When was the last time you looked at your rubbish chute?

Have you ever spent a few seconds just looking at it even without having to put any trash inside?

Probably not, because this little fixture inside our house has only one function – that is to carry all garbage that we produce in our own HDB flat into the common area where all trashes from other units are collected.

We all understand how important a rubbish chute is. It makes maintaining cleanliness in the house easier, without having to go all the way down to the ground floor to dispose our pile of garbage.

Rubbish Chute and a Separate Recycling Chute are now Required to be Installed

In fact, we all know that a refuse or rubbish chute installation is required in every building here in the country to have a centralized waste collection system that will keep all garbage where they should be and to keep every unit in the building clean as well.

In addition to a rubbish chute, all non-landed private residential developments are now being required to have recycling chutes adjacent to the refuse chutes in order to achieve the goal of our country to recycle 70% of our garbage by 2030.

With an additional trash chute inside our usually small HDB flats with so much challenge in space, there’s a danger that these trash outlets may just add to the clutter inside our house.

That’s why we thought of sharing with you some clever ideas on how to make your rubbish chute stylish. This has probably not entered your mind because we’re so focused on stylish bathroom upgrades and bedroom makeovers.

But let’s help you improve the look of your kitchen or living room wherever your rubbish chute is located so that even these functional little fixtures will be part of the grand design of your home. Here they are!

Pick the Right Color

Instead of going for a default rubbish chute installed in every unit in your building, replace it with a rubbish chute door that has the same or complimentary color as the color of your wall paint. This way, the trash chute will not look like an obvious clutter in your wall, but a design element as well.

Paint It

If you can’t find a rubbish chute door with the exact color that’s complimentary to your wall, then change its color by literally painting it. Just ask permission from the building administrator if you can paint the door of your rubbish chute. You can also ask for recommendations from the paint store about a safer kind of paint to use for this purpose.

Enclose it in a Box

If you want to go extremely stylish with your rubbish chute, you can actually build a wooden box around it. It could be a bigger horizontal box that you can use as a floating shelf or a tall vertical one where you can put some other things inside. The latter example is similar to the one in the photo.

Photo from Pinterest

Paint it with the color you want, and you’ll have an additional storage area inside your house.

Add Designs Around It

If you don’t want to exert too much effort on this, you can do the simplest thing by adding stickers around the door of your rubbish chute. You can also add colorful borders around it or signages that will make it more visible to everyone no matter what kind of rubbish chute you have at home.

This way, you won’t need to answer questions from your visitors as to where the rubbish chute is.

Pick a Stylish Handle

Finally, the easiest and least time consuming way to style up your rubbish chute is by picking quirky, loud, and stylish door handles that really make an impact. It could be a uniquely designed regular-sized handle or a huge one that cannot go unnoticed. Take your pick! Just make sure whatever your choice for the handle is will make your rubbish chute out of the ordinary, in a positive way, of course!