided where you would like the storage to be, you can then decide between a multitude of materials. Wood can look great with a natural finish or painted to compliment your home. Metal is more durable, but perhaps a little more agricultural looking for the average front garden.
Of course, there are plastic storage units but they can often end up looking as bad as the bins themselves. If none of these are suitable because you have a small front garden, or you just don’t want a large storage unit, trellis or bamboo are always worth considering. Particularly trellis if you can position it so that it’s suitable for planting, you can hide your wheelie bins in plain sight whilst making your space more attractive with climbing plants.
There are so many options, and we’ve mentioned just a few, so we hope this has given you some ideas to hide that most useful but not the most attractive of household items, the wheelie bin.