There is something calming when you work in your yard. You become a bit closer to earth. You use a different part of your brain than when you sit at your desk all day. You get outside in fresh air. You get exercise. You get frustrated trying to hold bags open to get your yard clippings cleared up. You brainstorm on new ideas. You discover things you didn’t know. And hopefully the results of your labor make the world a more beautiful place. Wait, what was that? Garbage bags?
For the past several weekends, I have been excavating my yard. Not in the literal sense, a bit more figuratively as I have been removing layers and layers of leaves, branches and dead vegetation, with the goal of making the yard look nicer again. In the process, I have been uncovering toys from many years before, slug-cover plastic boxes, old soda cans, and slimy layers of packed leaves just starting to decompose. I had to figure out a good way to get rid of all of the junk and debris that had accumulated.
I was going to bag it all up and get it ready for the yard recycling day that our waste management company has a couple of times a year. So a few weekends ago, I started in on this messy project, all while my family did other things. (Actually, I didn’t want them out helping me simply because this was my gardening-Zen time.) But, as I started gathering leaves, I became quite annoyed. It was practically impossible to hold a plastic garbage bag open and use your “other” pair of hands to hold a rake and leaves or just a handfuls of leaves. I needed a “helper.”
With the family busy, I thought that I would head over to the Home Depot to find some sort of gadget that would hold my bags open. I had seen some fancy wire contraptions before and was looking for something like that. In the end, I ended up getting something that had multiple functions and that wasn’t very expensive (actually almost less expensive than a carton of yard trash bags)…a 32-gallon Newell Rubbermaid Roughneck Trash Can.
Right, you think, that is a pretty obvious solution. To gather and hold trash, you get a trashcan. I guess that I have to agree but the reason why I didn’t choose to get one before when I was looking for that extra set of hands to hold my yard debris bags open was that I thought they were expensive and that they would just be sitting around after being used.
The Roughneck was easy to find at the Home Depot and they had plenty in stock. Don’t forget that it comes with a plastic lid as well which fully seals the Roughneck Trash Can from the outside. It is amazingly lightweight which means if you are filling it up with trash or whatever, you are not being weighed down by the can itself.
Another nice thing that it has are two wheels on the bottom, making it easy to roll across a driveway or a garage (it’s a bit trickier on dirt but seems to work ok). And it has an oversized handle to allow for easy grabbing and pulling. But the best thing was how it became my second pair of hands that I was looking for.
Again, I know, stating the obvious here. Use a trash can to carry trash. But the nice thing about the size of the 32-gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck trash can was that it wasn’t too big. So, when you put larger trash bags into it, they actually fit and don’t fall to the bottom of the can when they start getting full. And actually, with this Roughneck trash can, you can wrap the top of the bag around the top of the can and it won’t sink in.
Regardless, with my extra set of hands, I was able to power through an area of my yard covered with pine needles, dead branches and leaves, all while the Roughneck patiently stood by, holding my yard waste bags open.
As I was working, I got to thinking, how else could I use this Newell Rubbermaid Roughneck trash can. And then I excavated something else from the corner of my yard, our old and very outdated earthquake preparedness kit, also housed in a slightly larger-size plastic Rubbermaid trash can. I peaked into the spiderweb-covered, cracked, dusty and dirty can and suddenly realized how desperately I needed to update it. Right at the top was a package of diapers. Funny. My youngest daughter is 11 years old and well out of diapers and has been for many, many years.
Using a plastic, covered Rubbermaid Roughneck trash can as an earthquake emergency kit is pretty functional actually. You can leave it sitting outside as trashcans are designed to withstand the elements. The plastic cover seals out water, bugs and dirt. The wheels allows you to roll it around. And the size lets you store canned food, first aid kits, extra clothes, batteries, flashlights and other emergency supplies.
So, I guess it might be time to empty out the old Rubbermaid, earthquake kit and update it. And perhaps I will swap out the old Rubbermaid with the new Rubbermaid Roughneck. One way or another, the 32-gallon Newell Rubbermaid Roughneck trash can lent me a couple of “hands” when gathering up yard waste by holding my bags but then gave me a new means to create a portable and sealed earthquake kit to provide emergency supplies storage outside the house.
Disclosure Text : This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Newell Rubbermaid®. I have received compensation to prepare to write it as well as write it. All opinions within this article, unless otherwise noted, are my own and are not subject to the editorial review from any 3rd party. More information can be found in my About page.
HTD says: The Rubbermaid Roughneck is both utilitarian and helpful for many purposes beyond just holding and moving trash.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Newell Rubbermaid®. The opinions and text are all mine.
