Doesn't your area have a pick up recycling program? I'd be kind of annoyed at having to collect stuff then actually take it somewhere too. We get a large 64 gallon wheeled cart from our garbage/recycling carrier. And it's single sort - don't have to separate out newspapers, cans, bottles & jars and plastics numbered 1-7. It all goes into the bin. I often keep a paper bag in the kitchen to toss things into just so I'm not making endless trips to the bin in the garage. Garbage gets picked up weekly, but the recycling is collected curbside every other week.

Maybe you could use a couple of those storage bins and train your bottle and can users to toss them in those.

A large garbage can placed right outside the door closest to the kitchen. The bottle or can gets rinsed out in the kitchen sink and then I open the door and toss it in the can without stepping foot outside.

Our city does not have curbside collection...there are recycle stations throughout, so I also have to store them until I go drop off.

I keep a large lined hamper in my basement. Any cans/bottles I have get set next to the basement steps and I take them down whenever I go to the basement.

I go to the basement at least once a day because of the cat box. If I didn't go the the basement everyday, I would be doing something similar to what graywings describes.
Gayle

I have a large 2 drawer unit in the bottom of the pantry/closet in the kitchen. I wash everything and put it in the top drawer, and returnable bottles go in the bottom drawer. The drawers are removable, so I can take the whole drawer, stick it in my car once a week and take the recycling out. I don't take the returnables out as often, but once the drawer gets full.

duluth, I think the OP is referring to deposit bottles and cans, not recyclables.

larkspur, for a long time we saved them separately until the Cub Scouts or some other organizations did a bottle drive. Now that we don't drink as much soda we just dump them in the recycle bin.

Deposits still exist??? Wow...

We have both bottle deposits of five cents plus mandated recycling of newspapers, glass, certain plastics and metals. I deal with the problem using colored garbage cans lined with plastic bags. One brown can for regular garbage gets collected twice a wook. A green box for newspapers and corrugated cardboard, which get collected once every 2 weeks, and one orange can for glass, cans, recyclable plastic that also gets collected every 2 weeks. In addition, my town has spring clean-up pickups and fall leaf pickups, also discarded hristmas trees. the town won't pick up large items like broken TVs and appliances, refrigerators with doors removed, any construction debris, unless I call a number and they send a special truck. Sounds complicated, but that's how we have it.

10 cent bottle and can deposits here in Michigan. Yeah, some days it seems like a pain in the a$$, but you rarely ever see a bottle or can along side the road. My kids used to go up and down the roads looking for them to "earn" money when turned in.
Kathy G in MI

We have an aluminum can crusher attached to a post just outside the kitchen door. Each can is crushed as it is emptied and tossed into a garbage can fitted with a lawn-sized trash bag. When we've accumulated about half-full garbage can full, our grandson likes to accompany us to the recycling center in the parking lot of our grocery store. The money we earn is used for garden seeds and tools. And a little for him.

Haven't been on here for a bit, but thankyou for the hints.Right now my crusher is my foot and yes, this is for pop and beer cans.I don't really have room to have big bags set up for individual cans, water bottles, milk cartons so the best I can do is crush them so they don't take up as much room, then as each small bag is filled I take them out to the shop til theres enough to take in, and by then they all need sorted and counted(which is a pain)oh well its not as if I have to do it often!