We Bought the Simplehuman Sensor Can for Our Office... Here's Why It's Amazing

At 30 years of age, I never thought I'd see the day where I actually got excited about a trash can. I mean, how lame would I have to be in order to smile about a darned garbage can, right?

Well, here we are—and I am excited.

My office is known for three things: chaos, clutter, and a lot of coffee. With the coffee comes used up paper cups, which leads to more clutter. With the extra clutter, we all tend to get lackadaisical about the garbage from all the snack foods we eat... which leads to more chaos.

To make matters worse, the few of us who make a point to keep our office area clean tend to be flooded with things to do. My coworker, P, always has one or two things in his hands, which means that tossing things in the bin is always a little more effort than it should be.

After an office guest remarked on the chaos and clutter, my boss decided to put his foot down. He decided to invest in some new garbage cans from Simplehuman—and none of us knew what to expect.

If there's one thing I can credit my boss with, it's making some really nice investments with office furniture. He's a guy who believes in creating a beautiful area for work—and that means investing in the right equipment to keep it clean.

When we found out he ordered "special trash cans," we were all a bit confused. I mean, how on earth could a trash can be special, right? Once the trash cans arrived, we took a look at them.

"This is the Simplehuman Sensor Can," he said, placing the can on the floor. "It is both motion and voice-operated. You now no longer have an excuse to keep your trash out and about."

He then showed us how it worked by saying "Open can!" Just like clockwork, the can's lid quickly opened up. He tossed the coffee cup he was holding into it, and lid closed after a short period of time.

He waved his hand over the sensor, and the can once again opened up. He was right about the cans. They were special, and they did get rid of the excuse of having busy hands.

Using the cans is pretty nifty.

Silly as it sounds, I honestly think a lot of our coworkers enjoy the novelty of the can's sensors a lot more than they want to admit. The room started to get noticeably tidier as soon as the cans got switched.

The "cleaning crew" of coworkers that kept the office clean before the new smart cans seemed a little bit more relaxed. I think it's because we all had less cleaning to do, and we all were able to enjoy a neater office.

It's also pretty fun to hear people command the cans to open. It's even funnier when my boss forgets that he left one plain trash can on the floor and tries to talk to it.

At work, we all had days when we were tasked to changing the can liners and taking out the garbage. It's just the way things were, and none of us enjoyed that.

The Sensor Cans aren't like other trash cans when it comes to clean up time, either. They aren't even like other stainless steel cans on the market.

Along with a gorgeous stain-resistant exterior, the Sensors Cans come with a specialized storage compartment that can hold up to 20 liners. It is also built to give a more streamlined liner changing experience, which means no more fumbling with the buckets.

Speaking about liners, we actually started using the custom liners for our trash cans with great results.

Though you can always load up the sensor cans with regular trash liners, my boss made the decision to splurge on Simplehuman's liners instead. It was a good decision.

After having to clean up one too many spills from a torn trash liner, I can honestly say that I'm glad we made the switch. These liners are tough as nails and fit the cans perfectly.

I was a little worried about the cans in the kitchen, to be honest.

If there is one place that is seriously slovenly in our office, it is the office kitchen. Food always seems to get dropped all over the place, and Tupperware leftovers are perennially stuck to the garbage can liners that we had for that room.

The place has a reputation of being a bit of a disaster area—just like any cramped office kitchen that serves 50-ish employees on a daily basis would be. So, I was a little nervous to see what the cans looked like after a couple of weeks in there.

Surprise! The cans withstood Mark's greasy chicken finger Tuesdays.

The Simplehuman Sensor Cans lived up to the hype once again. Their sleek silver exteriors managed to stay pristine (or easily wiped) despite all the greasy fingers that grab the cans in the kitchen.

I'm not going to lie, I was curious about the trash can's stain resistance. I looked online and found out that each can was coated with anti-microbial silver, responsible for killing germs while making the can's exterior resistant to grease smears.

Overall, Simplehuman showed us what an investment the right trash can could be.

I know it sounds so ridiculous, but our office really, truly loves those trash cans. They've made cleanup a breeze, keep our office looking amazing, and also give us a break in our day when we get to laugh at an employee who is talking to the wrong trash can.

If your place hasn't been looking its best, or if you've been having issues with taking out the trash, give the Simplehuman Sensor Can a try. It's amazingly useful, and can turn any setting into a cleaner, brighter, and more beautiful place.